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news
Near Miss of the Day 447: Left-hook fail or Must Get In Front?
The road.cc reader who sent in today's video featured in our Near Miss of the Day series raises an interesting point - are we looking at a failed left-hook, or is it just another case of a driver who Must Get In Front of a cyclist but decided to abandon the manoeuvre?
From the footage, sent in by Dave in Dorset, we suspect it's the former, with the motorist aiming to get into the gap between him and the two riders in front to turn left, before deciding better of it and hanging back.
By contrast, there is nothing in the video to suggest that the driver had second thoughts because of another vehicle coming the other way, or a motorist looking to turn onto the road.
> Near Miss of the Day turns 100 - Why do we do the feature and what have we learnt from it?
Over the years road.cc has reported on literally hundreds of close passes and near misses involving badly driven vehicles from every corner of the country – so many, in fact, that we’ve decided to turn the phenomenon into a regular feature on the site. One day hopefully we will run out of close passes and near misses to report on, but until that happy day arrives, Near Miss of the Day will keep rolling on.
If you’ve caught on camera a close encounter of the uncomfortable kind with another road user that you’d like to share with the wider cycling community please send it to us at info [at] road.cc or send us a message via the road.cc Facebook page.
If the video is on YouTube, please send us a link, if not we can add any footage you supply to our YouTube channel as an unlisted video (so it won't show up on searches).
Please also let us know whether you contacted the police and if so what their reaction was, as well as the reaction of the vehicle operator if it was a bus, lorry or van with company markings etc.
> What to do if you capture a near miss or close pass (or worse) on camera while cycling
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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13 comments
I know cyclists can ride on any road (except motorways) that we choose, this is a fast stretch of road, running parallel to it from Wareham to Wool is a much quieter road without the volumes of traffic.
I had one the other day where a driver overtaking me only avoided a head-on with another driver as the oncoming driver turned left into a side road.
The driver overtaking me then promptly did the same and left hooked me!
Shame I was on the pub bike with no camera running
Is that a bike anyone can use to get home when they are a bit pissed?
Several comments judging the drive to be a holidaymaker, a tourist, unfamiliar with the road, or [imho] worse, unfamiliar with cyclists. None of those constitute "get-out-of-jail-free" cards. No way. Each is f***ing good reason for NOT driving into that situation.
How I wish I could say it was shockingly poor driving.
But it's not shocking. It's just the bog-standard, half-asleep-autopilot complacency - and deeply dangerous.
Fair dos, driver did waken from his habitual doze.
I don't think anyone was suggesting that they are - just speculating on what happened, as the article invites us to do.
The driver started indicating left as they came along side the bike in front of the camera, despite there being no oncoming traffic, so were definitely about to try and turn left but their route was blocked by the riders. Seemed to be very poor judgement by the driver unless they were a toursit that didn't know the roads and suddenly saw the brown signs for Lulworth and were caught out. Either way the result could've been pretty bad so it's a relief to see that they backed out of it rather than trying to carry on regardless with the maneuver.
Looks more to me like a classic case of Taillight Blindness - so intent on following the preceeding vehicle on the overtake, they're now unsighted and haven't realised there's not enough space AND more cyclists.
Basically - careless driving.
Looks to me like a failed left hook - they even start indicating left towards the end of the video.
A common feature of many dangerous overtakes is the sheep mentality - if one driver overtakes, then drivers behind will often blindly follow, even if they can't see what's ahead. Especially a problem if the vehicle in front is a larger vehicle like a lorry or caravan which can obstruct the view ahead. It's quite possible the driver had no idea the cyclists were even there until the caravan moved out to overtake them.
At least in this case the driver realised what they had done was a mistake and backed out.
I'll give them one thing - they did come to a stop.
People on here often write about drivers not contemplating stopping is an option.
That's a fail.
Looked like a right turn, with little thought to cyclist
This. It looks like they're about to swing into one of those drives - they're still quite a way back from the left turn ahead to be coming to almost a setup like that.
Wouldn't surprise me if it was a driver unfamiliar with the road suddenly realising that that's their holiday let they're about to barrel past.
i think the car driver was someone not familiar with manouvering around cyclists moving at higher speeds. They misjudged the distance needed to slow down and turn left and - realising they didn't have enough space - backed out of the move.