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news
Near Miss of the Day 511: Driver makes very aggressive close pass
A Mercedes driver who made a very aggressive pass on a pair of cyclists, leaning on the horn and pulling in abruptly afterwards, features in today’s video in our Near Miss of the Day series – but police did no more than give the motorist a few words of advice.
It was filmed on Broadmoor Road, White Waltham, Berkshire, by road.cc reader Satinder, who told us: “He even brake checked me so wasn’t just accidental but deliberate.”
The Thames Valley Police process/enquiry officer who handled the incident wrote to Satinder, saying: “In relation to the allegation of bad driving that you submitted to us on 30/08/2019 regarding the vehicle overtaking and cutting close in front of you. I have spoken to the driver at the time of the incident, he has accepted the words of advice given around safely overtaking cyclists. We will not be taking any further action from this point.”
We suspect that it might strike many cyclists as a curious response.
“Words of advice given around safely overtaking cyclists” might resonate with the kind of driver who genuinely didn’t realise how close they had come to a cyclist (and, if it is pointed out to them afterwards, tend to be hugely apologetic and polite).
Less so, we suspect with a driver who deliberately set out to intimidate the cyclists in the first place.
> 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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26 comments
I have submitted dozens of videos of close passes over nearly eight years to Thames Valley Police without anything more than a warning......until this year when a driver was sent on an awareness course. The pass was no worse than most of the others and certainly not as bad as this one. I can only hope that this signifies a new policy is at last under way.
I have submitted dozens of videos of close passes over nearly eight years to Thames Valley Police
This is the problem- the Filth and the government couldn't care less about close passing. You have to work out how to hurt the police, who would be only too pleased if most cyclists were put out of action in a way that didn't cause them much more work than a quick 'insufficient evidence'. Lancashire must be a paradise for illegally spaced number plates- when they know the police can't even be bothered with vehicles crashing through red lights they do what they like with number plates. I feel a camera spying trip coming on- I have just seen **1 7*** (this is to avoid any alerting) when I didn't have the camera on. I know where they are, and I'm pretty suspicious they have lots of vehicles **1 etc. and they're probably all illegally spaced. They won't like having to change them to **17 or **19, and **20 would defeat the point. Aren't illegal number plates checked at MOT?
I always thought they swapped stuff like that over before the mot - apart from darkened windows !
I'm hoping to find out soon whether they have all their vehicles comparably illegal.
The first letter being an X means it's been or due to be exported to a country outside the EU. It can still be used inside the UK but with strict guidelines on time limits per year. It's possibly being used in a dodgy flip flopping way between countries by some sort of tax exile, but that's just cynicism on my part.
Correct character spacing still needs to be respected. Just crush it, to encourage the others.
Or as they say in the EU "Pour encourager les autres."
I'm not sure what the French for crush is though.
Would the police offer 'words of advice' if a crossbow was fired as a near miss to someone to scare and intimidate them? If the cyclist had caught up with the driver and swung a D-lock near the drivers face the police would be prosecuting the cyclist for use of threatening behaviour and a weapon. But use a 2 ton car to threaten someone, no problem..words of advice is all that's required. Until Police attitude towards this type of hate crime is changed then the attitude of the haters and aggressors will not change.
And cops expect public sympathises when they are hurt by dangerous criminal drivers as this show off cowardice behind the wheel is.
Cops aiding n abetting countless dangerous drivers has gone on far too long and they need challenging and action taken against them for inaction and refusal to uphold road safety laws and neglecting their public duty, for which they are paid handsomely - could this be taken as breach of contract?
Driver is guilty, although not as guilty as many. How well I know the 'words of advice' from Lancashire Constabulary. It means they haven't done a thing. In the case of a driver passing a red traffic light 1.5 seconds after it turned red, where I know that nothing has been done as I haven't been asked to complete a statement (I think that process is a 'con' as well, but I can't yet prove that), I haven't yet even got to the words of advice stage. Lancashire Constabulary have loads of dodges- a recent one is that they won't tell you which officer dealt with the case, and you can only complain against a named officer. All I have so far is 'case referred to neighbourhood policing team' but not which one. They think people will give up if they keep dragging their fee- they're wrong. All the communications come from some un-named person at Force Control Room.
Personally I'd be happy with this outcome if I thought the drivers name would go on a central database and that the book would be thrown at him/her if it happened again. Unfortunately I doubt this is the case.
Words of advice... Were they "Don't f-ing do it! Just don't!!!"
Must have been "don't leave witnesses next time"
"Now, Sir do you remember that cyclist you passed too close at speed in August? August 2019?"
When were these words of advice actually given?
"Morning or afternoon?"
White soft top Mercedes with a personalised number plate; mid-life crisis much?
Well done for reporting it and I'm assuming that the police will keep this on record for any subsequent dangerous driving.
Just done a check on the DfT website, and can't find a vehicle with that reg. Hmm.
DfT check - crashed and burned or scrapped?
Incident was over 12 months ago.
Or the driver took the 'words of advice' to heart, sold the Merc and invested in an e-bike
Its difficult to work out what the reg is... XR08TDM, XP08TDM, or is the D an O?
That's why it is an offence to mess with the number plate. Strangely, there seems to be a correlation between people who ignore one law and people who ignore others. So why do the police even wait for further infractions?
This twat could have already have his car impounded whilst he went to get correct plates made up, preferably to a standard index since this plate would be taken back by DVLA, as is their right if people abuse them.
I think the Police are well aware of this connection - a traffic stop opens up often opens up a can of other worms.
But I do notice when they have been out proactively patrolling a problem area for a few hours that the Facebook updates are very keen to tell us how the rural policing (south) team got together with the Be Nasty to Criminals (central and west) team and the countywide Sit in Lay-bys team to do it.
And what always beggars belief for me, who would be mortified if a policeman ever spoke to me "in anger" is how many people reportedly give them lip or worse.
Institutionally anti-cyclist
Punishment pass - what was the advice? how to get closer?
Illegally spaced number plate too... £100 fixed penalty. But never mind aggressive driving and endangering other road users' lives.
Back to the matter in hand, if you are caught speeding, odds are you get 3 points or offer of a speed awareness course at your expense and inconvenience. You don't get friendly advice. How come clowns like X ROB TOM don't get a proper punishment? Come on TVP, why not?
Awful overtake & underwhelming action from the police.
In the context of video as an artistic medium, that music is not to my taste.
Why are some drivers such moronic idiots? Probably going far too fast.
Some drivers can not help it. It is not their fault, it is how they are wired. They should just be banned. Of course the Police seem anticyclist and are still doffing their hats to folks with money.