Near Miss of the Day 528: Driver pulls out on cyclist “lit up literally like a Christmas tree”

We’ve all heard the expression of a cyclist “being lit up like a Christmas tree” – some of us (cough) may even have indulged in it ourselves in the past month or so, with tinsel and fairy lights on the bike – but it still doesn’t stop some motorists from not seeing them, as happened to road.cc reader Joel when he was out on a ride in Warwickshire.

“Today's special is ‘I can see you coming but I'll just wait until you're properly near before pulling out on top of you’,” Joel said.

“Going out for a ride to shake out the cobwebs after a long day of work plus homeschooling it was a little misty, but I kitted up with full fluoro jacket, fully charged high lumen front light (directed down at the road while in town) and ‘MonkeyLectric’ spoke lights – which display changing patterns on the wheel as you ride.

“In other words i was ‘lit up literally like a Christmas tree’. The road at this point is also well lit.

“I simply can't explain what the thought process of this driver must have been. They waited for some time and then pulled out just as I approached. I had to properly slam on the brakes not to hit them.

“As they turned across me to push into the road ahead I looked in the side window and made eye contact with the driver – a c.50 yearr old woman – she did not make any effort to avoid the impending collision whatsoever.

“The L plate on the back was disturbing – I very much doubt she was the learner, but somewhere out there someone is most likely learning to drive with this mentality as the backdrop.

“Reported to Warwickshire Police – who don't generally advise on outcomes (in fact I've never even had an acknowledgement),” Joel added.

“However I did have a response recently from my Police and Crime Commissioner to whom I raised this as an issue, advising that they had secured additional resource for Operation Snap that should improve their response capability so I guess I'll find out if that actually makes any difference.”

> 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