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news
Near Miss of the Day 550: Unmarked police car driver weaves through cyclists
Here’s an interesting entry in our Near Miss of the Day series – the driver of what we presume is an unmarked police car starting to overtake a cyclist and thinking better of it due to a couple of other riders; as well as another motor vehicle, coming in the other direction then after weaving through them, flashing their blue lights.
The footage was filmed in northwest Kent by road.cc reader Philip, who said there was no apparent reason for the driver to have flashed the lights other than because “that for some reason excused and justified their bad driving.”
He told us: “Having just cycled up Hogtrough Hill (just next to the better known Brasted Hill in Kent) I was heading down a quiet country lane. I started taking a left turn, arm out in a clear signal with a car still approaching on the opposite side of the road. The car then continued to turn as I turned but onto the wrong side of the road, towards an oncoming car and two other bicycles.
“The car then had to stop sharply but couldn’t pull over because by this point it was parallel to me and had nowhere to go. It pulled in behind me, allowed the oncoming car and bikes to pass and then continued to pass me. While I was fine and nobody came close to me, had the oncoming traffic been faster or closer we could all have been seriously hurt.
“As I gave my usual disappointed shake of my head that I reserve for this sort of thoughtless driving the car lit up its blue lights. I can only assume that this was to show me that it was an unmarked Police car and that for some reason excused and justified their bad driving. There was no reason to light up its lights after passing the other vehicles and while passing me and at no other point were their blue lights on and almost as quickly as they passed, they turned off their lights again. (Note, in the video their side lights appear to flicker but this is just a side effect of the camera’s frame-rate).”
He added: “I find in general road users’ lack of consideration for cyclists disappointing but it is really sad that I often find that the Police are just as bad as any other ‘regular’ driver.”
> 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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104 comments
Isn't the purpose of the blue lights to warn other traffic? In that case, why were the lights not on when the driver was turning into the junction? I can't see the point of using blue warning lights after the potentially unsafe maneouvre was performed.
Its quite a poor quality video and I would says it possible those flashing blue lights where on as it approached the turn and maybe you cant see them in the video. those embedded bue lights can be quite hard to see anyway IMO
Okay, I've re-examined the video to see if that's a possibility, but it's very clear to see exactly when the blue lights got turned on (just a second or so before the driver actually overtook the cyclist) and they most definitely were not on as the driver negotiated the corner.
I can understand why you might want to defend the police service (assuming it was the police) as they do a tough job and get lots of abuse, but when faced with direct video evidence, it's better to just acknowledge that a mistake was made and figure out how to prevent those kinds of mistakes in future.
you and I must be looking at different video.
That could explain why you think the video doesn't clearly show what happened. On the video you saw, can you not see the blue lights on the front grill start up as the car pulled behind the cyclist (after turning the corner)?
By my reckoning it is at 23 seconds into the video.
https://youtu.be/hFpN1ycfc5k?t=23
Ok thats well spotted.
But tbh doesnt change my opinion much. minor nuisance , nobody hurt.
That pic was zoomed in and cropped so it may not have been clear to you if you were on a small screen (I happened to watch it on a big 4k monitor so it was easy to spot).
I do agree about it being a minor nuisance, but that doesn't mean that the driving was appropriate or can't be improved. I thought that the driver seemed more in control of their vehicle than the typical NMOTD videos but the taking a corner on the wrong side of the road wasn't a good idea with that visibility.
Is that your response to most of the near misses on this site then? The whole point of a "Near Miss" is that nobody is hurt. It was a MISS. Of course, "nothing" happened. Problem is, near misses are indicative of more serious accidents where people DO get hurt.
Your responses throughout this thread have been simply doubling down on your "non-story" opinion. If that's the case, EVERY near miss is a non-story - nothing happened. Except when it does. But by calling out near misses, then hopefully they won't happen. Less near misses means less serious accidents. Lots of IFS in this video that would have turned it from a "near miss" into an incident. More ifs turn it from a near miss into a fatal accident.
At the end of the day, this was an emergency vehicle (as evidenced by the blue lights). If the blue lights had been going throughout the video, even without sirens, then we wouldn't even be watching it because the cyclist, like pretty much anyone else here, would have likely given way to the emergency vehicle allowing the car to turn right on the correct side of the road. But they weren't. Now, even if it had been a marked emergency vehicle, again without blue lights or sirens going, the cyclist would have probably behaved in exactly the same manner regardless. The pass of the cyclist looked OK but turning right into oncoming traffic is a big no-no at the end of the day and that is where the near miss comes in. Next time the driver decides to turn into a junction like this, whether in their own vehicle or an emergency one, they might not be so lucky that the 4x4 coming towards them was 5 seconds too late reaching the junction, but knowing this video is out there, might actually stop them from making that turn and therefore avoiding any accident altogether.
These videos do nothing but make cyclists like you angry and present the roads as very dangerous. The effecton the general population is (I think) just about 0.
Flashing lights that cannot be seen would seem quite pointless, wouldn't they?
Would have to have been fitted by someone quite incompetent.
Well, if you could see them all the time, they wouldn't be flashing would they?
I appear to be the only one here who thinks this is a non-story. I yield to no-one in my desire to catch the police out in bad driving, but even I wouldn't even have bothered to save this one. He/ she didn't do it, but halted. I haven't yet caught a police driver on video- sadly, I wasn't wearing the camera when a police car illegally crossed the unbroken white line on a humped bridge. I consoled myself that it wasn't The Holy Grail: Lancashire TacOps.
Yet this case below (technically excellent video sent in to this site a week ago) wasn't put up on the site- there are some odd choices going on here.
Are you trying to talk this video down because you're jealous they didn't pick yours? Get a grip man
Are you trying to talk this video down because you're jealous
Simple - mine really is a pretty bad NMotD carried out by a large fast vehicle, and this one isn't.
This NMOTD an example of poor driving but the police won't be interested as the driver got away with it. So much for preventative policing. The one good thing is that the cyclist wasn't put in danger as the driver chose to inconvenience the oncoming car instead.
To WTJS, you may find this interesting. Google "PC Jon Illife" and read the Gloucestershire Live story.
To WTJS, you may find this interesting. Google "PC Jon Illife" and read the Gloucestershire Live story
Thanks, very interesting! It's different in Lancashire, though. The stupid get-out-of-jail-free dodges used by Professional Standards are approved by the bosses, and unless you force the traffic officers they just don't reply. Therefore they dodge having to say if they've done anything. The practice in other forces of just saying 'we did something but we won't say what it was' must be to avoid Illife's fate. I will bear this in mind as the present complaint drags on and on. I ought to make it clear, though, that I'm not after the individual officers, just the LC system that allows them to essentially ignore complaints by/concerning cyclists.
The red car may have halted, but that was still dick driving. Going for an overtake that they never had a view on. The view the oncoming car driver had of the oncoming manoeuvre/shenanigans would have been interesting to say the least.
Looks like almost a "sorry" flash. They were obviously in a hurry to get somewhere and while it was a bit of a dick move to try and over take you off the corner, they did give you room when passing.
I'm less generous than you, but to me it looks like a total SMIDSY (Smidgaf) followed by 'maybe if I bip the blue lights it'll look like I'm going to an emergency'.
I they were in a genuine police hurry then I would have thought the lights would be on, had they been I for one would have been waiting short of the junction to let them get on thier way.
The road positioning as they turn into the junction is atrocious (regardless of the purpose of the trip) and that in itself should be reported
Agree. I would report it solely for that turn which could have been disastrous and appears to have been a move to get in front. Not worth the risk.
Also you assume it's a police car - it could equally be Fire who also have unmarked cars with blue lights or the NCA. I'd report it either way
I'd report it either way
Well, you could try! It wouldn't get a response in Lancashire, just as the Coach Carpets close pass below didn't- although maybe it would... from an Inspector.
Pull the other one! It was quite clearly a bit of "willy-waving" - "actually I'm an unmarked police car so you can't object to my atrocious driving". If s/he was on an emergency call the blues would have been on already, so "I'm in a hurry to get somewhere" doesn't cut it. Who's ever heard of police flashing their blues as an apology? Pure assertion of power I'm afraid.
Not in an undercover vehicle. If let's just say they were tracking down a stolen car or a drug dealer, it's a bit obvious banging on the lights. They approach at speed without identifying themselves.
So they were keeping themselves undercover (from whom, at this point?) but decided to blow their cover to apologise to the cyclist? Get oop t'street lad!
I dont think it was a sorry flash as it started before the overtake.
I think it was either :
a) "On the blue lights coming through"
b) Additional visibility to on coming traffic.
Odd either way though.
I don't believe that for one second. I agree with the rider's analysis of the use of blue lights.
The dick turned into a side road on the wrong side of the road (effectively a blind bend on a single track road) without good reason and tried to overtake immediately. A really stupid move, I doubt the SUV driver was impressed. Worra twat.
If he/she was in a genuine hurry they could have used the blue before they and the cyclist turned into the road and took priority into the junction.
No, they wanted to push past so used the blue lights
to justify the manoeuvreas they'd just got a message saying that sarge has bought doughnuts again.I suspect the driver will be buying the tea break biscuits when their office get wind of this!
I wonder if they were a student under training and an instructor? Maybe the flash was a kind of 'sorry'. It was a very silly manouvre. All low speed and thankfully the 4x4 driver was paying attention and was able to stop.
This is also why I don't indicate left anymore if there's a car waiting to turn right. I used to get this sort of thing when I commuted to work, pretending I was going straight on seemed to solve the issue.
How will they ever know whi it was, it's not like they've posted an unmarked car's reg numb.... oh never mind.
Yep, cake and coffee all round I think. While they "could" be on a call not requiring a full blues response, if they felt the need to pass quickly, flashing the lights before the junction would most likely result in the cyclist waiting and letting them go, so they can turn them off again.
Not surprising, last week I got lectured by a police officer for swearing out loud after he pulled across me on an empty road, having done a u-turn and chased me for half a mile to tell me off. Of course, he was a cyclist as well. Video to follow next week if the Met don't action my report
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