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news
Double Near Miss of the Day 587: Two drivers pull out on cyclist – from opposite sides of junction (includes swearing)
With our Near Miss of the Day series now heading towards 600 videos showing motorists putting cyclists in danger, we thought we’d seen it all.
Not so, as it turns out, with this latest clip showing two drivers – one in a car, one in a van – both pulling out on a cyclist, from opposite directions, as he approaches a crossroads.
There’s a fair bit to unpack from the footage, not least how to assess where the danger is coming from.
The rider has to swerve away from the road as the motorist in the red car pulls out from the right – and then has to swerve back in as the van comes straight across at the junction.
Both motorists have come across the broken lines at the junction telling them that they should give way to traffic on the main road – our suspicion is that the driver of the third vehicle here, another white van, has flashed their lights to tell them to go, and that none of them has spotted the cyclist approaching.
The clip was sent in by road.cc user Sevenfold, who said it happened in the rain yesterday close to the village of Shenstone, which lies just south of Lichfield in Staffordshire.
“Unfortunately, the registrations are not clear enough to report,” he told us.
And perhaps keeping with the zeitgeist – see this story from earlier in the week – he added: “If you can hear any swearing, I apologise in advance.”
> 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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Mea culpa! I'm looking after someone's cat while she's away at Christmas, and cats are warm-blooded cold-blooded killers. Am I the guilty man?
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55 comments
I've cycled on enough lanes in and around Devon and this scenario is all too familiar....
i learned the hard way that you need to approach these junctions assuming someone is likely to pull out... you may well be in the right, but for the sake of an injury free ride I'd always approach these junctions in 'defensive' mode
I'm not sure enough people adopt a 'defensive' mode while out on the road, and I mean all road users.
Yes! I totally agree. Just because we have right of way doesn't mean we ignore our own safety and choose to almost cause a collision. The rider's ego need's a reality check and he needs to accept that certain roads and junctions are hots pots for idotic behaviour. I know of several that seem to promote bad driving on my own route to and from work.
You really like to blame the cyclists and ascribe traits to them with no evidence
from earlier: "I rarely see any cars there, can't believe this guy came across vehicles coming from all directions."
"And as you say, it's unusual enough to see a single motor vehicle at that crossroads - I don't think I've seen two there at the same time, let alone three."
Clarkson - is that you?
4 road users meet at a junction.
The cyclist going straight on the major road has priority over everyone.
Everyone has priority over the red car turning right at the give way.
Guess who goes first?
Had similar this morning, on a big roundabout... I was on it, so had right of way. vacuous pudding-faced driver looked at me and pulled out anyway so I had to avoid her. Wasn't even that busy.
Tips on staying alive.
1: This is a visually complex scene. When arriving at a visually complex scene, slow things down if possible. Inexperienced riders tend to not slow, experienced riders will automatically slow. Slowing down gives you time to consider your options. Or limit the impact damage.
2: Most drivers make a decision and then stick with it, regardless of a new situation. So the drivers ahead at the junction, have had to make decisions. Chances are they saw the bike, but having already made their decisions, they continue with their plan and "hope " it will be alright.
Re item 2. I've seen this so many times. I once was doing 40 mph down a hill, a car was edging out of his drive. I knew he hadn't seen me, so prepared to avoid, he then looked me in the eye, I thought great, he's seen me, but then he pulled out! I was amazed, being 14 yrs old and nimble I was able to avoid. It was strange, later it was clear he knew he did wrong, but it was like the driver was a passenger in a sequence of events, having " commited " to a planned manouvre, the decision for which was made before the high speed bike appeared in his vision.
So my lesson, even after eye contact some drivers will try to kill you.
I type this while recovering from head and other injuries, having been knocked out by driver who chose to run me down from behind. So I have a renewed interest in safety.
It was a policeman, who admited he didn't like being overtaken by a bicycle! My first cycling serious injury in 40 + years. He did call the ambulance to his credit
P.S. I`m now a 100 % believer in cycle helmets. The helmet has massive permanent deformation from the crash.
I doubt covering 18m a second that the driver looked you in the eye. He may have been looking in your general direction but that is no guarantee of anything.
I don't think any of us can do anything about a driver who decides to ram you off from behind. I assume he was prosecuted for dangerous driving.
I've had that a few times. I never rely on them seeing me when they look at me.
There have been a couple that I genuinely believe they looked without seeing, even though staring me in the face.
Here's one from yesterday
I had to swerve right instead of going straight on. Was watching the driver all the time and they 'looked' at me.
Exactly: the driver looking at you doesn't mean that they actually saw you or registered that you existed.
There've been plenty of anecdotes and articles about that, on this site and elsewhere, IIRC.
Thanks, for that.
I'll have to do more reading up on safety.
Incredible, just yesterday!
Well, not incredible, not many days in the year where there is no incident, just whether today's one matches today's topics.
Which country are you in ?
Land of the rising sun!
Been cycling here 20 yrs, it's always been joy, drivers are generally very courteous, bus drivers give loads of room.
The B roads are beautiful and smooth with so few cars, and in the mountains you can ride for hrs and maybe see one car every half an hr. I only worry about meeting a hungry bear.
Well sounds like he should be a sacked Policeman for assault with a deadly weapon if he rammed a cyclist from behind because "he didn't like being overtaken by a bicycle".
Agreed, and I think that's maybe happening.
I replied to hirsute above, with a bit more detail.
But his colleagues looked appauled and embarassed. The police at scene made it very clear to my wife that I had done no wrong in the eyes of the law and the driver is fully respinsible for all my costs, injuries and any compensation needed.
Maybe true, them looking in the eye verses in the general direction.
The helmet clearly was vital.
This didn't happen in the UK, but essentially the prosecution starts monday on receipt of my medical records.
Stupidly at the time I minimised my injuries and bike damage, I refused to go to hospital in the ambulance, all I wanted was my morning espresso!
However the police at the scene were brilliant, they insisted I get my bike professionally checked for safety brfote riding again and send any medical records to them so they could prosecute
Speedy recovery Andy, hope you're back on your bike soon.
Captain Badger, thank you. Seems I'be been very lucky with my recovery. Already been on my shopping bike at the local park, taking it very easy.
That's great to hear! have a great bank holiday!
At the risk of being accused for victim-blaming, the rider could have been a little better prepared for the junction and the vehicles there.
OK, so with two give-way junctions butting onto a through road they have every right to expect to be able to ride straight through without obstruction, but we all know that it's unlikely to happen when we're invisible (IE riding a bike) and the rider didn't seem to slow, even when the van started nosing into the road - they just kept hammering along.
Again, for avoidance of doubt, the rider wasn't to blame for poor driving but by at the same time they could have mitigated the poor driving to an extent by being a little more circumspect.
I hate shit drivers but I'd rather back off a bit, let them do their shit driving and carry on with my day safely even if they're the ones at fault. Just saying!
The drivers were d1cks, but as you point out from the rider's point of view there might have been a comprehension that the situation in front of them was clearly confused, therefore potentially chaotic, and so not one that you would want to enter until the sources of risk had cleared. All that said with a nod to Also's point below...
I like your description of the situation as "confused". It's word I've used myself to describe similar situations. The more confused, the slower you should be going. I don't care if it's my "right of way", I'm not going to crash my expensive bike and damage my delicate head just to prove the point.
If it had been me, I might have been thinking about slowing down when the red car was seen just because of the conditions and with experience of drivers being dicks at junctions.
However by the time all three vehicles was seen and the actual "confusion" could be determined it was probably too late to do anything but avoid he collision in the wet. It doesn't look on the video but it is about 3-4% decline approaching so cyclist was probably doing between 20-30mph. So 6-9m of reaction distance before even braking.
While I accept your observations surely the point here is that someone has had to take defensive action due to either bullying behaviour or incompetance. Neither should be encouraged and in future may lead to much more serious consquences if allowed to continue.
The most disappointing thing about this NMOTD is that the number plates could not be identified. What we need is an offordable camera that will pick up number plates in low light, has decent battery life and doesn't make you look like a telly tubby when helmet mounted. If any one knows of one I would be very ineterested.
Since I have never worn a plastic hat, I used these sunglasses with an HD camera in the nose bridge. zetronix.com
This is what happens when people try to be 'polite' (or lazy) the priority order fro this junction is fairly simple in the HC
1. the rider going straight through (no give ways)
2. the Van driver turning right (no give ways)
3. the van going straight on (over the giveways)
4. the car turning right
The only spannerin the works may be the timing of the arrival of the rider which may allow the big van to turn right first
But because the van driver decides to be polite (or is too lazy to turn correctly or the car has started to sweep the middle of the junction and make it too tight)
It's so simple if idiots would just follow the rules (guidlines) set out for using the roads, maybe we should have them all written down in a wee book and test them before they are allowed to drive
I don't think it's clear that the van going straight on (over the giveways) has priority over the car turning right.
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