- News
- Reviews
- Bikes
- Accessories
- Accessories - misc
- Computer mounts
- Bags
- Bar ends
- Bike bags & cases
- Bottle cages
- Bottles
- Cameras
- Car racks
- Child seats
- Computers
- Glasses
- GPS units
- Helmets
- Lights - front
- Lights - rear
- Lights - sets
- Locks
- Mirrors
- Mudguards
- Racks
- Pumps & CO2 inflators
- Puncture kits
- Reflectives
- Smart watches
- Stands and racks
- Trailers
- Clothing
- Components
- Bar tape & grips
- Bottom brackets
- Brake & gear cables
- Brake & STI levers
- Brake pads & spares
- Brakes
- Cassettes & freewheels
- Chains
- Chainsets & chainrings
- Derailleurs - front
- Derailleurs - rear
- Forks
- Gear levers & shifters
- Groupsets
- Handlebars & extensions
- Headsets
- Hubs
- Inner tubes
- Pedals
- Quick releases & skewers
- Saddles
- Seatposts
- Stems
- Wheels
- Tyres
- Health, fitness and nutrition
- Tools and workshop
- Miscellaneous
- Tubeless valves
- Buyers Guides
- Features
- Forum
- Recommends
- Podcast
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.
Latest Comments
- quiff 6 min 48 sec ago
"Brompton recalls G Line after "one reported instance of the Hinge Spindle breaking"" Shimano, take note.
- Backladder 22 min 12 sec ago
Perfectly legitimate, just like when you put a land mine under the driver's seat
- David9694 23 min 6 sec ago
Impressed that it comes with a lighting kit and pedals. Looks like a non-series chainset and is a Micro shift cassette, though; off-brand callipers...
- Sensible cyclist 28 min 48 sec ago
I am completely fed up with entitled cyclists whinging at every opportunity - it just gives others the opportunity to slag us off. Give it a rest!
- slc 42 min 14 sec ago
They should read scampercraft and not exaggerate the danger of scuttling along. I discourage squirrel predation by acting like one.
- HalfDanHalfBiscuit 51 min 43 sec ago
You can get the Varia for £10 less from Decathlon.
- Geoff H 1 hour 26 min ago
Perhaps they should apply the same standard to dangerous, unsafe, poorly designed roads and COMPLETELY rip them out rather than "fix" or "redesign"...
- Destroyer666 1 hour 49 min ago
Although the article does not make this clear, the Cybertruck reference is not made by Ingrid, but just some person stating their opinion on the...
- wtjs 2 hours 35 min ago
Just like pushing a sore tooth, it's sometimes worth looking at these comments to see just how thick thick people are. Last night on the BBC NW...
Add new comment
55 comments
People take arrivals at junctions as an order but yes, does straight over the main road take precedence over turning right onto it? I can see arguments for both.
Strictly speaking, the instruction to any person - where it exists - is to give way. There is no instruction to take precedence. There is an inferred priority, not an implied priority. So somebody going straight ahead on the major road (into which people may turn from roads marked with give way signs/markings) has priority. Anybody on the major road who is turning would give way to an oncoming road user whose path they may cross.
After that, those on the roads marked with give way must give way to those already established on the major road. In its simplest form, if somebody is turning right and happens to do so before the opposing vehicle crosses their give way, the latter should give way. Prove that, though! The rule, for practical purposes, is that the right-turning vehicle needs to give way to the straight on vehicle.
The rule, for practical purposes, is that the right-turning vehicle needs to give way to the straight on vehicle.
But that is one of those "courtesy" rules isn't it? The only thing I can find in the HC which specifically concerns crossroads is how to turn off the main road if both approaching vehicles are turning right. Like I said in some cases it is courtesy order on arriving at the junction. However if no decision is made there, I could argue that the vehicle turning right should have priority because it is entering a route that has priority and would be harder to join with other approaching vehicles speeds but is also joining the priority traffic road over the vehicle going straight on.
If you see the video again, it was this also indecision between those two drivers which made it more dangerous for the cyclist as they both clear the giveway markings together before the Van stops for a second and this sends the red car to turn more head on for the cyclist.
No.
No, both drivers need a gap in both directions to pass through the junction.
Drivers turning right are causing the conflict, they should wait. if both were going straight ahead neither would have to wait.
Although often what happens in practice is the driver whose side clears first emerges first and the other is then forced to wait.
It is more than implied in the Highway Code, it is plainly stated in Rule 181.
Rule 181 of the Highway Code states that, if turning right at a crossroads, you should give way to oncoming traffic following the road ahead. The clearest diagrams I have found are those in Advice for the Theory Test.
The word "should" is key here. It is not an inviolable order and, as the book says, there may be circumstances that dictate a different course of action.
My daughter, riding her horse, fell foul of a right-turning driver who crashed into her as she attempted to go straight ahead. Local police were not amused and it cost him a hefty fine, three points and the best part of a thousand quid in vets' fees.
The online version only has
So nothing about giving way and the diagrams only show the vehicles turning right from the main road onto the side roads.
Sorry, sorry, sorry. That will teach me not to post my ill-found opinions after a 56 hour shift down the pit and a ninety mile cycle commute home for tea.
Try Rule 180 which tells traffic turning right to wait for a safe gap between oncoming vehicles.
I suspect that the van driver was being courteous and had flashed the red car to allow them to turn right first.
Tha's my point Joeinpoole, being courteous to override an established hierarchcy seems to be nice but should actively be discouraged because it has to many unintended consequences
A complete lack of awareness from all 3 motorists - and one should never rely on other motorists signaling/flashing you through - but loads of people do it. Just don't!!
That's how I got taken off my bike in '04. I was cycling along at about 15 to 20ish - old dawes steel-framed MTB, so pretty much flat out I guess - on a very wide road. A driver decided to overtake me. Ok, but why are you not completing your overtake? I wondered. Oh right, it's cos you've just flashed your lights at the oncoming who is signalling right. Who decides to jab his throttle to accept the kind invitation....
I hit the side of this car without actually having time to even touch the brakes (although I have a distinct memory of a series of thoughts, basically checking and discarding options, between realisation and impact. which was strange.)
The frame of my bike (dawes MTB, 501 tubes) literally crease bent on the down and cross tubes just behind the head tube - the front wheel was overlapping the seat tube.
Police attended "driving without due care yadda yadda" but surprise didn't actually follow up.... The initial o'take car of course didn't stop, even to see if everyone was ok.
The driver I hit then argued (a few days later by phone) that it was my fault, cos he had right of way as he'd been flashed, and I obs o'took on the inside.
I asked him to please sum that up and state it in his account, but we should let his insurance company make the decision.
In fairness the Insurance company were all over it and ensured that hlemet bike were replaced, injuries compensated, clothes contributed to considering depreciation. The only quibble I had was that gloves were considered clothes not safety equipt, so weren't replaced outright, but really that was minor.
In later years I spent some time as driver trainer for a delivery company (not DPD! or Yodel!, or Alliance Health Care.....) and that story was brought out on numerous occasions as to why you don't take someone flashing lights as you're free to go - flashing lights means "I am here" and nothing else.
But, I was asked once (only once) "But what were you wearing?"......
Some years ago now I ended up being a witness to a nasty road crash. I was on my motorbike, waiting at a side road to cross a main road. The main road was backed up with traffic. There was a gap between the cars so another driver flashed his lights to let a woman cut across in her car. But another motorbike was coming up the outside, which the guy who had flashed his lights hadn't seen.
The motorbike hit the side of the woman's car. She was very apologetic, but the guy on the motorbike was rather unhappy about it as he had a broken leg. I helped shift his bike to the side of the road. The guy who'd flashed his lights thought it was the biker's fault and didn't believe me when I said filtering on a motorbike (or bicycle) was legal in the UK.
The cops took my statement. The guy who flashed his lights had caused the crash but legally, it was her fault and not his.
Why am I not surprised at this? The lack of knowledge from lots of motorists is quite worrying. They obviously haven't read their Highway Code. There's plenty of info in there, as regards what is/isn't allowed on the roads.
As a cyclist, I don't filter, as I don't trust motorists; hoping they've seen me is no good - I want to be 100% sure they have seen me.
IIRC there have been lots of videos on this very site, over the years, showing near misses where a cyclist coming down the cycle lane next to a queue of traffic has very nearly been hit by someone turning right into a side road, and where members of this community (myself included) have proposed that someone in the queue had flashed the turning car, the driver of which had thought that meant it was safe to proceed rather than that the flasher was simply saying they wouldn't move forward quite yet...
(sorry - that sentence got away from me a bit, there!)
Hardy and Austen would have been proud...
I narrowly missed having a simlar incident filtering on a motorbike, where van 1 from local landscape firm was wanting to pull into their premesis flashed van 2 of same firm to exit, and van 2 driver of course didn't consider the possibility of anyone filtering.
Luckily I passed in front of the van, but If I had been 1 second later it would have hit me and 3 seconds later I would have been into the side of the van.
We probably all have the stories of cars flashing cross traffic through courtesy.
Mine happened here, single carriageway four laner. Traffic was held up at the lights and I was filtering down the left as middle filtering is tougher due to cars avoiding the central refuge a few metres behind. As I approached that bit the cars had started to move ahead so I thought the gap that had opened up was just a slow responding driver. as I hit the gap the turning car had just started moving but he didn't respond at all to me coming across as too concerned to speed into the turn to avoid holding up the nice drivers who had let him through. So in the flash I saw the car and cleared the gap, he had also covered the gap between the central reservation and the marking the start of the bus stop side of the road. He missed my rear tire with his bumper by mm's and I was in the road extensions side as an additional avoidance. If I didn't have that he would have clipped me. I admit I was filtering too fast for my own safety and I'm more cautious there now but still.
Took me ages to work out it was Wall and not Shenstone as I cycle most of lanes south of the Toll Road and didn't recognize it.
One of those where if the "last" van had decided to exercise it's "right of way" and decided, "yes, there is plenty of room to make that turn withut needed to cut the corner and hit the car, it probably wouldn't have happened.
It is one of those ones where the danger is there when you realise the "last" van is stopped but by then you are going downhill in the wet with a shit road surface so hard to slow down easily.
Weirdly I thought it looked Wall crossroads just from the preview image. Thought "nah, can't be" but clicked on it just to see and it was.
I rarely see any cars there, can't believe this guy came across vehicles coming from all directions.
Yup. Wall heading to Shenstone - know it well and recognised it instantly.
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.
Hence it's not ths sort of junction that anyone needs to flash anyone else out at. Although isn't the Trooper pub just down the road that the van on the right emerged from? I wonder if a visit there had affected someone's judgement.
ITYM 'priority'.
They all had right of way.
Yep, thanks for clearing up my poor expanation there. fixed.
Just... wow! Mobile slalom course right there.
Pages