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news
Near Miss of the Day 588: “You were in my blind spot!”
“You were in my blind spot!” is the excuse a motorist gave a cyclist after she pulled out on him in Bristol as he passed a row of parked cars – although as the Highway Code makes clear, that’s no excuse for failing to spot the rider.
Rule 159 of the Highway Code says:
Before moving off you should
- use all mirrors to check the road is clear
- look round to check the blind spots (the areas you are unable to see in the mirrors)
- signal if necessary before moving out
- look round for a final check.
Move off only when it is safe to do so.
Rule 211 adds:
It is often difficult to see motorcyclists and cyclists, especially when they are coming up from behind, coming out of junctions, at roundabouts, overtaking you or filtering through traffic. Always look out for them before you emerge from a junction; they could be approaching faster than you think. When turning right across a line of slow-moving or stationary traffic, look out for cyclists or motorcyclists on the inside of the traffic you are crossing. Be especially careful when turning, and when changing direction or lane. Be sure to check mirrors and blind spots carefully.
Jon, the road.cc reader who submitted the clip to us and plans to send it to the police, told us: “It happened in Bristol on Durdham Downs as I had reached the end of Lady’s Mile and had just turned left onto Stoke Road.
“I took my foot off the gas (so to speak) as cars came the other way in single file between parked cars before proceeding, but then had to brake as this car pulled out in front of me.
”When I caught up a traffic lights, her response was ‘You were in my blind spot, what could I do?’ to which my response was ‘Look more, then’.
“The mitigating factor for her is that she did apologise and you would not expect a car to appear so quickly from my direction given the two cars which had passed. B
“ut that completely ignores that there are loads of cyclists in Bristol who have just as much right to use the roads as cars and not be cut up.
“So my full response should have been ‘Look more then, including for cyclists!’”
> 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
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You need to get out of Derby then. Go somewhere else, because while not perfect, Derby is streets ahead of the vast majority of places I've lived...
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£100 bonus.
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"At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, we will remember them ... we have to because some numpty destroyed the roll of names"....
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88 comments
I guess you are part of the problem then.
Pulling out from the r/h side of the road in a r/h drive car is particularly hazardous as the blind spots in the mirrors are huge. It is therefore essential to do so with extreem caution. So no excuse for the driver here IMO.
Be thankful that those of you living in the UK have a system within which you can file complaints against drivers and those complaints are acted upon.
Where I live no such thing is possible. 1) The police refuse to enforce bicycle laws (which are part of our motor vehicle code); and 2) they won't enforce those laws because the prosecutor won't proceed with them. According to local police he has "more important things to do".
Australia?
US. Chattanooga, TN, to be exact.
Not my experience with Chattanooga. The police chief in the City was or is still an avid cyclist. Chattanooga is also one of the few cities in the US that has bicycle officers equipped with a device to determine if the 3-foot rule has been violated. And they enforce that.
Well, that's certainly given us something to chew (chew) over.
That's strange because many of his own officers refuse to enforce cyclings traffic laws even when infractions occur right in front of them. I've also spoken to a number of them and each of them says the same thing "the prosecutor won't do anything". So, maybe the chief needs to have a discussion with his officers.
As for enforcing th 3' rule, not in my experience. As a matter of fact, the police often violate that rule themselves. One can hardly expect they'll enforce it against others if they violate it themselves.
Er, pardon me boys....
Indeed! lol
I dare say that's not the first time you've heard that....
No, sir, it isn't. But, it's always pleasant to learn that it hasn't been forgotten.
At least it wasn't one of those outright deliberate acts of driver terrorism. Personally I'd let this one slide wrt reporting to authorities.
And I'd respectfully disagree; how will you feel in six months time when you read about them killing a cyclist, and you could have prevented it?
Cross that bridge when I get to it. I tend to avoid thinking that far into things. That mindset would make me a paranoid psycho mental super nutter bastard raving lunatic most probably.
"That person that bumped into me the other day, is he planning on doing that to me again but next time with a knife? Call the police or should I go over to his house and kill him to death? Fuck it, I'll move to Africa and become a cactus"
See what I mean, just reading your comment has already made me a bit nutty.
Wow! Quite an over-reaction to a fairly mundane suggestion. Someone who isn't punished for wrong-doing with a lethat weapon, a car, will do it again until they kill someone. Exactly what your ridiculous comparison is supposed to prove, apart from the fact that you are nutty, is beyond me.
I agree. It's annoying but not so close that it'd make me want to mutilate the driver.
Well no. Wishing bodily harm on those that irritate us we'll leave to another thread!
I really *hate* that drivers see 'I didn't see you' as an excuse. It is a driver's responsibility to ensure that they have checked if there is anything coming. 'I didn't see you' is an admission that a driver has failed to do what is required of them by law.
"'I didn't see you' is an admission that a driver has failed to do what is required of them by law. "
Nope. It is possible to be a reasonably good driver, who cycles, knows what to look out for, and still make a mistake. I've done it. Hope I learned a lesson. (Fortunately didn't hit him. Wound down my window and said 'Oh shit, I'm really sorry, that was completely my fault'. He was more surprised by that!)
How paradoxical.
You disagree with somebody by saying it's possible to be a reasonably good driver, then examplify your argument by giving the example of somebody who, in that moment, failed to be a reasonably good driver (specifically using the word, 'fault').
The fact that you 'learned a lesson' is encouraging, but proves the point that improvement was needed.
Being a reasonably good driver is not a pass to avoid those moments when you do something wrong.
"Sorry I [nearly] hit you; but it's OK becasue I'm a reasonably good driver."
The point is that I'm better than most drivers (in traffic, not in a Lewis Hamilton way), simply because I react to something like this as a narrow escape and a lesson to learn. Most people are simply oblivious. But I can - and do - make mistakes. Improvement is _always_ needed. You never stop learning.
I drive cautiously enough that I can (hopefully, most of the time) get away with one mistake - it would take two or three combining to cause a collision. If I'd been pulling out of the junction fast, trying to get ahead of traffic coming from my right, I'd have been going to fast to stop, might not have noticed the cyclist at all, etc.
There's a really wide gap between 'made a slight mistake' and 'careless driving'.
I strongly in favour of the idea that we should have much, much higher standards for the driving we permit on our roads. But even with those, we'd still need segregated cycle lanes and so-on.
Along with 98% of the driving community eh?
Haha well said. Where I come from that's what we call "Owned". "Pwned" is another word for it.
Where I come from it's called making a fool of yourself by failing to understand a comment and then posting what is essentially random mumbling in response.
Where is that bridge then ?
It is, but points on a licence rather tend to focus the mind to consequences (ok, for "good" drivers such as you and me). No one's going to lose their licence over that, but a clear message can be sent.
Literally not possible. If you have 'made a mistake' you have failed to drive with 'due care and attention' as required by law. These are not mistakes. They are poor driving, admission that a driver's driving fails to meet the standards required in a driving test is, by definition, an admission of fault.
That's nonsense. If you want to argue for laws like that, I'll join you. But the laws we currently have simply don't say anything of the sort.
I suggest reading the applicable laws. It's shocking how little protection there is for vulnerable road users.
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