Near Miss of the Day 606: Driver makes close pass ... then stops to check how cyclist is and apologises

We have a bit of an unusual one in our Near Miss of the Day series today – for a start, there’s no video, but when road.cc reader Clifford wrote to us about his experience of the exchange that he had with a driver who had just made a close pass on him in south Oxfordshire, we agreed it was definitely worth sharing.

“I had left the B480, busyish road, and was heading along the minor road which becomes High Street Chalgrove,” said Clifford (you can see that minor road on the right in the picture above.

“I was aware from my Garmin RTL510 of a vehicle approaching. It was a van. I thought, ‘Wow, that was too close for comfort!’

“But worse, it was towing a trailer with construction machinery; this heavy duty trailer was only a few centimetres away from removing my right arm and leg.

“About 200-300 metres along the road I saw the vehicle – Clancy – stopped with the driver walking towards me,” Clifford continued.

“I really hoped he was not going to berate me for not paying ‘road tax’, etc but he asked if I was OK and said he realised that he had passed too close.

“He again asked if I was OK and apologised. I could be cynical and think that he did this only because he was afraid that I would report him.

“However, I think that he genuinely realised that he had made a bad mistake which could have had serious consequences for us both.

“I hope, trust, that he has learned from it,” he added.

We hope so too – apologies from Clifford that there’s no video to go with his tale, but we hope you agree it was one worth sharing.

> 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