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news
Near Miss of the Day 609: Driver gives cyclist a soaking (and head-on close pass) ... on purpose?
One of the most fundamental pieces of advice to motorists in the Highway Code – to drive to the conditions – is also, we suspect, one of the most ignored rules.
And perhaps today’s entry in our Near Miss of the Day series is just a reflection of that ignorance – although we can’t help thinking that the driver here gave the cyclist a soaking (and a head-on close pass) on purpose.
It happened last Monday morning at 0540 hours on Fordbridge Road in Sunbury on Thames – appropriately, there are a lot of water-based references there – to road.cc reader Laurence.
Whether on your bike or on foot, chances are that you’ve been splashed by some idiot driver over the years, intentionally or otherwise.
But there’s a very serious side to this – you can see from the clip that the sudden soaking Laurence received caused him to wobble, and it fair play to him for keeping his bike – and himself – upright.
And to add insult to injury, he told us that he’d taken his rain jacket off about a mile beforehand.
Hopefully he’s dried out by now.
> 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
Oh, and by the way – we get so many submissions these days that it would help us (and you) if rather than putting "near miss" or "close pass" in the email header, you give it a more descriptive title.
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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38 comments
Sometimes as a driver you really can't avoid the massive puddles. It may seem odd to you cycling only types but it does happen. On my commute is a long sweeping bend, next to the bend is a field of crops so you can't see through the corner. At the end of the corner is a drainage system that always backs up at the first sign of rain but if you'd never been down the road before it would probably catch you out even if you were doing 40 in the 60.
Imo that incident was just one of those things. Cyclist moved over to place they had no need to and the driver was possibly judging their passing speed on the speed the cyclist initially appeared to doing. Cyclist should have just held their line and kept pedalling.
As a driving type, I'd not hare round a corner that I can't see through.
Cars do go fast. But they also go slow, if you want them to.
Ultimately, when you drive, you are responsible for what your car does, and a skilled and considerate driver will drive to teh conditions. It is utterly unreasonable to give someone an avoidable soaking (FFS, it's not a bit of fun...) and shrug at their risk/ discomfort/ huge inconvenience, when at the end of the day the driver just couldn't be arsed to drive safely.
DWDC, every facking time.
The cyclist moved over as the camber of the road makes the puddle shallower the more central you are.
While it's sometimes not possible to avoid them, it is always possible to go through them without creating a massive splash.
I think we've all had a soaking like this, but not sure you can really blame the driver (or the guy on the bike for that matter!) other than maybe a tad too fast for the conditions. The move toward the centre line was probably on spotting the puddle, but then saw the cyclist and held the line. Not really any time to slow at that point.
Yeah you can. They are in control of their vehicle and are responsible for its affect on members of the public.
- Wet conditions
- Flooded road
- Oncoming cyclist
All the conditions here were screaming "slow down!"
This the driver failed, or chose not, to do.
Up to £5,000 Fine for Splashing Pedestrians with Puddles
https://www.theukrules.co.uk/news/homes-and-lifestyle/cars-splashing-ped...
It comes under 'driving with undue care and attention.'
I personallywould like to see more of that.....
That's for deliberate and avoidable incidents. Which this one obviously wasn't.
Frankly, the video shows comedy cycling, not bad driving. Cyclist slams on the brakes because of the puddle, just as the car gets there. Car can't possibly react in time, let alone stop, so goes straight through the puddle as it was always going to. Because he stopped, cyclist is now right in the path of the splash.
Sometimes in life it's necessary to admit it's your own damn fault and laugh at yourself.
"Car can't possibly react in time"
So no such thing as driving to the conditions and what to the distance you can see? I don't think he deliberately targetted the cyclist, but I don't see why it is the cyclists fault when he CAN and DOES react to the road obstacles and the driver doesn't. And the driver does have time to react as he moves more towards the centre for the same reason the cyclist did, because the camber makes it shallower, he just didn't decide to slow down.
The driver has no reason to do an emergency stop there. That's what would be required to have any chance of stopping in time, even ignoring reaction and actual thinking time. (Reaction is for stuff you expect to see; thinking time is needed for unusual stuff like someone suddenly stopping right next to a puddle.)
" the driver does have time to react as he moves more towards the centre"
He had plenty of time to react to the puddle. He had no time to react to the cyclist deciding to stop there like that. Can't you see the difference? It's like claiming a driver should always be able to stop if someone suddenly veers across from the other side of the road and hits them head-on - that's not how it works.
If you're suggesting the driver did something wrong by going through the puddle at that speed, you're just plain wrong. He didn't suffer any loss of control, and he wasn't going very fast.
If someone swerves to get a wheel into a puddle and splashes pedestrians or cyclists, that's one thing, rightly attracting penalties if seen by police. If you stop next to a puddle the width of a lane, then you'll get splashed by every vehicle that passes, and that's quite another, it's (literally as well as figuratively) on you.
Because making big spalshes is so much fun, it's like being a kid in wellies after the rain again.
Unfortunately driving should be more about safety at less about nostalgia of jumping in big puddles. I don't even like this when I'm driving. How about we all slow down when the roads are flooded and keep the cars as clean as possible?
Sometimes in life it's necessary to admit it's your own damn fault and laugh at yourself
In the same way as it's necessary to admit you have just submitted a buffoon's comment worthy of arch-buffoon Johnson. This is a piece of victim blaming that could get you published on the Mail letters page! Nothing the cyclist did increased or decreased the probability of being soaked.
Either you didn't watch the video, or you're on some kind of wind-up. The cyclist stopped, completely needlessly and unexpectedly, somewhere that guaranteed they'd get soaked. If they hadn't stopped, they wouldn't have got soaked. This one's on the cyclist.
The car driver wasn't speeding, or driving too fast for the conditions, because they were unable to stop instantly for something completely stupid and unexpected. It's just not their fault in any way.
Watch the video again. From when the cyclist stops, how long do you think the driver has to react before hitting the puddle? Could they have avoided it in any way?
Very simply, this is like stepping out from behind a van in front of oncoming traffic, although fortunately not dangerous like that: it's plainly and simply your fault, not the traffic's.
Well you didn't watch the video it seems, cyclist slowed down but never stopped as you keep on claiming. There is also debris in the puddle in the middle of the lane and so he was doing the right thing to slow down in case there was more submerged (or potholes).
I'm not sure who was claiming the driver needed to emergency stop, however slowing down when going through deep puddles is recommended for all sorts of reason, not least because of causing a huge splash straight onto oncoming vehicles including those with windows. He reacted to the puddle by moving to the centre, he didn't react by slowing down.
It was Davex2 who mentioned emergency stop as well as saying there was time to slow down as he wasn't going very fast.
Some people have nothing better to do.
Boris Johson wouldn't have got wet, nothing sticks to him.
Were you the driver ?
Driver fails to drive to the conditions thereby soaking anyone in the vicinity.
But hey, blame the victim.
There is no victim here. Someone got wet. Get a grip.
As for 'failing to drive to conditions', you're just making stuff up. Someone suddenly, at the last moment, completely unexpectedly, did something stupid. 'Driving to the conditions' has nothing to do with it.
I mean, I'm stunned anyone would do anything other than laugh at the cyclist in this video. It's so obviously a daft thing they did that caused that. If they'd been looking where they were going they'd have been going around the puddle, not seeing it late, braking hard, and swerving towards the middle of the road. As it was, they had two options. One was getting soaked, the other was getting wet feet by riding on. They chose the worse option.
That's a pretty stupid driver. As others have commented, splashing a pedestrian (or cyclist) like this is a traffic offence. And driving at speed through water risks loss of control and a crash as well as the potential for serious damage to the vehicle. A colleague wrecked his old Citroen's engine (an XM I think) as the air intake was set low down, and he wasn't even driving quickly.
Who hasn''t this happened to? Not a single cyclist I'd wager. Of the few occasions this has happened to me my favourite one was getting soaked about 15 years ago on the ring road in York, I was actually cycling on an off road cycle path too, coming back from Tesco's. The standing water was big, full width of the lane. A car went straight into it at about 50mph and i got drenched, head to toe. But the memorable bit was that about 20 metres behind that car was an unmarked police car. The officer saw what had happened and immediately put the blue lights on in the grill and the siren, put his foot down, avoiding the standing water of course and gave chase. It was brilliant, well worth the soaking.
It's shocking the number of drivers who are clueless or who have forgotten how to drive through standing water. They would much rather blast through and create a bow wave. I fail to understand why they don't realise there's possibly damaged iron work or pot holes underneath. That they could flood the engine. Destroy the electrics. Loose control of their vehicle. The list goes on. I don't think I've ever seen someone feather their brakes to dry them out either.
The AA is pretty clear on the consequences of soaking either cyclists or pedestrians as a result of these actions. Again something that motorists are unaware of.
I've lost count the number of times I've been soaked when walking or cycling by ijits blasting through standing water with little or no concern for me.
I give you Rufford Ford !
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fm5IdOX4Lsk
Thye could make a fortune if they could charge to watch !
Have seen this one before! Interestingly 30 cm of water is sufficient to flood your engine and screw up your electrics. 60cm is enough to actually float your vehicle! If I'm driving and I'll not attempt crossing water more than axle depth. If I'm on a bike I'll look for another route or wade through if there is no other option!
"30 cm of water is sufficient to flood your engine"
Flooding an engine has nothing to do with water.
https://www.theaa.com/breakdown-cover/advice/how-do-you-cure-a-flooded-p....
"60cm is enough to actually float your vehicle!"
It really depends on the vehicle.
"If I'm driving and I'll not attempt crossing water more than axle depth."
Unless you're in some kind of off-roader, water that deep can cause serious damage. Don't drive through anything that covers the tyre (at the bottom of the wheel) by more than a little.
"30 cm of water is sufficient to flood your engine and screw up your electrics."
Depends which way up the car is.
It doesn't always work out the way the driver intended. This is from Essex earlier this year. (The bike wasn't knocked over, just laid down to take the picture. The car was stranded there long before we passed.)
Defo worth seeing if you can get a Careless Driving charge. There's far too many numpty drivers charging through puddles for shits and giggles these days, regardless of whether there's a vulnerable road user in the vicinity.
It would be tricky to prove an intent to target the cyclist deliberately, but that's a deliberate choice of speed to drive through a puddle like that for sure.
Be interesting to see what the police made of that, even just as a reference point,if the car cant be identified.
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