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news
Near Miss of the Day 701: Speeding bus driver “very lucky” to avoid prosecution for close pass (includes swearing)
The speeding bus driver featured in today’s Near Miss of the Day video escaped punishment for this reckless overtake in a 30mph zone – due to an outbreak of Covid at Greater Manchester Police.
In the video, the Vision Bus driver narrowly passes the cyclist on a moderately steep hill as cars approach in the opposite direction. According to road.cc reader Grahame, who sent us the footage, a speed indicator at the brow of the hill showed that the driver was travelling at 36mph in a 30mph zone.
Grahame reported the incident to Greater Manchester Police as part of its ‘Operation Considerate’. However, the report was not processed in time for a Notice of Intended Prosecution to be issued within the 14-day limit.
Greater Manchester Police told the cyclist that the report wasn't processed because “the whole office came down with Covid-19” – scuppering any chance of the driver being prosecuted and securing a “very lucky” reprieve for Vision and its driver, according to Grahame.
Vision did not respond to road.cc’s request for comment.
> 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
After obtaining a PhD, lecturing, and hosting a history podcast at Queen’s University Belfast, Ryan joined road.cc in December 2021 and since then has kept the site’s readers and listeners informed and enthralled (well at least occasionally) on news, the live blog, and the road.cc Podcast. After boarding a wrong bus at the world championships and ruining a good pair of jeans at the cyclocross, he now serves as road.cc’s senior news writer. Before his foray into cycling journalism, he wallowed in the equally pitiless world of academia, where he wrote a book about Victorian politics and droned on about cycling and bikes to classes of bored students (while taking every chance he could get to talk about cycling in print or on the radio). He can be found riding his bike very slowly around the narrow, scenic country lanes of Co. Down.
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38 comments
I'd prefer it if driving offences were automatically charged against the registered vehicle keeper and the onus put on them to dispute it and finger(!) the alleged driver at the time. That would ensure that hire companies would take more interest in checking credentials and keeping records.
It'd also make logical sense as so many RTCs are described as "vehicle hits something", so let's make it similar to owning a dangerous pet - the owner is responsible for whatever their vehicle gets up to.
Maybe society - and that then extends to the police - don't see this as "real crime"? I bet those who've had this kind of experience would feel differently. But most people don't because they / their friends and relatives rarely or never cycle on UK roads. Or even if they do they may think "this is how it is - my fault for cycling here".
Any road offence needs to be reported within 14 days. Ideally no more that 10 days due to the backlog that the police are working through and difficulties that they might have in contacting the registered owner of a vehicle. Other crimes can be investigated in different times, although there are other challenges.
From my own experiences, when it comes to delivering justice for a road crime it varies greatly. For a left hook it was a simple case of a driver awareness court. For a red light jumping lorry it took 6 months and a closed court appearance.
As I showed on another topic, Lancashire does 'failed to process in time' wholesale. There were 8 of those notified to me at once, after 6 months of harassment by me to be told what I already knew. And that was indisputable red light passing. It's just a dodge.
How convenient for the bus driver. That's a new excuse to ensure it misses the cut off point.
Isn't there some other body that it can be reported to as it's a PSV?
Not even 'words of advice' to the company/driver?
Don't you mean cyclist?
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