Near Miss of the Day 714 (updated): Police stand by comments questioning cyclist's positioning despite Highway Code changes

Earlier this month, road.cc reader Andrew sent us this two-year-old clip, predicting it may well start quite a debate about positioning. At the time South Wales Police told him they weren't impressed with his middle of the lane position at the roundabout, and would not be taking action against the driver... and in their latest response to road.cc, the force said the response was "appropriate at that time."

> Near Miss of the Day 713: Driver asked not to close pass... then does it again

Below is the original response that Andrew got from South Wales Police, telling him they would not be taking action against the driver, and claiming he was at fault:

Thank you for the submission. We have concerns about your positioning whilst negotiating the roundabout.

It is clear that you have entered in a nearside position but then drifted across to the offside when you are manoeuvring around the roundabout resulting in you being drawn closer to the passing vehicle.

If you had taken the same line as the cyclist behind you, who remained in a nearside position, there would have been no issues. No further action being taken.

Andrew told us he was interested to hear others' thoughts about this, saying "I report many close passes and generally get a good response from operation SNAP in Wales.

"However, my last few have ended in comments criticising the way I ride and end up blaming me. I would be happy to amend my cycling to make it safer for myself but I struggle to see how moving to the 'nearside' position would have prevented this close pass or made it safer to negotiate the roundabout."

As you'll see below many of you did indeed comment, with a number of you suggesting that the police response was wrong because the driver overtook on a roundabout. 

It seems that South Wales Police big to differ, however, as their statement to road.cc confirms they will not be commenting further, and that the response was appropriate based on the rules of the Highway Code at that time. 

Here is their response to us in full: 

This footage shows a time of May 1st 2020, almost two years ago. The response to the report was appropriate at that time.

The response to the complaint states that he cyclist to the rear clearly remained in a nearside position while the complainant drifted into the offside position while negotiating the roundabout.

The response was given according to the Highway Code as it stood then. It is inappropriate to comment upon an event from two years ago with regard to today’s Highway Code.

> 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