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news
Near Miss of the Day 717: Bang on the side for coach driver who commits extremely close pass towards oncoming cars
Many of our readers’ submissions to Near Miss of the Day are reported to the police and, in instances where the perpetrator is driving a vehicle owned by their employer, the relevant company. Some, like Tuesday’s Near Miss, don’t receive any response at all, while others – like today’s edition – are acknowledged, but perhaps not in the way the cyclist intended.
Today’s video, sent to us by road.cc reader Stephen, shows a very impatient coach driver committing an extremely close pass through a town, forcing two oncoming cars to brake sharply and earning a bang on the side from Stephen in the process.
Stephen told us: “I am still amazed it happened on the approach to a junction with oncoming cars who had to take evasive action, in a 20mph zone and lastly on a pedestrian crossing.
“I will not show the rear view, as it really is scary as it shows him trying to pass on several occasions and being approximately three feet off my rear Bob Yak wheel.
“Even the Transit driver took evading action early on. The only good thing about it, is it happened to an experienced cyclist and not a child from the village college.”
Stephen reported the incident, which took place in September 2020, to Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire police, as well as the coach operators and the local operators’ licensing authority, but has yet to hear a response from any of those bodies.
He has received some form of acknowledgement from the coach driver in question, however.
“I have been given the bird by the driver on occasions when he passes me during his local route, so something must have been said, or perhaps he is just proving he has seen me!”
> 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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Stephen reported the incident, which took place in September 2020, to Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire police, as well as the coach operators and the local operators’ licensing authority, but has yet to hear a response from any of those bodies
And he isn't going to, because they binned it in September 2020. They do that, if you let them, as soon as they know that nobody has been killed or seriously injured- and nobody is how they classify any cyclist. The contingency plan is to trot out the super-insincere 'our thoughts are with the family of the deceased' while they ensure their favourite dodge is made to apply: 'insufficient evidence'. The Filth will be trying the full set of dodges over this one: 10 tonne Stagecoach 42 bus PX12 DMU, 18:44, 22.2.22, Garstang- you can see the equivalent fine Stagecoach driving in PX12 DNU just below
Why can't road.cc do a follow up with the agencies mentioned, in the interest of their readers. In particular the police.
Why can't road.cc do a follow up with the agencies mentioned, in the interest of their readers. In particular the police
Because it would be an impossible task! The police, with a few notable exceptions, are dedicated to agreeing with and forgiving the drivers of motorised vehicles for their offences, all to the detriment of cyclists. They deploy numerous dodges to frustrate and deflect enquiries, the first of which is simply not replying to communications. Whatever a motorist's offence is, they're not interested because they're 'too busy'- much of traffic police time is wasted on not taking action against traffic offences, when it would be vastly less effort to enforce the law. Lancashire Constabulary refuses to reply to queries about YA67 HMU, for instance, which committed a close passing offence in early February at a time when its MOT had long expired- they have sent the infamous Lancashire Constabulary no-action action-letter all right, but decline any interest in the vehicle's MOT. It is still listed as expired. They have also declined to pay any attention to a vehicle's VED expiry at the time an offence was committed. Close passer HT15 MHN is obviously overloaded but LC won't pay any attention to that either. Serious red light offences are ignored, along with everything else- Lancashire roads are like the OK Corral when Wyatt Earp is on holiday, so they're not going to pay any attention to road.cc!
Last year I had to go through a torturous three-month, 30+ communication process with the Met just to get them to let me know the results of my own submissions, I rather doubt they would willingly release such information to third parties on demand. Most companies, when they say they are addressing the behaviour of their employees, will say that privacy laws mean they can't tell you what action will be taken, and I'm sure they would take the same line with enquiries from the press.
OK, so that was September 2020. This is October 2021, Stagecoach Route 40 bus Garstang. No response from Lancashire b*****d Constabulary. It's a common trick here- if they think they can get away with 'not in the public interest to do anything' they do that- if that's impossible, as here, they just don't reply. They think they got away with it, but they're wrong
Unlike 90% of the NMOTD posts on here this looked very scary. I hope in future the person on the bicycle " takes the lane" an adopts a centre lane position next time he/she rides though this village. Riding defensively is the only way to prevent close passes and luckily riding in the centre of the lane is now allowed because of the new highway code changes.
It was allowed before, it's just explicitly mentioned now.
Absolutely correct.
That advice from the DfT has been around for years, though not as prominently as it should be. From a 2014 road.cc article:
https://road.cc/content/news/114723-think-cyclist-safety-poster-campaign...
They look to me to be riding as near as makes no difference in prime,they are between the two triangles on the crossing, only conceding space when the choice is move over or be crushed.
Theres no way you are stopping a coach being driven like that on a bicycle, the driver is a bully first and foremost but has no qualms about using nearly 25tonnes of coach to do it
It always has been "allowed"
F... hell.
Plus adding insult to injury...
And nothing happens.
Shame that happened too long ago, but that's a clear example of the police not doing their job and should have had a complaint made against the force. There is no way that driver should be in control of a shopping trolley, let alone a coach.
now lets say you happened to have had some metal studs in your gloves that put a series of scratches down the side of the coach when you banged on the side, you can guarantee you'd have had a reply from that coach company double quick, and you'd likely have had a visit from the local constabulary in connection with the incident.
But but but but.....
They are a highly trained driver with multiple licences and because they are so highly trained and licenced and insured and their vehicle pays road tax they would never do such a thing...........
Dangerous.
“I will not show the rear view, as it really is scary as it shows him trying to pass on several occasions and being approximately three feet off my rear Bob Yak wheel....
No please show the rear view.
Great skill and courage shown by the cyclist not to hit or bail out up the kerb.
Coach driver should have the book thrown at him.
Nice pass. Great demonstration of driving skill by a professional driver. Overtaking in a 20 limit, so likely speeding.
My old driving instructor, ex-copper and a regular caution, used to say paint on the road (other than central lines) means that someone believes this area is high risk - why else budget the cash?
So this fackwit of a PSV driver overtakes a rider, likely going travelling at the speed limit for motor vehicles, in a built-up area on a narrow road with tight pavements, breaking the speed limit as they do so (see the red angry face speed check towards the end of the video)
Licence should be revoked
Cyclist 19mph, coach 28mph.
cheers HM - did you do the maths, or did I miss it in the article?
Did the maths! I've got a spreadsheet for calculating speed from video. All I have to do is count the frames between two points a known distance apart (road markings are a standard size). The accuracy is quite high here as it was shot at 50fps.
Nice! Chapeau neuf de pape!
I've got a spreadsheet for calculating speed from video
You can forget all that calculating and science stuff where the bent forces are concerned. In Lancashire all cyclists are always travelling at less than 10mph
Duplicate - deleted
Care to share it? I think our nextbase team might find it useful.
Sheffieldnorthwestnpt [at] southyorks.pnn.police.uk
It's just something I knocked up in Numbers on the mac and not really in a shareable state! It doesn't really need to be a spreadsheet, just a look-up table. I'll have a look at reformatting it and may post it up if turns out legible enough!
If you want to send it on then click File > Export To and select Excel
I wouldn't try sending a Numbers file to anyone unless you are 100% sure they have a recent copy (and not many people do).
They should add frequent public order offences and abusive behaviour to charge of dangerous driving.
People with his temperament should not work as professional drivers.
What does the Andrews Coaches have to say about this man representing their company?
On some of these coach company ones, could road.cc actually approach the company as a media outlet and ask for a comment?
Seconded. Not just activism, might also be teh bones of an interesting article
Shocking pass, unfortunately not unusual through this village (Sawston, Cambs). The complete lack of response from the Beds, Cambs, Herts unit is typical: they do not give a sh*t about cyclists. They also refused to take any action against a driver that nearly killed me at a "traffic calming" measure at the other end of the village. "Yes, it was clearly dangerous driving & put your life in danger, but we won't take any action"