- News
- Reviews
- Bikes
- Accessories
- Accessories - misc
- Computer mounts
- Bags
- Bar ends
- Bike bags & cases
- Bottle cages
- Bottles
- Cameras
- Car racks
- Child seats
- Computers
- Glasses
- GPS units
- Helmets
- Lights - front
- Lights - rear
- Lights - sets
- Locks
- Mirrors
- Mudguards
- Racks
- Pumps & CO2 inflators
- Puncture kits
- Reflectives
- Smart watches
- Stands and racks
- Trailers
- Clothing
- Components
- Bar tape & grips
- Bottom brackets
- Brake & gear cables
- Brake & STI levers
- Brake pads & spares
- Brakes
- Cassettes & freewheels
- Chains
- Chainsets & chainrings
- Derailleurs - front
- Derailleurs - rear
- Forks
- Gear levers & shifters
- Groupsets
- Handlebars & extensions
- Headsets
- Hubs
- Inner tubes
- Pedals
- Quick releases & skewers
- Saddles
- Seatposts
- Stems
- Wheels
- Tyres
- Health, fitness and nutrition
- Tools and workshop
- Miscellaneous
- Buyers Guides
- Features
- Forum
- Recommends
- Podcast
news
Near Miss of the Day 746: "Any closer and I'd more than likely be in hospital"
"Any closer and I'd more than likely be in hospital," was how the road.cc reader who submitted the clip assessed this incident from Ockendon, in Essex.
Tony reported the driver to the police, but heard back that the motorist had only received a warning letter for their close pass.
"Had this happen to me last Friday, 8th April. Was out for an afternoon ride to unwind after work, had already had a few bad passes earlier on but then cycling through Ockendon, Essex, along a fairly quiet road at the time had this van driver pass dangerously close, made worse by the oncoming traffic in the other lane.
> Near Miss of the day 745: Impatient van driver waits...but only for a second
"Any closer and I'd more than likely be in hospital right now. Probably saved the driver no more than a few seconds overall. Reported this to Essex Police who felt it warranted nothing more than a pointless warning letter."
On last week's road.cc Podcast we asked if next month’s RideLondon-Essex sportive can help make the county’s roads safer for cyclists?
> Can next month’s RideLondon-Essex sportive help make the county’s roads safer for cyclists?
After the route announcement at the back end of 2021, Essex highways authorities and police were urged to tackle road safety as part of RideLondon’s legacy.
Essex Police then defended its silence over its RideLondon 100 plans after concerns over an apparent lack of road safety engagement prior to the event, citing traffic policing cuts and pointing to ongoing Vision Zero work to eliminate road danger.
> 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
Dan is the road.cc news editor and joined in 2020 having previously written about nearly every other sport under the sun for the Express, and the weird and wonderful world of non-league football for The Non-League Paper. Dan has been at road.cc for four years and mainly writes news and tech articles as well as the occasional feature. He has hopefully kept you entertained on the live blog too.
Never fast enough to take things on the bike too seriously, when he's not working you'll find him exploring the south of England by two wheels at a leisurely weekend pace, or enjoying his favourite Scottish roads when visiting family. Sometimes he'll even load up the bags and ride up the whole way, he's a bit strange like that.
Latest Comments
- IanMK 37 min 19 sec ago
I do wonder if Highway Planners and Councils understand all the implications of putting in traffic calming measures. They certainly take no...
- Oldfatgit 53 min 15 sec ago
Well done to Paddy....
- Oldfatgit 56 min 45 sec ago
How long before some waste of DNA complains about them on the footpath ... or for Grimsby [and the other shit-tips] to ban them ...
- mattw 1 hour 44 min ago
I've only just spotted this....
- Another_MAMIL 2 hours 9 min ago
I also liked Polartec NeoShell and was disappointed it was discontinued. Polartec RPM looks similar, but it's unclear how NeoShell and RPM compare....
- pockstone 2 hours 20 min ago
"Due to the increasing speed of bicycles..., we have to expect that such accidents will happen more often.”...
- mdavidford 3 hours 46 min ago
Seems probably even more appropriate than what I originally intended.
- slc 4 hours 58 min ago
Credit to the author for attending the opposition meetings and trying to understand their concerns, but I agree with hp. There has been significant...
- RoubaixCube 5 hours 59 min ago
I like how youre using a Mojito X to advertise an Mojito 3
- Basemetal 6 hours 20 min ago
The PU dip on the palm and fingers is over the knitted nylon so not chilly in use, and the material is thick enough to provide some cushioning. It...
Add new comment
31 comments
I ought to clarify: I followed up with Lancashire PCC as the second stage of the complaints procedure about LC (in summary) essentially doing nothing about anything- serious RLJ incidents, close passing (including me being hit twice by mirrors, admittedly over 2 years ago), double white line crossing etc. LC's own lamentable and deliberately ineffectual, laughably-named Professional Standards Department takes 6 months to say we're very busy and we did what we could. PCC took several more months until some typical female council worker concluded that the police know what they're doing and if you want anything else, take independent legal advice. Remember this complaint includes the indisputable video evidence of the simple RLJ and close passing stuff about which LC did nothing at all- the usual excuse is: we didn't look at the video until over 2 weeks had passed so it was too late to do anything. People have seen these stills too often, but I am unrepentant- here is one which LC did nothing at all about despite it being reported the same day. Close passing, double white line crossing, dangerous position etc. This is Stuart and Braithwaite builder's van DU61 VHJ- I see it around regularly displaying dangerous driving.
Thank you for your clarity. The PCC is supposed to improve Police accountability and legitimacy whereas that has not been your experience at all.
Does the Lancashire PCC have any stated objectives and measures of success?
Have they published the actual measures of success?
Does the Lancashire PCC have any stated objectives and measures of success? Have they published the actual measures of success?
No idea- the organisation is a waste of space, and I'm not wasting any more time on it
Not really clear what relevance them being female has to any of this?
Thank you for bringing this to our attention, as a company we don’t condone this type of driving.
We have spoken to the driver and pointed out that he was too close, the new regulations state that a minimum distance of 1.5 metres should be left from cyclists.
He accepts that the manoeuvre was not correct and will take this on board when passing cyclists in future. We all make mistakes in life and need to learn from them.
Please accept our apologises in this matter
Vision Design Projects
A minimum distance of 2m if travelling at over 30mph or driving a large vehicle.
Wow, monumentally impatient moron! Glad you nabbed his plates!
I would say that me personally, as there was clearly a queue of cars behind, I would have pulled to the side and waved the cars through since after all they can travel much faster than me and while behind me present a big hazard that is better being where I can see it.
However that is purely a personal decision as I believe we ALL need to learn to share the road better and is in no way a requirement and absolutely in no way condones or excuses this guy's actions!
Made the mistake of looking at the road.cc Facebook post of this video..... Lo and behold there are a large number of motorists saying that the cyclist is at fault/was riding deliberately to hold up the driver because they weren't hugging the kerb.
All this because the driver was too impatient to wait about 15 seconds for a safe place to pass.
Just had to go have a look myself and my god, the lack of empathy and understanding of the rules is mind boggling. So many people who clearly shouldn't be driving.
I'll bet none of them even watched the video before jumping to a conclusion.
I saw it on FB first and came here specifically to watch exactly what happened rather than listen to anybody's opinion, and it's a simple open and shut case that the driver was impatient and foolish.
I get the frustration drivers can face when they are being held up for a long time, but there is simply no defense here for this van driver!
Just wondering whether the warning letter was used by police because it was a company vehicle as opposed to a privately registered vehicle. Because if a company fails to notify the driver there can be no penalty points issued.
On a complete aside, I get a feeling that the company has bigger worries than a bad driver...... Given the fact that in the last set of accounts they owed HMRC over £350,000.... wouldn't surprise me if HMRC is due to file for insolvency of the company.
I did think that myself. A bit of a poor excuse if so, thought if it is a company vehicle then if the company fails to identify the driver the company itself can/will be fined at least.
Interesting on their accounts does seem like they are in a bit of trouble.
Essex Police were cut beyond the bone by the Conservative Governement during "Austerity"; certainly up until a couple of years ago there were only two traffic cars on night duty, one at Stanway the other at Chigwell; evidently if they had a call out at In the Southend Basildon area they used to race each other to see who could get there first!
Our current cock of a Prime Minister claims they are recruiting more police in his regular spot the liar speeches, they are, just not to the levels they cut by.
The biggest cocks are the Essex voting public a majority of whom will vote Tory as long as they have a breath in their body. This of course ensures MP's like the dispicable Pritti Patel is vested on this country while doing a fat Zero for the people of Essex.
I don't agree with the Police's position on this, but do understand why it is.
It's not as straightforward as saying there have been cuts, which there clearly have been for years and it has no doubt impacted the ability of police to respond to incidents/reports etc.
For road safety though, my understanding is that it is a dedicated team of several offices, this has been in place for years with no real changes. I generally believe that the outcomes is dependent on which officer reviews the submissions, some seem far better at taking things forwards than others. This to me suggests it's a matter of training for those officers involved.
I'm guessing you have already read this but for others benefit
https://twitter.com/CampaignCycling/status/1513779581903417345
We have escalated this case to the head of roads policing. The Extra Eyes service should be a massive asset in reducing road danger but inconsistent enforcement weakens the confidence of cyclists in reporting incidents.
Methinks he doth protest too much ..... in fact I reckon he's got the hots for Pritti.
Let's do trust that the Directors will bollock the cnut.
Unless one of them was driving?!?
No consistency from them.
This one says a course but is not as bad.
https://mobile.twitter.com/CampaignCycling/status/1511825981182459910
Be a shame if someone mentioned that the company who owns the van is Vision Design Projects (visiondesignprojects.com). Would hate for their Google search profile to be associated with dangerous driving.
Was going to tweet the vid at them only to find their twitter account is suspended. Doesn't exactly inspire confidence that they actually care about things like this.
Yay. Pointless warning letters!
can cops do something a little more productive here?
I felt for sure this would be at least a driving course/fine + points, to just be a warning letter is frankly frightening. That essex police feel this is acceptable driving around vulnerable road users is appalling. As you say a warning letter is nothing.
I wonder if the police have any data about the effects of warning letters? If they can't prove that they work, then they are absolutely pointless.
We can't prove that they don't, but it is their job to make the roads safe, and if they can't prove that they are doing that, they aren't doing their job. So the police are wasting police time by doing something that is a waste of time. Who do I report this crime to?
They only care when it's a police officer that gets close passed, in the main.
The Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) responsible for Essex
https://www.essex.pfcc.police.uk/
pfcc [at] essex.police.uk
Posted on Mar 25th 2022
VISION ZERO
No road deaths
Specifically Roger plans "Further investment in crime prevention
Our objective is to invest in activities and initiatives that prevent crime from happening in the first place to reduce overall crime and keep our
communities safe.
We Will…
Improve the effective allocation of planned police resources by monitoring All Crime Harm (crime severity) scores and ensuring Essex Police and partners bring down the level of harm in our communities.
Make clear how the safety and security of new roads and developments can be improved."
So Roger is waiting for your feedback on these objectives...
The Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) responsible for Essex
PCCs are a worthless fiction
Just wondering whether the warning letter was used by police because it was a company vehicle as opposed to a privately registered vehicle
The police get nowhere near this level of complex thinking- warning letter or the even more worthless words of advice because they see it as a quick fix. You have to pursue them to make sure that it takes them more effort in the long run to do sod-all about close passing
It's clear that you have a strong opinion. It would be more credible to provide the facts, specific to Lancashire, I suppose.
It is is clear that Essex do intend to be held to account by 'monitoring All Crime Harm (crime severity) scores and ensuring Essex Police and partners bring down the level of harm in our communities.'
Clearly the Police Service is County based (+Met,GMP) so that service will vary according to local priorities at least. The PCC is supposed to give focus that Councils have not done previously..
#VisionZero no road deaths is a crude beginning to confront Road Danger. So we need to educate the PCC that freedom from death is too low to aim and freedom from harassment is a minimum to deliver Active Travel.
In Lancashire and the whole United Kingdom..
" It would be more credible to provide the facts, specific to Lancashire, I suppose."
It is hard to believe you have made 186 posts on road.cc and not come across a wtjs photo of the inaction of lancs !!
nmotd744
You are correct, many posts about the woefully inaction of Lancashire Police but no mention of Lancashire PCC that is my point. They are different.
I suspect wtjs will be referring you to their extensive posting history on the subject, pretty sure that's a few rounds of going up the complaints tree to the top and back down again.
Given "how it is" for cycling in society at large I'm not shocked that this seems to do nothing (well - it sometimes produces words...) In the UK in one sense we're very lucky. We get the police and legal system that represents us - in a general sense *. It seems in the UK we're still at a stage where road crime isn't entirely considered crime. Many people are breaking some of the laws most of the time. Or at least failing to observe the rules / principles is not considered that important until someone vandalises your car or kills your children.
* I appreciate this isn't so true if you're in a minority group or even female. Just contrasting with states where much of the activity of the police is in harassing the population into compliance with a suite of unpopular rules or "private enterprise" for their own benefit.
Pages