Near Miss of the Day 763: "Driving isn't poor enough" according to police

UPDATE: Earlier this month, road.cc reader Richard sent us this footage of a motorist overtaking a cyclist on a tight bend, directly towards two oncoming vehicles.

According to Gloucestershire Police, however, that spot of questionable driving wasn’t enough to warrant a prosecution.

As we reported at the time, the force told Richard: “I have watched the video. The vehicle moves over for the other vehicle once the car is passed you. The driving isn't poor enough for me to prosecute them for careless driving.”

So, as Richard put it, “this is the standard of a 'careful and competent driver' in Gloucestershire”.

> Near Miss of the Day 762: The Friday fun day skateboard rider left-hook edition

As Richard was told that the driving on show wasn’t “poor enough” for the motorist to be prosecuted, we got in touch with Gloucestershire Police to clarify matters.

After a few weeks, they finally responded with the following statement from one of their investigating officers:

“As the driver continues around the bend, having passed the cyclist, the car approaching in the opposite direction means that the driver pulls towards the left.

“While the car driver could have waited until both them and the cyclist had turned the corner, in this instance the manner of driving did not appear to cause the cyclist any raised risk.”

I’m not sure Richard would agree…

> 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