Near Miss of the Day 785: “Gobsmackingly brutal” close pass forces driver to apologise

The perpetrator of today’s shockingly close call, who attempted to squeeze between a cyclist and a pedestrian refuge with only millimetres to spare, stopped their car as soon as possible in the wake of the wince-inducing near miss.

But unlike the squirrel-bothering driver featured on Sunday’s now infamous Near Miss of the Day 783, who jumped from his vehicle after almost clipping a cyclist to tell him in no uncertain terms that he shouldn’t be effin’ swearing around his daughter, today’s motorist pulled over straight away… to apologise, actually.

The road.cc reader who sent us this clip, Alun, said the incident happened on what is now his “most unfavourite road”, while he was clipping along at 20mph.

As you can see from the video, the driver of the Renault appears as if he is about to overtake Alun, with the motorist in the white Nissan preparing to follow him. However, the Renault driver instead proceeds to turn right, forcing the driver in the Nissan to pull back in behind the cyclist.

But instead of waiting behind Alun, who had drifted out as he approached the pedestrian refuge, the motorist continues on, very narrowly missing him as they both pass the crossing (you can see a group of cyclists on the other side of the road rubber necking at the close call).

Alun explains: “I really had to fight to keep my balance as he passed.

“To give him his due he did actually stop and apologise. He explained that he panicked when he realised that the Renault was turning instead of passing me and couldn’t grasp the fact that my life was less important than his shunting the other car or just simply braking when behind me.

“Remember I was doing around 20 and of no danger. I kept calling BS on this and feel justified as he seems to brake then swerve and accelerate. He also kept telling me he was a cyclist as well which wound me up even further.”

Alun reported the matter to the police, who allegedly told him that “due to fiscal guidelines, it will not result in a summons as I wasn’t injured”.

The police, however, have informed him that they will speak to the driver and possibly issue him with either a warning or a Fixed Penalty Notice.

“Not exactly satisfactory but it’s something,” says Alun.

> 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