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Near Miss of the Day 834: Punishment pass on cyclist lands driver in courtNear Miss of the Day 834

Near Miss of the Day 834: Punishment pass on cyclist lands driver in court

The defence solicitor unsuccessfully argued, as an experienced rider, the cyclist shouldn't have been on the road during rush hour ...
by Dan Alexander
Sat, Nov 12, 2022 16:47
35

Today's Near Miss of the Day submission comes from across the Irish Sea and landed the motorist a €300 fine and a day in court for careless driving.

Righttobikeit recalls the van driver had been using his horn to try to pressure the driver of the black car, which waited for an appropriate gap in oncoming traffic, to pass before pushing through "aggressively" even with oncoming traffic.

> Near Miss of the Day 833: Oncoming driver forces cyclist to swerve

Moments later when confronted the driver denied ever being on the road, a defence which did not stand up in court...

"Mitigating, his solicitor tried to suggest that I was an experienced cyclist and shouldn't be on that road during rush hour. Judge had none of it," Righttobikeit explained.

> 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

Near Miss of the Day
NMotD
NMotD Ireland
Dan Alexander

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.

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35 comments

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KDee replied to jaymack | 2 years ago
5 likes

Maybe it's best that when in court for cases like this, all drivers should represent themselves. What could possibly go wrong? Although I'm sure Martin73 will utilise his superior knowledge of road craft to knock any judge or jury into shape...and give them a jolly good tongue lashing whilst he's about it.  

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jaymack replied to KDee | 2 years ago
2 likes

...but think of the income you'd be denying the lawyers.

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eburtthebike replied to KDee | 2 years ago
3 likes
KDee wrote:

Maybe it's best that when in court for cases like this, all drivers should represent themselves.

As the old saying goes "Someone who represents themself has a fool for a client."  Despite the fact he had a solicitor, it didn't stop him being a fool.

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diggler replied to eburtthebike | 2 years ago
0 likes

That is BS.  I represented myself in court and got off a $469 fine.  A lawyer would have cost more.

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Xenophon2 replied to eburtthebike | 2 years ago
3 likes

As said below, 95% of the time this is the sollicitor following an express instruction from his client, against the better judgment of the former.

If a client puts forward a strategy and you advise them that it is your professional opinion that following that track will result in disaster but they are absolutely adamant then the only options open are to either document that you will follow their cue against your better judgment and bill them for the cringe moment in court or to tell them that you will not represent them if they wish to pursue that strategy.  Walking away is not always a realistic option either.

At the end of the day, it's their money and they do what they do at their peril.  It's not the sollicitor who risks his license or freedom.

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