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news
Near Miss of the Day 848: An overtake worthy of the 'must get in front' title
Think of how much time today's Near Miss of the Day driver saved getting in front of this cyclist...
It comes from regular Near Miss contributor Richard from Gloucestershire who notes the similarities between today's and a previous of his submissions (NMotD 674) which attracted the interesting response from the county's police who concluded "the driver is going to have to inconvenience someone".
> Near Miss of the Day 847: Careless caravan close call causes cyclists concern
Anyway, today's was taken more seriously by the authorities...
"After I sent in the footage the PC contacted me by phone and told me that a request for the name of the driver had been sent and that they could either send out an official warning letter or a notice of prosecution once the driver had been identified," Richard told us.
"I was assured that if I opted for warning letter that a record would be kept and that this option would not be available if the driver had a previous report of poor driving. After discussing the options I opted for the warning letter. There was some delay due to the Christmas break and I was recently informed that the driver had been identified and a letter had been sent.
"I know some readers will disagree with my choice but I had to balance the fact that courts are very busy at the moment, the possible inconvenience to me and the possibility, in view of the previous no futher action for a similar incident, of the driver getting off scot-free if they went to court.
"I hope that the warning letter will make this driver more careful around cyclists in the future. Finally, this was my last submission using Gloucestershire Constabulary's old reporting system. They now use Operation Snap so it will be interesting to see what difference that will make."
> 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.
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17 comments
As I understand it a warning letter stays on Police records permanently. A criminal record lasts for 7 years. (a lawyer can probably put me right on that). Also most close passes are probably due to driver ignorance rather than intent, so really you want to correct their behaviour without punishing them and a warning letter does that so long as their insurers don't get to hear about it. Does anyone know if the insurance companies follow "Near Miss of the Day"?
I'm not sure I would have gone up the side of that car, after the driver had pulled a manoeuvre like that...
It's an Audi - "they all do that, sir", and so a warning letter will probably have little effect. Sorry, but I would have sought a NIP.
The fact that the Courts are busy would have had no effect on my thinking.
Another reason for opting for a warning letter is that it is a lot less work for the police so maybe they will be more likely to offer that option in future rather than the no further action I got from NMOTD 674 in almost identical circumstances in the same location.
I'm sure they have plenty of other things to be getting on with. At least 3 cyclists have been in collisions with cars in the Gloucestershire area recently.
Shouldn't be overtaking anyhow - HC 153
Not sure if there is a solution to the obvious nutters but for the incompetent, if I have enough speed, I will go through the calming on the right, then they don't get a chance to try this.
Not a lot you can do about the idiots who will overtake at 40+ to get to the queue first.
An extract from my report to the police :
"Intially the driver left me plenty of room although I was a little surprised as the highway code advises against overtaking at traffic calming and approaching a roundabout."
I always try to quote the HC in my reports as you never know what knowledge or training the officer reading the report has. Sadly I have encountered some drivers so criminally incompetent that I have run out of characters before finishing the report.
Same here. Mind you Inspector Kevin said he did 4 pages of A4 on one offence !
There's something I don't miss from the morning commute - an Audi A3 overtaking me within spitting distance of a junction, hard on the brakes as it goes past, stealing all of my stopping distance in the process. Used to happen every day, without fail.
There is a car coming head-on, the car ahead has stopped, no room to complete a safe overtake and the driver is on the brakes before even being ahead of you and then they run you to the kerb. Clearly assault.
Highly dangerous on several levels. He deserves to be dragged out of his car for an attitude adjustment (by the authorities, of course).
Remember, it's OK to strangle someone and destroy their vehicle if you claim they tried to punch you through a window.
Depending on what bike I had, I would have been tempted to go into the back of him
And scuff his rear bumper? That there's fightin' talk!
This was pretty enraging close pass, as it 100% obvious for the driver that he wouldn't gain anything.
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You assume a degree of awareness on the driver's part, Cyclisto - whilst their behaviour surely suggests complete lack of same.
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I don't think I'd choose to get alongside or in front of that tw@.
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Deffo infront, even if I had to stand at right angles to the kerb. Then move to head of queue, and wait ... and wait ... and wait ... and ....... finally, when completely safet to do so, move off.
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No surprises that it's an Audi A3, it had to be that or a BMW 1 series.
I had similar last week, I had indicated to turn right as I approached a T junction. As I moved out towards the edge of the white line, an SUV flew past me then pulled sharply in, he had only just pulled out from an estate not 100 yards down the road and had to wait as I was riding past the estate as he drove to the junction. . I remonstrated with him and informed him that his standard of driving was very poor. He became infuriated that I had questioned his driving and proceeded to shout and swear at me, blaming me for having the temerity to be on a bike. He was still shouting out of the window as he drove off, very erratically. Complete knob.