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news
nmotd - screenshot via CykelTony on YouTubeNear Miss of the Day 910: Cyclist "let down" by police response to shocking close pass by speeding driver
A cyclist who was on the receiving end of a shocking close pass from a speeding driver with a traffic island approaching that left him "shaken" has criticised police for offering the offending driver the choice of points or a fine as punishment.
road.cc reader Tony, who goes by the name CykelTony on YouTube, was cycling along a slight downhill on the A128 in Brentwood, Essex back in April. The downhill meant he was doing around 25-30mph when the incident occurred.
"It's a fast road with a 50mph limit", Tony told road.cc.
"I was approaching a traffic island by the entrance to a country club when I was shockingly passed at high speed by this driver, coming incredibly close to my right-hand side and cutting back in front sharply to make the traffic island. I was shocked at the recklessness, and shouted at the driver.
"It's one of the few incidents that truly left me shaken, I found myself having to stop a couple of times afterwards to collect myself and calm down, as it kept replaying in my mind.
"I reported it to Essex Police as soon as I got home. After chasing for the result, they stated the driver will be offered the choice of a driving course or points and fine.
"I felt let down by this and did write to them to complain about the outcome, but to date have not received a response."
road.cc has contacted Essex Police for comment.
> 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
Jack has been writing about cycling and multisport for over a decade, arriving at road.cc via 220 Triathlon Magazine in 2017. He worked across all areas of the website including tech, news and video, and also contributed to eBikeTips before being named Editor of road.cc in 2021 (much to his surprise). Jack has been hooked on cycling since his student days, and currently has a Trek 1.2 for winter riding, a beloved Bickerton folding bike for getting around town and an extra beloved custom Ridley Helium SLX for fantasising about going fast in his stable. Jack has never won a bike race, but does have a master's degree in print journalism and two Guinness World Records for pogo sticking (it's a long story).
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16 comments
"I have a mercedes, I can do what ever I want.." bmw-mercedes-audi psychopaths are all around us.
bmw-mercedes-audi psychopaths are all around us
It might have been me writing- except Any GTI and Range Rover were missed out
And The Jag, especially the utterly ridiculous SUV ones...
And when this new 'dangerous cycling' offence comes into law, we can all guess how the police will treat any report of cyclists 'close passing' pedestrians 'at speed'..it will be in the local paper 'police asking for dashcam evidence' and a relentless pursuance of the cyclist so they can prosecute and justify the effort spent on adding this law.
Look how every cyclist who rides their bike in a no-cycling pedestrianised area is always fined when stopped, there's no 2wk limit and requirement to provide 2 minutes of video either side of the alleged offence, no judgement made by police 'well they weren't actually cycling', no warning letters, etc.
I judged that to be a deliberate high speed close pass. The road was clear for the driver to follow the Renault(?), instead the driver held back until the cyclist was close to the island, then accelerated hard.
At least they did something. I think points and a fine or a course is a reasonable outcome for passes like this.
Can we not change the "or" for "and"? In most walks of life if you demonstrate an inability to follow the conditions of licensing for an activity you would face sanction and be ordered to undertake retraining, I'm not quite sure why drivers are permitted an either/or approach.
It's because the police are under-funded. It's easier for them to pass the driver off to a third party course provider. I agree that both would be ideal, but so often there's no sanction whatsoever.
I agree - if the driver takes the course option and is caught repeating this behaviour within a few years he will get points and a fine rather than the option to retake the course.
Not really sure what the Police did wrong here.
After chasing for the result, they stated the driver will be offered the choice of a driving course or points and fine
But they could be lying, and you need to look at what they have written very carefully- try to avoid phone conversation with the police, as you have no record- I never give them a number, as it's an invitation to several police dodges. I have showed this one umpteen times before
https://upride.cc/incident/4148vz_travellerschoicecoach_closepass/
This was before they came up with the Other, Other Dodge where they never respond to anything ever, and they issued a carefully worded deception letter where they said that police action could include followed by a number of the usual possibilities. The logic is that the outcome could be no action at all, and subsequent event showed that 'no action' is what they actually did. Lying and deception by the police are common
"Will be" is a helpful distraction response to mask the fact time has passed and they actually haven't done anything.
That was terrible driving. The person in the Renault showed how it should be done and then the person in the white car showed how it shouldn't. It's of note too that the BMW driver afterwards stayed behind. At least the police have taken some action.
Shocking pass. Error in first paragraph though, the driver wasn't offered a choice between points or a fine (I don't think they're allowed to do that), they were offered the choice of a driving course or points and a fine.
I live in Thurrock Essex and that is classed as a normal pass for me, 98000 motorists were caught speeding in Essex 2023
that is classed as a normal pass for me
And so it is in Lancashire. The video above shows the typical 'wide angle' view from a lower viewpoint, which makes everything look closer and faster and produces a distorted view of the overtaking vehicle. My view below is from a video with a smaller field of view which looks more like the cyclists eyes view from a headcam, and it's on a standard suburban road with lanes not narrower than the road shown in the video above. This Volvo YX07 VFF remains completely in the left lane throughout (this is standard Lancashire driving: if there's oncoming traffic, overtake anyway). This is regarded by Lancashire Constabulary as normal good driving, because he didn't hit me- the b******s
The choice of a course shouldn't be an option for wilful acts that put people's lives at risk.