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news
Near Miss of the Day 588: Aggressive driver tails cyclists through village, makes dangerous overtakes ... and gets offered place on awareness course by police
It’s less a single Near Miss of the Day today but rather a catalogue of aggressive driving as a motorist harassed members of a cycling club out for a ride in Derbyshire – and then, when overtaking them put oncoming motorists at risk due to attempting to pass the riders when it was not safe to do so. Despite that, however, all he received from police was an invitation to attend an awareness course.
The incident happened in the village of Linton in Derbyshire, about 5km south of Burton-on-Trent, with the driver initially coming up behind the cyclists on the High Street – where, even if they had been riding in single file, there would not have been enough space to pass them safely – and eventually overtaking them on Hillside Road.
Phil, who has now posted footage of the incident to YouTube – he did not share it at the time, due to police investigating what happened – told road.cc: “I am part of Lichfield City Cycling Club and last year we were subjected to a prolonged and dangerous road rage attack that put our lives and two oncoming motorists in danger.
“I had a front a rear camera fitted which showed the whole incident, which I reported to Derbyshire Police, who took it and originally said they were looking at dangerous driving.
“The police described the footage as ‘I shouldn’t need statements from the other riders as the footage is good and shows the offences in their entirety’.
“I gave them the names of the other riders and the registration of the two oncoming cars that had to emergency stop to avoid head on collisions.”
Here’s Phil’s description of how the events he captured on video unfolded.
We are travelling as a group through the village of Linton
The red car pulls out from a side road 5 seconds in (they had not even been caught behind us for long)
He catches us up then tries to force his way by (despite parked cars on both sides of the narrow lane) – see how close he is to my rear wheel at 33 seconds
We come to a T junction and turn right at 53 seconds
He immediately pulls out onto the opposite side of the road with his window down to shout abuse.
Video then swaps to front view starting from about the same point as above – you can hear his horn and see the road in front where he tried to force his way past (with the parked cars on both sides). Note front video is quieter
We reach the T junction at 1.56 where he pulls out and yells
At 2.06 he causes the first oncoming car the brake and stop and then swerved into the line of us to avoid the head on
He pulls out again and causes a second car to emergency stop at 2.17. Look at the expressions on the walkers’ faces on the other side of the road.
However, he told us: “Despite this and the existing case law they have now simply offered the driver an awareness course – no points and no fine.
“I complained and have the following statements from their professional standards team:
In your case, witnesses were not contacted due to the footage being very good anyway and the incident being relatively minor in nature.
The driver was being a nuisance.
But as Phil said to us: “This was a prolonged and deliberate road rage attack, not a driver being a nuisance. I have lost my faith in Derbyshire Police over this.
“I had to chase to get an update and it also turns out they don’t treat us as victims unless we were physically harmed (and they don’t update witnesses).
“I am so frustrated with Derbyshire Police over this,” Phil added. “Their response above actually makes me feel worse.”
> 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
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
Latest Comments
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And a Happy Christmas to you, road.cc staff!
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The odds of not being able to find a single pedestrian - just one, note, "any pedestrian" - in an area containing more than about ten of them who...
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Thanks for using my picture of chocolate in your opening picture. The original can be found here, chocolate! | LongitudeLatitude | Flickr.
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Fair comments. I'll put my hands up and say I got the wrong end of the stick with this one. ¡Feliz navidad! Here's a pic for the season of goodwill.
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Because people aren't buying those cars. They are effecively renting them on PCPs or via companies. The bike market doesn't work like that.
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49 comments
If those cyclists had been travelling alone in their cars, this driver would not have attempted to overtake 8 cars through a village. But as with so many drivers, they feel their entitlement to the roads is so much greater than cyclists that they are almost compelled to risk killing them in order to get in front. This view is supported whenever the police do nothing. There needs to be a campaign by British Cycling, Cycling UK etc. to get the law changed so that police are legally required to respond and act appropriately to submitted evidence of dangerous driving. This will do more for cycling safety than shoving cyclists onto shared paths.
Ah yes, Derbyshire Police. The constabulary that filmed people in pairs rambling in the Curbar Edge area of the Peak District during the first coronavirus lockdown. Their Officers said travelling to remote areas for exercise did not count as "essential travel".
'Essential travel' was never a legal test and didn't even feature in written government guidance.
So, they had time and resources to harass walkers with expensive equipment for a crime that did not exist, but when it comes to dealing with real crime we find that they are rather work-shy.
According to Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS), "the force only records 65.3 percent of crimes reported to it, meaning it fails to record an estimated 30,000 crimes each year. Violent crime is of particular concern, with almost half of all reported incidents going unrecorded..." HM Inspector Zoë Billingham of HMICFRS said, “I am deeply troubled and disappointed that Derbyshire Constabulary is failing to put over a third of crimes reported to it on the record".
MF11 XDE is a VW Golf TDi.
Driven on this occasion by someone with 'road ownership issues'.
plenty of room tp pass the cyclists, except all the space is occupied by stored private property.
Obviuously there is no consideration in his tiny mind that the parked cars are casuing him a delay, it's all the fault of the cyclists, just going about their business
Phil,
I would contact your Police Comissioner who I believe is Angelique Foster for your neck of woods who should take this forward and investigate on your behalf.
Very difficult for an individual to get anything done. Wouldn't it be so much better if road.cc contacted the police and pcc for comments on our behalf.
Wouldn't it be so much better if road.cc contacted the police and pcc for comments on our behalf
I can see why they don't! PCCs are just a bunch of uninterested office workers after a quiet life and won't reply; the police are professional non-repliers, so the site would have to keep a list of unanswered NMoTDs and incur the effort of continually chasing them up in the face of 'we're so busy', 'the case is under consideration' etc. etc. The reason we're up to NMoTD 600-odd, is that driver behaviour hasn't changed as there's no deterrent when forces (Lancashire definitely, and recent topics indicate that Gloucestershire is equally idle) claim that there's no such offence as close-passing- a claim belied by the activities of Sheffield NW NPT and Inspector Kevin Smith
Yes a cycling review website should get involved in 50 legal court cases per year! and then they should head to Palestine and get all the relocated cyclists back their homes. I also 'can' see twhy they dont
While they're doing that, can they at least do something to return Wagon Wheels to their original size?
can they at least do something to return Wagon Wheels to their original size?
Crikey! Have they shrunk them? I will boycott immediately, although the effect will be minimal as I don't think I've eaten one for 50 years and didn't know they still existed. I have now looked them up and see they come in smaller pairs in a rectangular package. I did genuinely boycott Marathon when they changed the name to the stupid present name- presumably the company was taken over by Mega-Corp Confectionery
Marathons were renamed Snickers just to bring them in line with the rest of the world - Mars were already an international brand and they weren't taken over. It's not as bad as Jif rebranding to Cif, though. I've been "boycotting" Snickers/Marathons as I found that Aldi Racers are virtually identical (their blatant rip-offs of other brands often amuses me).
Found a decent scientific analysis of Wagon Wheel shrinkage: https://theunaustralian.net/2019/05/30/shrinking-wagon-wheels-prove-the-universe-is-contracting-say-physicists/
I don't like that cyclists are only treated as witnesses. An analogy, when I was 12, or maybe 13, I was walking through Cliffe Castle Park, in Keighley, when a man started masturbating a few metres away from me. Obviously I legged it and found his behaviour offensive etc. Now following the police logic for close passes I was only a witness to bad behaviour. I think we all know that when something is aimed at you and effects you directly you are a victim of that thing, no mater what the police say. Let's all write to our MPs, police and crime commissioners, mayors and let them know that this is not a victimless crime.
I wish you had not used the terms "masturbating" and "something is aimed at you" in the same posting. I now feel that I am also a victim of this historic crime.
WTF?! What hope is there when the police, whose wages we pay to keep us safe and uphold law and order, plainly ignore their duty and side with the aggressor.
Absolutely no hope. Could be worse, you could be dealing with Lancashire plod, whose officers are I'm sure all trained by Billy Smart.
The problems could have been easily avoided had not various individuals stored their personal possessions on public assets.
Cyclists were traveling at about the max speed for the conditions and hazards.
Very poor police response.
The speed limit along that road needs to be reduced to 20mph. I see loads of 20 is plenty stickers in villages like this one so support for such a plan shouldn't be an issue.
Either that or ask residents not to park their cars on the road 😉
Disgusting. Should be sent to Derby PCC and ask how gratuitous the lawbreaking has to be before Derby rozzers take any action.
Should be sent to Derby PCC
The point of making the PCCs the second line in complaints about the police (the first being themselves) is that they don't know anything about actual policing, aren't interested and make a point of avoiding 'individual cases'; the PCC is invariably useless, as it is intended to be.
Correct, if my memory serves me well our previous PCC at Lancashire, Clive Grunshaw, used to be a milkman.
Yes, but this is one of the things they are allegedly there for.
Ask them to explain how this a 'nuisance'.
The numbering is wrong again!
688
Stopped reading at this point.
Stopped reading at this point
The correct method is to stop reading at the first 'G'
Stopped reading at this point.
So you want to be more like Singapore, famous for it's overbearing government? Let's add some facts about Singapore then: the new system permits groups of 10 cyclists (there's only 9 in this video so they're fine). Bikes are not confiscated and sold for group riding - you made that up. Car prices are tripled by tax to discourage ownership. Annual car tax is also twice that of the UK. You're then taxed at peak hours for driving in the city centre. Oh, and they have an excellent public transport system. Actually, this all sounds pretty good 😀
And if you'd read my comment you'll see I said "like Singapore" then added a dose of reality to point out how ridiculously lopsided and extremist your suggestion is.
So Nigel for each instance that you were out on your bike we need evidence that you were out for a worthwhile purpose. Otherwise we are all going to assume that you are out solely for the purpose of holding other road users up on your leisure journey.
And remember your testimony is not enough. You need corroborating evidence from multiple other sources who don't have a vested interest in you, so no asking your mum
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