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news
Near Miss of the Day 708: Driver secures £300 fine and three points for close pass
Today’s Near Miss certainly isn’t one of the worst videos we’ve been sent over the years – but it was enough to secure the driver a £323 fine and three penalty points for driving without due care and attention.
The footage, which features the second of three close passes experienced by the cyclist that day, was shot last April and shows a BMW driver edging their way past while faced with a long line of oncoming traffic, in what turned out to be an expensive overtake.
The road.cc reader who submitted the footage told us: “I had three close passes all on the same morning ride and all were submitted via the Nextbase portal to West Midlands Police.
“As is usual with WMP, there was no update on one or three, but close pass number two did result in a prosecution for driving without due care & attention.
“The driver denied it and pleaded ‘not guilty’ but was found guilty with a fine of £323 and three points on their licence.”
> 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.
After obtaining a PhD, lecturing, and hosting a history podcast at Queen’s University Belfast, Ryan joined road.cc in December 2021 and since then has kept the site’s readers and listeners informed and enthralled (well at least occasionally) on news, the live blog, and the road.cc Podcast. After boarding a wrong bus at the world championships and ruining a good pair of jeans at the cyclocross, he now serves as road.cc’s senior news writer. Before his foray into cycling journalism, he wallowed in the equally pitiless world of academia, where he wrote a book about Victorian politics and droned on about cycling and bikes to classes of bored students (while taking every chance he could get to talk about cycling in print or on the radio). He can be found riding his bike very slowly around the narrow, scenic country lanes of Co. Down.
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15 comments
I think that a compulsory part of the test should be virtual/VR. Covering all sorts of hazards, including cyclists, children running across the road, someone with a buggy waiting to cross a side road whilst you are turning etc.
Then, following the test, the VR re-runs with you in each of the hazard roles so you experience what it is like to be the recipient of your own driving.
It won't do much for the hard-core murderous back-end on our roads but I do think it could be a genuine wake-up call for the inadvertently shitty motorists.
Great idea! Haven't we been doing this for some time already though?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_DcnkOeslA
Some people will just take the chance that on the day the witness won't turn up in court and no further action will be taken.
Yes, I've had two switch to guilty pleas simply because I showed up - something which, unless a convincing mitigating explanation can be presented, ought surely as a minimum to incur extra financial penalties to compensate for waste of court and CPS time.
I've had two switch to guilty pleas simply because I showed up
You were lucky! In Lancashire we dream of having the opportunity to turn up in court!!
A BMW driver!!! What a shock!
Is BMW an acronym for Bloody Move Wanker?
Surprised it wasn't rejected due to the 'filter', after all 'footage upside down' was used by northhants police.
I'm presuming the driver was shown the video evidence - and still pleaded not guilty? I understand that a "it's a fair cop" plea often attracts a more lenient sentence, so let's hope this idiot got the appropriate mark-up for their stubborn arrogance.
Well done, WMP! This illustrates the difficulties experienced by those of us in areas with cyclist-hostile constabularies. Lancashire has never prosecuted anyone for close-passing or performed any 'close-passing operations', and this one received no response and (obviously) no action despite being very close, not slow and accompanied by crossing of the double white line in a dangerous position on a humped bridge. This is DU61 VHJ- Stuart and Braithwaite builders in Garstang
As per @markandcharlie (Twitter) on reporting to WMP: "the only time people who submit get feedback is if there's a court case, same as ourselves, traffic officers, hopefully that will change in time"
So no feedback doesn't mean no action, just no court case.
This is something @mark&charlie are looking at following a Twitter conversation. I did offer some time to assist with responding but apparently the matter is in hand.
And the dumb a55' pleaded not guilty, clearly demonstrating ZERO knowledge of the Highway Code. Should have had his licence confiscated.
Indeed. It's worrying that they plainly thought they'd done nothing wrong.
Just sheer arrogance and not at all surprising.
Unfortunately, I think a significant number of motorists would view that footage and say "I don't see what the problem is". The real issue is that many drivers have not cycled on a road with modern traffic...and so simply cannot comprehend why close passing someone (who clearly should not be in the road in the first place) is something worth shouting about.