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NMotD 723 (screenshot via YouTube)Near Miss of the Day 723: Driver overtakes family of cyclists and almost collides with car pulling out of junction
If you’re a ‘must get in front’ driver, sometimes it pays to have some local knowledge. Today’s Near Miss, filmed in Altrincham earlier this week, certainly isn’t the kind of close pass normally featured in this series. In fact, the motorist gives the riders plenty of room as they overtake. However, in attempting to pass two separate groups of cyclists at once, one of which appears to be a family, the motorist failed to take account of the possibility of an unwitting driver emerging from the upcoming side road, nearly causing a collision but for some timely braking.
To cap it all off, the whole palaver was completely unnecessary – both sets of cyclists were just about to turn left onto National Cycle Network Route 62, the Trans-Pennine Trail.
The clip was sent into us by road.cc reader Bob, who was riding in the second group.
“We don’t know the family cycling in front of us, but there is some distance between us,” Bob said. “As most car drivers are aware, the majority of the cyclists down that road are turning left so many just wait instead of overtaking.
“In this case the car decides to overtake us and the family in front, but a car turned out of the side road. Fortunately, they saw the danger and stopped.”
Bob told us that he hasn’t reported the incident to Greater Manchester Police, who are yet to respond to the last video he sent them of a dangerous overtake.
> 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
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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29 comments
Echoing other comments, I too was ready to give the driver the benefit of the doubt, until they made their right turn and in doing so automatically lost any credibility they had.
A couple of points raised here that I don't agree with...
I personally saw no issue at all with the speed the overtaking vehicle was travelling, and would struggle to see how that could be classed as too fast.
I also think it a bit rich to expect drivers to be fully up to speed with local cycle networks and cycling habits... to expect motorists to hold back on the basis that a cyclist(s) might be turning off in the near future does smack a little of entitlement to me.
Except that the Highway Code specifically states DO NOT overtake when "approaching or at a road junction on either side of the road"
Even if the highway code didn't say not to overtake approaching a junction, you can clearly see a vehicle at the junction. That vehicle may, and should check both ways but are expecting traffic to be coming from their right. That overtake is inviting a head on crash and/or swerve into the cyclists.
Drivers like that are why I bought a dashcam. The worrying thing is they invariably don't think they're in the wrong. Had someone try and claim we were in the wrong after they pulled out from our left at a roundabout. We were not even approaching the roundabout, we were so far into the roundabout they hit the rear quarter.
A large dose of MGIF but I think also people just don't think ahead. Just as this driver seems to overtake and then turn off, on my first day back in the office for some time a pleasant cycle back from the station was ruined by a stupid overtake by a van a few hundred yards from home. It turned out it was one of my neighbours, so utterly pointless. Disappointing given he is a motorcyclist, and will be interesting next time I see him in the street. I was fuming so just put the bike away while he was parking up, but I might have called him a few choice names which he heard for sure.
LMFTFY - The driver is overtaking, so the car is on the correct (opposite) side of the road.
The Mini driver didn't help either, by not looking in both directions.
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Crap driving, obvs.
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But ..... road should have double white lines so that overtaking is not allowed at that point.
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So all roads then on that basis.
Well, yes. I've never quite understood why we have double white lines and then don't use them on every blind bend and blind hill. By my reckoning, the number of motorists who'll overtake me on a blind bend, when I'm cycling on a national speed limit road, probably out-numbers the drivers who'll wait a few seconds by about 2:1. That said, I'm not sure the ratio on solid whites (when travelling at more than 10 mph) is any better.
I'm not sure the ratio on solid whites (when travelling at more than 10 mph) is any better
Lancashire Constabulary solved this problem years ago with a declaration that No cyclist is ever travelling at more than 9.9 mph, so they do nothing about any of these
Cost, and lack of space in carriageway in many cases. Drivers are already told not to overtake in these circumstances, so it should not be necessary to spend the massive amounts of money this would take.
Agree - waste of money. Mind you that doesn't stop us when it comes to parking, where the rules ("park anywhere and everywhere except where specifically forbidden") lead to tons of yellow paint being required. Needlessly, compared to other countries where this rule is the other way round ("may only park where specifically permitted"). Oh, wait, we don't really care about that? As you were.
I would note that while the highway code says do not overtake at junctions, case law I have heard of is fairly clear:
The primary fault is with the person pulling out not the person overtaking. You have to yield to all traffic on the road you are entering, including vehicles overtaking.
Though of course they shouldn't have been overtaking before turning...
(There are several places where the HW code has multiple rules that may appear to make blame contradictory; This is because it is aimed at safety - Forbidding overtaking AND pulling out means 2 people have to both break the rules for a collision to occur, but generally (in absence of other issues, e.g. significant speeding) it is the emerging vehicle who is found at fault in this case. To provide another example, car dooring cyclists - just because the HW code says you should ride a doors width from parked cars doesn't give you any blame if a driver opens a door into you)
Is it actually case law, or just individual judgements from the lower courts? Unless it's been to High Court (or above) then any decisions aren't binding on future cases, although they may be used as 'persuasive authority'.
If they had been cycling in a tight group of 2x the overtake would have been over before the junction. I think both sides can learn from this. The overtake was poorly judged but the guidance on cycling formation is there to help us too. You can't change others' behaviour but you can change yours. If wearing a camera is important then maybe educating your fellow cyclists should be prioritised too?
I think you missed the bit that says "we don't know the family cycling in front of us".
In what way were the "fellow cyclists" riding dangerously, inconsiderately or in conflict with the HWC?
If the answer to that question is "they weren't" in what way would you "educate" your "fellow cyclists"?
Bonus question - does the camera carrier have any responsibility to do so?
I cant see families out for a bit of a cycle wanting to arrrange themselves in a tightly regulated peloton.
You were saying?
So hang on, he managed to go on the other side of the road and not nearly kill someone - ok point for that...but is going TOO fast, almost takes out the car at the junction and then turns right anyway - jesus what is it with the MGIF mentality? If he would smashed into that car whats to say his car wouldnt have bounced onto the other side of the road and taken out a few cyclists as well as seriously hurting the car driver? Christs balls its only another 30 seconds.
Similar incident happened to me once, although not on a bike - in a car. The driver pulling out of the side road had to take evasive action to avoid a collision. A couple of us took the license plate and reported it to police.
The overtaking driver got taken to court. I was called in as a witness. Sat in the waiting room for an hour, and was never called. Apparently the driver peaded guilty at the last moment. There were a few difference in my situation though - in my case the guy was speeding and the driver pulling in came from the other side of the road and would have been unsighted by my car.
I was prepared to give the driver the benefit of the doubt, that maybe they didn't realise the side road was there. Then they turned onto it.
The turning would have been sign posted in order to avoid this situation. I have seen first a few close calls like this with cars overtaking me whilst approaching a junction.
At least the driver moved completely into the opposite part of the road !
Although you should not overtake near a junction, plenty of times you have to overtake parked vehicles adjacent to the junction, so the person at the give way needs to ensure it is safe to pull out.
There are several places,near me, where this is common, and is caused by folks completely ignoring the parts of the HWC relating to not parking near junctions.(and folks not giving way when the parked cars are on their side of the road) I'm surprised that there aren't collisions on a regular basis
Poor overtake with total MGIF mentality, but then turns off anyway so a waste of time.
The Mini pulling out however, if there is a 'Give way' then they should give way to ALL traffic and so should nor be pulling out until that vehicle has cleared the entrance.
Yes, while the overtake gave plenty of room you should not overtake past a junction. So poor judgement there. However the emerging driver broke the MUST NOT rule 172 to give way to traffic on the main road, so committed an actual offence.
Not excusing it, but I'd wager that most of the time a motorist or cyclist does not look left before turning left. That's one of the dangers of pavement cycling on the wrong side of the road.