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news
Near Miss of the Day 760: “Idiot lorry driver” nearly takes out five cyclists
An “idiot lorry driver” almost knocked five cyclists from their bikes in our latest Near Miss of the Day video.
It was filmed at Devoran, Truro in Cornwall by road.cc reader Wayne, who told us: “The lorry driver decided to overtake approaching road furniture then cuts in and is within 50 millimetres of the lead cyclist,” he told us.
“This has been reported to the police and the haulage company pending response, I am hoping that the driver is reprimanded because this is not to be tolerated.”
> 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.
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20 comments
If you were in a car going at the same speed (I suspect almost 30mph) there would be no worry, perhaps a few drivers, wondering why. They wouldn't overtake, just accept the slight delay - about an extra minute.
Perhaps that section of road should have its speed limit reduced to 40.
tbh, there's no way I'd be riding roads like that one.. suicidal.
Funny thing is, if you actually live in Cornwall, those are the roads you have to ride. Because they're in Cornwall. Stop me if I'm getting too technical.
I watched this, wincing. I've ridden this road for decades, though I invariably try to avoid this specific section. The only alternative is a hilly detour through a couple of villages that adds some distance and a fair amount more altitude.
A couple of hundred metres beyond this incident is a roundabout at which point the main road continues with two lanes and dual carriageway. Presumably the driver knew this.
Whenever I've found myself riding here, even though it's flat and only a mile or so long, and I'm usually going flat out on purpose so at least 20mph for my little spindles, I invariably experience angry close passes. Like you lot - I've had a lifetime of this stuff, everywhere.
I've heard plenty of local people who commute in cars between Falmouth and Truro complaining about cyclists here and commiserating with each other, in their shared experience of being incovenienced daily. I think it's created a micro-culture where people in vehicles arrive at this road prepped for intolerance and aggression. Obviously those micro-cultures are everywhere. It's pretty terrifying.
Wasnt every pass in that clip pretty bad?
Not that it at all justifies the action but that road would be added to my "only in an emergency" list if I lived near it.
Some roads are just too risky to cycle on.
That car behind the lorry, driving at a less than a 0.5 second following distance into a cloud of dust and missing the traffic island seemingly by inches...I've always been more worried that I'll check out not from a close pass, terrifying as they can be, but from some weapon like that taking a stupid risk, clipping another car or road furniture and rebounding across the road over me.
No roads are too risky to be ridden on; some drivers are not competent to deal with some road situations; ban them, don't blame the road.
You wouldnt get me riding on that road even if you paid me, the volume of traffic,the speed, that it's the only main route connecting major places which increases the mix types of traffic, plus the topology of the route & it must be nearly a mile of solid white lines there.
No I dont blame the road,but I'd rue the day I was ever forced to ride anything like it.
I'm with you on that one, unfortunately in a growing number of cases we are living in a world where people need to be spoon fed information all the time because they are unwilling or unable to think clearly for themselves.
The number of times roads are labelled as bad or dangerous just because drivers can't pay attention to the road markings and signs.
Typical example where I grew up there was a particular right angled corner on an NSL road where there have been pretty regular incidents of drivers binning it into a field. My earliest memory of the corner had the black and white chevron signs and SLOW written on the road. Then the council had to add a warning sign about 100m further back, then they added the non-slip/rough surface to the road, then came the illuminated chevron signs which flashed when a car approached, then they added another warning sign about 200m back from the junction and a 50mph limit..... It won't be long til it gets reduced to a 40mph speed limit.
Everyone say's it's a bad section of road but in reality its just idiots who's ambition outweighs their ability to drive.
I've not looked yet but you can guarantee on the Facebook comment section for this clip it will be all about the fact that the cyclists are dressed in black and that they are riding as a group, that the cyclists shouldn't be riding on an NSL road etc etc etc.
It's going to make for depressing reading on social media.
I used to commute on this road. It is completely awful. It is also the only reasonable route between two major towns. Every on or off road alternative to this stretch of road adds multiple kilometers and multiple serious hills.
The location is: 50.21204575839759, -5.100194051067108
I set off towards Falmouth from Truro one day last year. After less than two miles I decided to find an alternative route on minor roads. It is steep, windy so lots of solid centre lines and suffers from heavy traffic. I felt that I was causing unnecessary inconvenience to large numbers of cars and vans so bailed out. It really needs segregated cycle lanes all along the route.
You can follow minor roads and paths for almost the whole journey (and I did when commuting) other than this stretch without making the journey massively longer, avoiding this section though adds about half an hour of just as congested, much narrower lanes to the 45 minute commute.
It's actually quite sad that you seem to think that your journey is less important than theirs.
My cycle commute is to deliver battle-winning advantages to the British Armed Forces.
I'm pretty sure that is more important than some Gammon getting a bit of decking installed.
You took the words right out of my mouth.
.
For me - not even 'in an emergency'.
.
That driver needs to be taken off the roads before someone gets killed
Horrific. Started out a close pass, then got worse. The passes from the cars were awful too.
Sure on the numbers in front?
Awful overtake and the dust kicked up wouldn't have been helpful either.
With it looking like a Dutch company and probably foreign based driver, good luck with that. It does seem that Dutch Drivers seem worse. Although is having a driver on the left hand side of the cab "safer" when they pass cyclists then on the right,
In the first few seconds, it was double white lines, yet despite their speed (25?) the group was overtaken.
Is there a reason the group were not doubling up on this bit to prevent this? Would have slowed the traffic for the next bit to the pinch point.