Near Miss of the Day 853: Driver of lorry urging cyclists to “Please take extra care near this vehicle” fined for close pass (includes swearing)

The driver of a lorry bearing a message on the side warning cyclists to “Please take extra care near this vehicle” has been fined more than £562 for careless driving after, you guessed it, making a close pass on a cyclist.

The rider on the receiving end of the close pass in October 2022, which saw the driver cut across his path, was road.cc reader Tom, who told us:

This was my final cycle into work from my old house before moving closer into Oxford (14 miles now down to 2 miles...). This took place across the two roundabouts near the Wheatley services off the M40, coming from Thame -> heading to Oxford through Wheatley.

The first roundabout has a left turn only lane for the M40 South, a straight on lane for the A418, and a straight on lane for the M40 North/right turn into a golf club. Then at the second roundabout you have a left turn only into the services, a straight on to the A418, and a right turn only to the M40 North. Both occasions you can see I take the middle lanes to carry straight and also take up a central position.

The driver of the truck you can see (their shadow) loom behind me as I enter the first roundabout, then as I approach the second roundabout he comes alongside me, then as we both are about to enter the second roundabout he essentially sideswipes me forcing me into the left turn only lane for the services. I was very lucky that there wasn't a vehicle turning left into the services here. I'd apologise for my language during the incident but luckily the swear words all roll into one giant inaudible mess. I will apologise for the ones that come after. As you can see we both transition through the roundabouts at the same speed and once we're on the A418 there's a straight open bit of road to overtake or there's the dual carriageway A40 a bit further on.

The irony of the giant yellow 'PLEASE take care near this vehicle' sign for cyclists heading towards my face wasn't lost on me either...

I reported this once I got home and then didn't hear anything for months, until January when I got told that it would be going to court as careless driving and may need to attend. I have just had a call today letting me know the driver was in court yesterday, they got 6 points and a fine of £562 for careless driving.

> 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