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news
Near Miss of the Day 879: Driver makes very close pass on cyclist but only gets warning letter (includes swearing)
A cyclist who was about to turn left when he received a very close pass from an impatient driver who was going straight on at the junction concerned has told road.cc that he is unsure how much more it takes for a motorist to be prosecuted following such a manoeuvre after police told him that they had sent a warning letter after reviewing the footage.
The incident happened last Monday 9 October at the junction of Blagreaves Lane and Harpur Avenue in Derby.
The updated Highway Code, published in January last year, tells drivers to leave at least 1.5 metres of space when overtaking people on bikes.
But Andrew, the cyclist on the receiving end of this close pass, told us: “I’m not sure exactly how close it is, but I reckon it's only about a foot away.
“What really annoyed me was that I had clearly indicated that I was turning left and the driver couldn’t wait 2 seconds.”
In their letter to Andrew, Derbyshire Police said: “An experienced Roads Policing officer from the Derbyshire Capture team reviews all submissions and decides on one of four outcomes,” namely:
No further action
Education letter
Warning letter and
Further investigation.
In relation to the action taken in this specific case, the force said: “A warning letter is sent when there is evidence of an offence but there is no realistic prospect of a conviction or in our professional opinion, we judge that the circumstances of the incident are such that prosecution would not be proportionate.
“The letter will always include stills from the video submission to draw attention to the commission of the offence and a thorough explanation of the circumstances. There is also a warning that formal proceedings were considered.
“Advice is provided with the aim of educating the driver. A warning letter is a positive outcome and contributes to making the roads of Derbyshire safer.”
> 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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16 comments
It was a fair outcome. I don't know what the cyclist expects if he rides at 12 miles per hour. He's really pushing the patience of drivers riding so slow in the middle of the lane.
Please don't drive even another mile and hand in your driving licence!
Didn't take long did it?
PMSL.
institutionally anti-cyclist
“Advice is provided with the aim of educating the driver. A warning letter is a positive outcome and contributes to making the roads of Derbyshire safer.”
People should have understood all this by now- this is NMotD 879 and things are, at best, not improving and are probably getting worse. It ought to be obvious that the government and the police don't believe any of this 1.5m stuff and couldn't care less about non-contact close-passing. I know from personal experience that the police don't care much about when they hit you either even when there's positive evidence (driver doesn't remember the incident/ didn't notice he had hit the cyclist, only a momemtary loss of conentration), and if they hit you and knock you off the police may go along with the same excuse. If you're KSI'd they're immediately and simultaneously working on excuses for the driver (not wearing Hi-Viz, not wearing helmet, it was dark and raining, it was sunny and the sun was in their eyes so they had to accelerate out of trouble, etc.) and issuing the standard 'our thoughts and prayers are with the family of the deceased'.
Education letter: completely useless and goes straight in the bin
Warning letter: supposedly on record, but the police will make sure they don't notice the record if he does it again, so also useless. Even when they say they're taking action, they will frequently still do nothing and have a long list of excuses for that, and they will refuse to tell you what they did so that you can't find out. I would be happy with a 3 point FPN, but they do nothing at all in the huge majority of cases. Like this one being fought out at the Information Tribunal, where Lancashire Constabulary is going to extreme lengths to avoid telling me what they did after claiming to be 'taking action'- because they almost certainly did nothing at all
I wonder if they've even attempted a prosecution to see if there is a realistic chance of success? I’ve been the witness 2 times in magistrates court for close passes and both were found guilty and given points an a fine. Both were before the update to the highway code, since which, pretty much everything I’ve submitted gets a notice of intended prosecution (155 so far this year).
pretty much everything I’ve submitted gets a notice of intended prosecution (155 so far this year)
I think they're lying! At that rate of NIP, you need to look out for real evidence that they did something!
They even NIP'd one of their own drivers... Police car overtook me, a little close, but not so close that I'd normally report. Black Mercedes behind was closer though, so reported it. Then had a call from the officer evaluating the video footage who said that if they reported the Mercedes they would also have to report the police car. Have had a couple of tripples and even a quadruple NIP because of that policy.
They even NIP'd one of their own drivers...
This will seem excessively inquisatorial, but a NIP is not evidence they actually did something! My experience is with Lancashire Police who routinely lie, so it remains my suspicion that 155 NIPs is far too many for them to have genuinely acted on them. Can you really see them having done anything to the police driver other than 'words of advice'. Why not post a still from that video, or a link to the video?
155 is quite incredible, well done. How does that work out with your riding time, one per hour?
According to veloviewer, 199 hours so far this year
Can I ask which force that is and whether you have sent any examples in to near miss of the day?
The police spokesman said "A warning letter is sent when the offender identified turns out to be a current or ex serving member or family/friend of the police force or member of masonic lodge."
At least they got a warning letter - Police did nothing (NFA) with this one from last week.
Best I can figure, it depends on who reviews the footage. Most of the time they take further action, but every now and then they don't - I haven't been able to find any common feature for the NFAs.
How does "no realistic prospect of a conviction or in our professional opinion" work when the actual remedy would be a 6 point FPN for Careless Driving and only perhaps 1% of cases would go to Court?