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news
Near Miss of the Day 773: Close pass driver sent warning – then “brags they got away with it”
Two close passes in two seconds is what we have on this evening’s Near Miss of the Day menu – with one of the drivers sent a warning letter by police, and then “bragging that they had gotten away with it.”
The footage was filmed at Croft Corner, Swansea, by road.cc reader Peter, who told us: “An advisory letter was sent to the last van in the video for the close pass with a car coming the other way.
“The passes happened on 30 April at 11:30,” he continued. “I was cycling close to my home on Gower, Swansea and enjoying the sun.
“This is the main road from Crofty to Llanrhidian on North Gower. I was cycling on my own. The first two felt close but the last van was close and fast while also getting close to the car coming the other way.
“It was submitted to South Wales Police who have issued a warning letter only, which I felt was not enough as the pass I feel justified more action.
"A few weeks later I heard from another friend that the driver had posted the letter, including stills from the video, on another Facebook group. Apparently they had not learnt anything and were complaining about cyclists and bragging that they had gotten away with it.
“So I am doubtful they will change their behaviour and can only hope they get a more severe punishment next time and they do not end up killing someone first.”
> 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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9 comments
I am the friend that told Peter about the Facebook post. It's a group for owners of the particular model of van being used in the photo (Trafic/Vivaro/Primastar).
Sadly there was a rather long and unsavoury trail of comments laughing about the whole situation and generally mocking cyclists, with the usual anti-cycling hatred thrown in. There were a few separate posts of a similar nature following this particular one.
Doubly frustrating is that the group admins (well at least one or two of them) are fully on board with this 'hilarity', one of whom posted an anti-cyclist meme of their own, and even ended up making the photo of screenshot the group cover image for this month! Clearly reporting any of this to the group admins was pointless, and Facebook is not interested unless there’s a race/gender/sexuality context, or actual threats of violence. Apparently claiming that all cyclists are 'targets' does not count.
Since the driver in question has clearly learnt nothing, I can only hope that when he gets filmed doing something similar again in the future, the Police do something more significant, and nobody gets hurt as a result of his poor attitude.
I can only hope that when he gets filmed doing something similar again in the future, the Police do something more significant, and nobody gets hurt as a result of his poor attitude
Hope away, but you're destined for disappointment. Even allowing for 'the other cyclist' effect, where someone else's close-passes usually don't seem as bad as your own, I can state unequivocally that this series of close-passes would not even receive a response from OpSnapLancs. There would be no reply to queries about what happened with the case, and even in the halcyon days of earlier this year when 'action letters' were sent out, they are equivocal and leave open the possibility that they might decide (remember they have already seen the video) to do nothing after all, or issue 'words of advice'. With police attitudes like these, it is little wonder that that this community of 'I got away with it' cyclist-haters is becoming larger and bolder.
PS WE (unlike the OP) don't say 'gotten away with it', which indicates too much American TV watching
That would depend on where the offence happens and the Police service responsible..
I'm satisfied that I just got a letter from Kent Police confirming that the driver who close passed me some months ago was convicted, £135 Costs, 3 points and a £200 fine. That was based on video evidence and the driver declining to attend the Police station for a chat about due care and attention for vulnerable road users. So he did have a chance to explain his actions but decided not to bother.
You might think that he had no explanation and decided that the court would acquit by default, however that was not the outcome.
Let's hope that some sense of responsibility (HWC H1) results...
Ride safe.
Bragging on social media sounds like a good way to get your insurance premiums increased, if you ask me!
Indeed it is as social media feeds can be processed against the list of insured vehicle registration and any matches given to the machine learning bots for screening and further human analysis. Scalability in the cloud makes that feasible and affordable i.e. moving from the actuarial probability to the big data - actual evidence.
It may not be disclosed to insurance customers but risk assessment is the legitimate concern of underwriters.
It also lowers the shared risk to other customers which is fair.
Does a warning mean he has to inform his insurance company?
I don't think so. Normally a conviction and points on the license if I remember rightly.
Screeen grabs of that shoukd be sent to the police...l
Indeed it might be worth writing to the police with this.
I would suggest to them that they write again to the driver saying that they have kept this information on file and it will be taken into consideration in the event of further reports about their driving.