Not-so-Near Miss of the Day 391:Cyclist knocked off bike - but police unable to idenify hit-and-run driver

Today's video in our Near Miss of the Day series is one of those in which the motorist does make contact with the cyclist, in this case knocking him off his bike into a hedge. The Metropolitan Police, however, were unable to take the incident, which happened in Chislehurst in the borough of Bromley, further because they were unable to identify the driver involved.

The incident is similar to many we have featured in recent weeks, with the driver overtaking the cyclist when it is unsafe to do so because of oncoming traffic, meaning they have to pull back in, putting the bike rider in danger.

Often, that results in a close pass by a matter of inches but here, the result was that the cyclist, road.cc reader Tim, was knocked off the road. Moreover, he's since been subjected to a close pass involving the same vehicle.

He told us: "I work as a manager in the NHS and use my bike to travel for work.

"On 4th December was cycling through Chislehurst on the way back from a meeting when I was knocked off my bike by a hit and run driver.

"I was not injured thankfully and carried on.

"I reported the matter to the Metropolitan Police, but they have now written to say they are unable to trace the driver so no further action will be taken.

"I do understand that priorities have now changed due to Coronavirus but I don’t understand why in the previous 3 months they were unable to trace the driver."

He added: "I was close passed by the same car in February and noticed that it has a number of dents on it. I am concerned the driver may have an eyesight problem."

> 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