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Caravan lorry close miss (YouTube user jthefishy)Video: Caravan firm "horrified" after cyclist suffers shocking near-miss
A manager at a Gloucestershire company has said he is “horrified” at a video showing one of its vehicles speeding past a cyclist on the A59 at Samlesbury, Lancashire with barely inches to spare. The company, Forest of Dean Caravans, had been alerted to the video by a Twitter user who had seen it. The cyclist involved has told road.cc he believes the close pass was not only dangerous, but also deliberate.
The video, filmed at around 7.10am on Wednesday and posted to YouTube by user jthefishy, shows just how close the flatbed lorry, carrying one caravan and towing another, came to striking the cyclist. The potential consequences of that are obvious.
It’s clear the driver of the lorry saw the cyclist – the horn was sounded loudly and at length as the vehicle came up behind the rider, alarming enough in itself.
If you watch the video at work, you may wish to turn the sound down – there’s some (understandably) strong language.
In subtitles to the YouTube video, jthefishy said: “There is plenty of space and no oncoming cars etc. Other cars and wagons give me loads of space. They use the centre of the road to give me loads of space.”
He added: “Unfortunately I cannot work out his registration or company name. If anyone can help please do.”
The vehicle was quickly identified as belonging to Forest of Dean Caravans, based in Parkend, Gloucestershire.
The cyclist added: “There is an unsuitable cycle track at the side of the road which is a shared one with no rights of way and loads of lamp posts and signs in the middle of it! That is probably why he had a problem.”
This afternoon, road.cc spoke to the cyclist, named Jon, who works near the location where the close pass took place.
He told us: “When I heard the horn, I thought it was one of my mates, but when it continued I knew it wasn’t.”
Alerted by the noise to the fact something was going on, he didn’t look over his shoulder – something that could have taken him off his line – but kept riding straight on.
As the lorry went past, Jon was getting ready to put his hand out to gesticulate – luckily, though, he didn’t do that before the caravan being towed passed him.
“I’m a big bloke,” said Jon. “If it had been someone lighter, or not so good at holding their line, it could have been fatal.”
He described the driver as a “flaming idiot,” and said “I’d like to see him get points on his licence and severely reprimanded at work.”
But he said that so long as this was an isolated incident rather than repeat behaviour, he wouldn’t want to see the driver lose his job.
“I make mistakes, everyone makes mistakes, and we need tolerance on the roads,” he went on.
“But I would like to see him get prosecuted, because it was dangerous and it was deliberate,” added Jon, who believes the driver’s action was as a result of him not using the cycle path.
Jon has contacted Lancashire Constabulary to report the incident, but hasn’t heard back from them yet.
It’s the second time he’s contacted police over video footage of bad driving, and he told us on the previous occasion they did speak to the driver involved.
Mike Stead, who is on Twitter as @tweetymike, posted a message to the social network in which he described the incident as “borderline attempted murder.”
He took it upon himself to contact Forest of Dean Caravans and spoke to its transport manager, Mark Turley, who said he was “horrified” at the footage in the video.
Mr Turley added that “disciplinary action” would be taken against the driver when he returned and that the company would co-operate in any police investigation.
The family-owned firm has said that it is preparing a statement to reassure cyclists about the action it is taking.
We asked Mike why he felt compelled to act. He told us: "Social media can be great for raising awareness, but ranting/retweeting don't change much.
“Engaging with firms, helping them understand the depth of feeling and suggesting how to progress is the way to go.
“They're more likely to follow through and change or enforce policy and practice," he added.
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.
Latest Comments
- Hirsute 1 sec ago
I'm confused by the signage. One sign is no motor vehicles and the other says no cycling, so why isn't it a red circle with all white - No vehicles...
- wtjs 7 min 35 sec ago
Complaint to the taxi licensing authority? ...
- stonojnr 18 min 39 sec ago
The bit at the start and end looks like a cycle lane, but the bit they drive on looks just like a patched filter lane for traffic lights.
- JOHN5880 19 min 2 sec ago
Hey, you 4 execs helped run a company into the ground and have no jobs anymore... Come work for us because you have great experience in the...
- Oakhambike 1 hour 3 min ago
£11.5k for a bike weighing over 8kg that's 2 fingers to customers let alone UCI
- HarrogateSpa 1 hour 5 min ago
No trees need to be cut down for a cycleway....
- Dnnnnnn 1 hour 19 min ago
I'm going to show my bike a picture of this shed and tell it, "If you don't behave..."
- Hirsute 2 hours 6 min ago
Ex black cab https://twitter.com/KingArtAT/status/1783296299787309088
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127 comments
Hey, I live in Canada and this incident made me angry enough to e-mail the company.
Here's what I wrote:
The boss of the company was horrified as well and has promised to reprimand the driver. You could still go in and buy your caravan and also make a point while doing so that you hope the driver has been given a final warning over this incident, and perhaps that the firm should institute cycle training for all its truck drivers. That'd be more effective overall.
You need to make sure that you tell them that - otherwise your intention won't be nearly as effective.
Appalling driving - but distressingly typical of what motorists get away with. But can't really fault the response from the company. A lot better than what usually happens. Feels almost churlish to say one wants to be sure its more than just words. It does _sound_ sincere though. Maybe they have cyclists in the family?
It isn't the same thing.
Indeed, its not remotely, in any sense 'the same thing'. One is illegal, one isn't, one seriously endangers others one doesn't.
Question is, was he cycling "furiously" in those videos? Speeding on a bike is not an offense, but apparently it is to cycle while furious! I think cantankerous cycling is OK though. Ditto disgruntled cycling, grumpy cycling and crotchety cycling.
Also - its a caravan company. So I guess they have a common enemy with cyclists in the form of Jeremy Clarkson.
I just don't get this. The owner has said he was horrified and will take action against his employee the driver. He may well be doing that for cynical PR reasons or he may be doing it because his insurance company would blow a gasket if he didn't do something about the behavious of this driver. Apart from that he might just be a normal person that looked at the video and was horrified.
But if you boycott him anyway despite his proper reaction then he may as well have been a tosser about it and he'd have lost the sale either way.
If you are going to punish companies for taking the wrong attitude then you need also to reward them when they do something right.
My father played a big riole in the Anti Apartheid movement in the UK. We boycotted everything South African when I was a kid. As soon as Mandela was elected my dad made a point of buying South African fruit and wine.
Stick AND carrot.
No don't moan at them object to their next O licence renewal to the traffic commissioners. It's hard to deliver your products when you can't operate transport from your yard.
Really hope the company make a public statement about this and something actually happens to the driver, either via the police or his employer, and I man actual action rather than a telling off.
I bought a helmet cam last month but haven't bothered using it, just fitted it to my bike as I think it's getting worse on the roads rather than better
I don't think Clarkson hates cyclists anymore than he thinks Mexicans are lazy or lorry drivers are all rapists.
Clarkson is Basil Fawlty with cars and driving as a backdrop rather than a hotel. He's just rude to everyone. It's the gratuitous un-selfconscious totally non-PC statements that people find amusing especially in today's ever so scripted and sensitive media world.
Taking Top Gear seriously is like criticising Basil Fawlty's customer service and staff relations. It's missing the point.
Lorry drivers = Excuse to say something outrageous
Mexicans = Excuse to say something outrageous
Germans = Excuse to say something outrageous
Americans = Excuse to say something outrageous
Cyclists = Excuse to say something outrageous
the clue is that you could put anything you like on the left side of the equals sign.
My opinion... the company has done nothing about it... but I hope there is a 'yet' to be added to this episode.
Echoing sentiments already shared, I am aware of businesses that will publicly cry foul in these situations, but internally celebrate a 'hilarious jape'. Not all bosses/business managers are nice people, many are anything but... I hope in this case Mt Turley is genuine and takes appropriate action
However, until the 'horrified boss' comes back with 'the driver in question is no longer part of this company' I assume that the disciplinary action is no more than being forced to buy the digestive biscuits that week.
the problem is that there are too many morons who DO take him seriously and will act even more stupid than normal because they think it's funny. Clarkson has to realise that he's an idiot magnet and accept some responsibility for the influence he has on said idiots
Nothing will happen as many times before I suspect, as has been said above, it's easy to sound outraged in public yet do SFA after when it has all "died" down.
Shared use paths:
- they are often not maintained or gritted like roads are,
- they are often not wide enough to allow two bikes to pass safely,
- they are discontinuous and entrance and exit into them from the roads are often poorly executed,
- they are often shared by pedestrians wearing earphones, dressed in black, walking black labradors, at night with no lights (delete as appropriate),
- Many cyclists are travelling at a speed higher than that considered by DfT themselves to be safe for cycle paths, and the DfT themselves recommend cyclists stay on the road,
- They are often covered with random steaming piles of horse crap (round my way anyway)
Drivers of low intelligence, is any wonder why we don't use them? The same reason you wouldn't drive your beloved leased Audi A6 estate down a rutted muddy byway to get to your destination.
You have a choice, so do cyclists. F*ck off making up your own laws and stick to ones that actually exist.
I will reward a company that hasn't been drawn to my attention because the driver doesn't give a shit for cyclist, not the company that near killed a cyclist. It shouldn't have happened! Other people have already said that this is how the drivers of this company behave. So why do we have to wait until it's on video for action to happen. I don't believe the owner didn't know this is how his driver behaves.
That is scary. Oh how I hate close passes and towing caravans.
It reminded me of a nasty incident in Devon some years ago following my wife on one of their busy single lane A roads.
The car came past close like in the vid. Only I banged on the window, which probably saved my life by pushing me slightly towards the kerb, so the caravan it was towing (unbeknown to me) hit my outstretched arm and not my bike or body.
In my adrenalin rush I overtook him and forced him to stop. Although I wouldn't recommend this course of action.His passenger realised what had happened and was distraught and thus the driver was extremely sorry and I hope learned his lesson.
I don't think speed was an issue with the caravan mate, even if it were how are you able to justify that comment when there is no indication of speed in the video you have mentioned. Plus the cyclist overtook on a dashed line in a perfectly legal manoeuvre. You probably need to reconsider your argument and look at what happened in this specific incident rather than tracking back through his YouTube clips to find reasons why he is in the wrong
...learning to quote...
Happens all the time, whats anyone going to actually do about it?
I don't think its as simple as sacking the driver for one instance - I know we would all like that to happen. But in this case there is Employment Law to think about.
I sincerely hope that the firm take action and introduce compulsory cyclist awareness training for all their drivers, and if the driver in question is given a final warning and training, who knows, he may become a disciple of cycle awareness.
In today's competitive world of commerce this is an opportunity for the caravan firm to take the lead and turn a really bad bit of press into a great piece of PR by leading the way in cycle awareness training for wagon drivers. In a perfect world other firms would see the positive PR lead taken by firms with cycle aware drivers and to not train your drivers would leave you alienated and at a competitive disadvantage
Scary ... the driver deserves to lose his job. But on another note the cyclist should have been using the cycle path to the left. Fair enough that there was enough room for the lorry to overtake safely (which it didn't), but there will be occasions when this isn't the case and he would have been the one having to make a dangerous manoeuvre just because you didn't like the cycle path. If it was me, I would be avoiding mixing with traffic at every opportunity.
Email sent to company stating my outrage, loss of sale and my hope that the police take this seriously.
I notice the resident HGV drivers don't seem to be saying much. No tales of poorly lit or no hi-viz.
Sad to say this is getting more and more common. The only way to stop it is to tie said drivers to a stake as their vehicle is driven at them at speed. Make them understand how it feels.
I did post this about 3;30 but can't see it so sorry if its a double post.
This company is a mile from me. their vehicles are lethal. I have been forced to a stop on bike, m/c and car plenty of times and touch twice on my bike. after I wrote this I emailed these facts to the company.
For what its worth the company owners will take this seriously I believe. I suspect its one driver .
I do hope his employer will do more than put a sticker on his mirror.
Must have watched top gear and taken the advice of giving cyclists an inch literally. The driver is clearly incompetent and or acted in complete spite and disregard of a fellow human being. In my opinion he does not deserve to keep his job and he should consider his professional future. if he gets sacked he will more likely then not end up driving trucks somewhere else. Scary
I don't think a local business should be punished for the idiocy of its employees if the company takes proper action against transgressions when they occur. We wait to see what action they will actually take. If this driver does this task for a living then there really is only one action for such negligence and I'm sorry to say that he/she should be looking for another job. As a professional aviator, we have spies in the cockpit that are downloaded after every flight. If I was to blatantly disregard the operating procedures of the company I would lose my job. I and this driver are responsible for other peoples' well being and if I decide to play roulette with their lives then I can expect the worst - no difference in this case. Forest of Dean Caravans MD...the ball is in your court.
Probably the worst piece of driving I have seen full stop!!
I feel so appalled I think that people should e-mail the company and voice there concerns as I did.
Please feel free to e-mail them at info [at] forestofdeancaravans.co.uk
Perhaps they will do something about it
I perceive this as a totally unacceptable close pass.
BUT - What is a close pass from a legal perspective?
When it comes down to it only the legal perspective matters.
Highway code 168:
You SHOULD give cyclists as much room as you would when overtaking a car.
The Met police website says (http://content.met.police.uk/Site/roadsafelondon):
Video footage:
"Occasionally, people refer us to video footage... They must not rely on a perception of distance such as a close pass as the apparent distance will vary according to the type camera and settings. There are other issues with video evidence, such as parallax error, which makes objects appear close together when they are seen in line."
This suggests that video evidence is not enough itself to prove a close pass.
As a cyclist, if you are passed too closely by another vehicle- where do you stand in terms of the law?
What space does the law entitle me to as a cyclist and how does it define and defend this?
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