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Near Miss of the Day 6: Lorry driver in "homicidal close pass"

"I Iooked round and thought this was my last ride," says cyclist James Johnston - but police took no action...

Any close pass is unnerving for the cyclist concerned, but such incidents are particularly shocking when a large vehicle such as a bus or lorry is involved, such as this one filmed on the B4115 in Warwickshire in February by road.cc reader James Johnston. 

James flagged up the video to us as part of our Near Miss of the Day feature, and in the description of the video on YouTube, he said: "I Iooked round and thought this was my last ride."

You can see why. It's a narrow road - the lorry takes up the entire width of one lane - but instead of moving across as far to the right as possible to allow for a safe overtake, the driver squeezes past James with inches to spare.

The incident, which happened near Finham on the southern outskirts of Coventry, was reported to Warwickshire Police via West Midlands Police .

But James said that the force replied to him "well outside the period where a NIP [Notice of Intended Prosecution] could be served because they 'couldn't watch the video'.

"I emailed a link to this video to the person dealing with this so they could watch the video, I have heard nothing since," he added.

Officers from Warwickshire Police attended a training session held by West Midlands Police on its highly acclaimed close pass operation in January, and said afterwards it was considering implementing the initiative  on the roads it polices.

More recently, it was among the forces to confirm interest to Cycling UK about the close pass mats the charity sourced after a successful fundraising drive.

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 in to 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 Close Pass 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 us at info [at] road.cc or contact us via the road.cc Facebook page.

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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15 comments

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bikeman01 | 6 years ago
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Once upon a time lorry drivers considered themselves 'the knights of the road' and prided themselves on their professional driving.

Nowadays lorries are piloted by eastern europeans who've taken their test on some clapped out tractor and then get let loose in an artic. 

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madcarew replied to bikeman01 | 6 years ago
0 likes

bikeman01 wrote:

Once upon a time lorry drivers considered themselves 'the knights of the road' and prided themselves on their professional driving.

Nowadays lorries are piloted by eastern europeans who've taken their test on some clapped out tractor and then get let loose in an artic. 

I think the rose coloured tint on your spectacles may be obscuring your view of reality. Your clear prejudice certainly is.

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Rosco | 6 years ago
1 like

The problem with most of these close passes seems to be a combination of failure to read the road ahead and a lack of patience. The lorry ended up waiting at the junction anyway, completely negating the necessity for a fast-and-close pass. It's about one road user perceiving their journey as seemingly more important than another's, purely because they are bigger and can travel faster. I'm sure that most close-pass offenders are probably stressed as well, rather than just in an anti-cyclist mindset, and that impairs their judgement

I had a similar incident with a double-decker bus in Exeter recently, in which the driver squeezed me into the curb (causing me to thump on the side of his bus as he passed) only to pull in at the next bus stop, 50 metres up the road. He saved a couple of seconds, max. I challenged him when he was stopped at the bus stop about why he had pulled such a reckless move and his response was to say that he has "passengers who have to get places". The journey time of his passengers and where they needed to be was, in his mind, more important than my safety. The fact that I was cycling to the hospital for a scan of our baby was irrelevant to him. And that also impaired his duty of care to avoid any circumstance whereby his passengers would have to watch me go under his wheels.

I consider myself to be a safe cyclist, I've cycled all over the world, I drive also, I'm not a camera-wearer and I experience close passes regularly (most days, probably), but due to the attitude of the driver this was the first time I've followed something up. The company reviewed the on-board cameras (it was a new bus) and recordings from the driver seat, and I left it with them to take further action.

 

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vonhelmet | 6 years ago
1 like

What exactly are we hoping to achieve with these endless scary close past posts?

Besides ad impressions, obviously...

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Fifth Gear replied to vonhelmet | 6 years ago
1 like

vonhelmet wrote:

What exactly are we hoping to achieve with these endless scary close past posts?

Besides ad impressions, obviously...

I think the number of videos is evidence of the significant danger that people using bicycles are exposed to by aggressive and careless drivers. Very few cyclists use cameras so they are just the tip of the iceberg. The objective nature of the camera footage is a counterweight to the abuse of cyclists which is spouted so frequently in the media.

They also give an indication of the action taken by the authorities to protect vulnerable road users which is almost invariably totally inadequate.

Ultimately the evidence in these videos will be a significant catalyst for change as it cannot just be ignored forever.

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Trickytree1984 | 6 years ago
1 like

I've reported a close pass to Warwickshire police before. Had a response saying they had been and spoken to the driver

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Metaphor | 6 years ago
7 likes

Are the police as an institution anti-cyclist?

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Bikebikebike replied to Metaphor | 6 years ago
2 likes

Ramuz wrote:

Are the police as an institution anti-cyclist?

Presumably this is rhetorical.

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wycombewheeler | 6 years ago
5 likes

I think the issue is the lateness of pulling out more than the distance he eventually pulls over. He can see there will be a gap after the Sainsbury's van and judges he can hit that gap without slowing. But sudden braking by either Sainsbury's van or cyclist would gave resulted in a collision where the lorry driver had nowhere to go.

All to save a few ml of diesel.

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Yorkshire wallet replied to wycombewheeler | 6 years ago
2 likes
wycombewheeler wrote:

.

All to save a few ml of diesel.

I doubt this is ever a consideration, when stuck behind cyclists. Time is important not fuel when driving a lorry.

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wycombewheeler replied to Yorkshire wallet | 6 years ago
6 likes
Yorkshire wallet wrote:
wycombewheeler wrote:

.

All to save a few ml of diesel.

I doubt this is ever a consideration, when stuck behind cyclists. Time is important not fuel when driving a lorry.

No time saved at all. If he eases up he still overtakes at about the same point with more space. But by not easing up he conserves his momentum the excuse given by a lorry driver he killed a cyclist at a roundabout was about keeping rolling.

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The _Kaner | 6 years ago
0 likes

at least he crossed the white line...and the road was reasonably wide...

come ride the R roads in Ireland...

Lorries twice as big, 2/3 the size of road and a penchant for trying to stay within the white line...

 

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P3t3 replied to The _Kaner | 6 years ago
7 likes
The _Kaner wrote:

at least he crossed the white line...and the road was reasonably wide...

come ride the R roads in Ireland...

Lorries twice as big, 2/3 the size of road and a penchant for trying to stay within the white line...

 

Roads!? Luxury! That's nothing, when I were a lad riding me bike we just had a track, and those lorries used to just drive right over us, we were so poor we didn't even have wheels on our bicycles...

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Bikebikebike replied to P3t3 | 6 years ago
6 likes

P3t3 wrote:
The _Kaner wrote:

at least he crossed the white line...and the road was reasonably wide...

come ride the R roads in Ireland...

Lorries twice as big, 2/3 the size of road and a penchant for trying to stay within the white line...

 

Roads!? Luxury! That's nothing, when I were a lad riding me bike we just had a track, and those lorries used to just drive right over us, we were so poor we didn't even have wheels on our bicycles...

You had a track?  Pansy!  We had to cycle t'mill over a field of broken glass and razor blades where we were run over every ten yards by a 50 tonne lorry.  Our entire bicycle was made up of the solitary brake block that we could afford after working 25 hours a day at t'mill, and paying t'mill owner for the privilege.  And we were happy doing it!

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WillRod | 6 years ago
2 likes

The stupid thing, is that most cyclists would have let the lorry past at the junction, and the cyclist was turning left anyway.

 

I know we need lorries to move stuff around the country, but they are some of the worst driver going. I've had several overtake just before corners with poor visibility. In stop start traffic, I had several lorries tailgating me before stopping within a foot or two of my car. (Solid beeps when I turned on parking sensors). They also suddenly swerve between lanes to try and get in a slightly faster queue, before moving back to the same spot they were in earlier.

How we can have lorries of up to 44 tons mixing it with 1.5 ton cars and 100kg cyclists, I will never know,

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