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Near Miss of the Day 144: Cyclist forced onto pavement to avoid turning lorry

Our regular feature highlighting close passes caught on camera from around the country – today it’s London

Today's video in our Near Miss of the Day Series provides a strong case for banning lorries from city centres , with a cyclist forced onto the pavement to avoid the HGV as its driver turned right onto a street in central London.

It happened to road.cc reader Henry on Great Peter Street in Westminster - just around the corner from the Department for Transport's offices - last week. 

Henry sent the footage to the Metropolitan Police, but was told that there was not enough evidence to prosecute.

> 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 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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23 comments

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alansmurphy | 5 years ago
0 likes

People suggesting the cyclist is in any way wrong here, or the 'you may be right but it's your life', are mad!

 

The lorry stops at no point. The cyclist sees that the lorry is performing a stupid manouevre (sp?) and stops. The lorry could have done the same - nobody dies. The cyclist can then either use the road and get by or get out of the way, or the lorry can reverse. By continuing the turn, the lorry has caused the cyclist to have to take evasive action - clearly this is dangerous driving!

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KINGHORN | 5 years ago
1 like

Those saying wait for lorry are forgetting that the lorry didn't adhere to the giveway and stop before pulling out, the lorry approached the junction and pulled straight out without stopping!

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DrG82 | 5 years ago
2 likes

So cyclists get pushed off their bikes into the road while on shared use paths because they "should be cycling on the road"  yet cyclists on here seem to be apologising for trucks driving on pavements.

Trucks do not belog on small roads in cities and they should be banned from the small roads at busy times of the day. If they want to deliver on a large vehicle they can do so very early or very late.

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SteveAustin replied to DrG82 | 5 years ago
0 likes

Quote:

.... If they want to deliver on a large vehicle they can do so very early or very late.

 

big lorries are not allowed in large parts of london 9pm-7am. Considering most of London is a permanent state of rebuilding, its impossible for lorries as it is;  hence why the video on this page is fairly normal in london.

i suppose all the building materials could be cut up into a4 size boxes and glued back together on sight so we didnt need big lorries on the roads 

 

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arowland | 5 years ago
7 likes

Jeez. Some of these comments! The lorry driver clearly had a very difficult manoeuvre to accomplish and perhaps made a bad call. She or he has to judge how far the truck will swing out, including at the rear and guided only by mirrors, and whether there is enough room between parked cars. S/he will move slowly to enable checking all the time, and even if the road was clear when s/he started, it may well be that traffic has to wait while the manoeuvre is completed. We've all had to wait for a truck doing a difficult turn or reverse -- you just act patiently and give the driver a cheerful wave when it's over. Maybe this cyclist could show a bit of understanding of the needs of other road users, you know, like we cyclists always ask for ourselves.

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TriTaxMan replied to arowland | 5 years ago
2 likes

arowland wrote:

Jeez. Some of these comments! The lorry driver clearly had a very difficult manoeuvre to accomplish and perhaps made a bad call. She or he has to judge how far the truck will swing out, including at the rear and guided only by mirrors, and whether there is enough room between parked cars. S/he will move slowly to enable checking all the time, and even if the road was clear when s/he started, it may well be that traffic has to wait while the manoeuvre is completed. We've all had to wait for a truck doing a difficult turn or reverse -- you just act patiently and give the driver a cheerful wave when it's over. Maybe this cyclist could show a bit of understanding of the needs of other road users, you know, like we cyclists always ask for ourselves.

@arowland - you are wrong on so many levels. 

Firstly, the driver of lorry rolled through a junction without stopping.

Secondly, the lorry comes into view of the cyclist at 10 seconds, and rolls through the junction without stopping (might is right?) at 11 seconds the cyclist sees the lorry carrying out the maneuver, and begins to brake, and by 14 seconds he is stopped.  So the cyclist had 3 seconds to spot react and stop their bike.  Using the Department for Transport reaction times of 2/3rds of a second to react this this means the cyclist has a just over 2.3 seconds to apply the brakes and stop.

Thirdly, even if the cyclist had stopped as soon as they saw the lorry approaching the junction, the route the lorry would have had to take to avoid catching the trailer on the lampost/fence at the junction would have meant that they would have been on the wrong side of the road/pavement for about another 5m or so.  As a result even if the cyclist was a psychic and began to react before the lorry came into view the lorry would most likely have been on the cyclists side of the road at the point where the cyclist stopped.

The whole incident was caused by the lorry driver only taking a cursory glance to the direction of the cyclist and because they were not in a big metal box they pulled out.  It could quite easily have been a motorcylist instead of a cyclist, and the actions of the lorry driver could have been catastrophic in such an incident, on the assumption that a motorcyclist may have been travelling faster and had less stopping distance

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madcarew | 5 years ago
7 likes

As with others, I would have stopped and given the lorry room to make his manoeuvre. Even if it meant backing up. The lorry is in a nearly impossible situation, trying to get out of that intertsection, and we regularly see the comment on here "what would it  have mattered if the car just waited 5 seconds before overtaking". Well, what would it have mattered if the cyclist had waited 5 seconds and allowed the lorry the opportunity to get around the corner. The lorry driver may have looked on cyclists more favourably, but instead the cyclist insisted on his 'right of way' and was an arse. 

You can argue till your're blue in the face that lorries like that should be banned, but in the meantime they have as much legal right to be on the road as the rest of us, and isn't that something we hold rather dear on these pages?

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hawkinspeter | 5 years ago
4 likes

road.cc wrote:

as its driver turned right onto a street in central London

Is it me, or was that lorry turning left?

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madcarew replied to hawkinspeter | 5 years ago
0 likes

hawkinspeter wrote:

road.cc wrote:

as its driver turned right onto a street in central London

Is it me, or was that lorry turning left?

It is you. The lorry was turning left.

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Podc | 5 years ago
2 likes

I think I may have ended up under the lorry if that was me  2 I wouldn't have expected the driver to just keep on going or go so far out.

 

As for the police saying there was not enough evidence to prosecute, you can clearly see the cyclist went on to the path and it was not shared use. Guilty!

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poshmoggy | 5 years ago
7 likes

Sorry, but I don't see this as a near miss. I'd have just given way to the truck. It's a big lump of metal that's hard to manoeuvre. If hit by it there's only going to be one winner. The cyclist had plenty time to see it. So, slow down, let it get out of the side street and then get on your way. No need for a great big song and dance.

 

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Awavey replied to poshmoggy | 5 years ago
3 likes

poshmoggy wrote:

Sorry, but I don't see this as a near miss. I'd have just given way to the truck. It's a big lump of metal that's hard to manoeuvre. If hit by it there's only going to be one winner. The cyclist had plenty time to see it. So, slow down, let it get out of the side street and then get on your way. No need for a great big song and dance.

 

 

sorry, totally disagree with you, if the cyclist stops the very second they see the lorry, the lorry will still be on their side of the flippin road trying to complete that manuevre and would be driving straight over them, the lorry has to drive on the pavement to get round, would you have advised pedestrians to just get out of the way too ? the only way the cyclist is going to "share the road there" is to stop turn around and ride 50 metres back the other way.

so why cant the lorry slow down and let the traffic using the "main road" just go on their way, theyd have lost what, ooh all of 5seconds pausing, but no youve just gone with the might is right get out of my way Im a motorist

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Hirsute replied to Awavey | 5 years ago
2 likes

Awavey wrote:

so why cant the lorry slow down and let the traffic using the "main road" just go on their way, theyd have lost what, ooh all of 5seconds pausing, but no youve just gone with the might is right get out of my way Im a motorist

But it wouldn't be 5 seconds, someone else would be along, so they would never get out.

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giff77 | 5 years ago
2 likes

And further evidence that the modern vehicle is unsuitable for the streets of the majority of our towns and cities. 

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don simon fbpe replied to giff77 | 5 years ago
4 likes

giff77 wrote:

And further evidence that the modern vehicle is articulated trucks are unsuitable for the streets of the majority of our towns and cities. 

Is probably more fitting.

Other cities ban them, no reason why they can't be banned from city/town centres in the UK.

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giff77 replied to don simon fbpe | 5 years ago
1 like

don simon wrote:

giff77 wrote:

And further evidence that the modern vehicle is articulated trucks are unsuitable for the streets of the majority of our towns and cities. 

Is probably more fitting.

Other cities ban them, no reason why they can't be banned from city/town centres in the UK.

I was going to see that but changed to what I said due to the fact that I see far to many vehicles on our roads that are unsuitable. Private vehicles as well as commercial vehicles have steadily got wider and longer over the years. My first car was a Mark 2 Escort which I could fit easily into my parents driveway. I now have a Corsa and take a bit more care using the driveway due to it being wider!  I sometimes wonder how folk would drive if they were not reliant on many of the ‘safety’ features that are now prevalent in cars today. Would love to see vehicles over a certain wheelbase banned from towns though. 

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Chez_worldwide | 5 years ago
3 likes

Near miss? 

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Hirsute | 5 years ago
12 likes

Not sure about this one.

This is London, so if you follow the rules to the letter, you will never get anywhere.

If I were in a car, I would have stopped and let the lorry complete the manoeuvre, because you have to compromise in such a crowded environment.

The main solution is banning lorries from certain roads and banning lorries at certain times.

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pjm60 replied to Hirsute | 5 years ago
6 likes

hirsute wrote:

The main solution is banning lorries from certain roads and banning lorries at certain times.

 

That's the real question - why are articulated lorries permitted on roads where they cannot negotiate junctions without mounting the pavement? Ok large things need to be moved about but when vehicles that are too big for their lane are on major roads they have blue/amber light escorts. Unrealistic perhaps, but maybe one day we'll see a similar thing in city centres.

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Hirsute replied to pjm60 | 5 years ago
1 like

pjm60 wrote:

Ok large things need to be moved about but when vehicles that are too big for their lane are on major roads they have blue/amber light escorts. Unrealistic perhaps, but maybe one day we'll see a similar thing in city centres.

and hopefully more bike cargo trailers to move stuff from a central point into inner london.

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FluffyKittenofT... replied to pjm60 | 5 years ago
2 likes

pjm60 wrote:

hirsute wrote:

The main solution is banning lorries from certain roads and banning lorries at certain times.

 

That's the real question - why are articulated lorries permitted on roads where they cannot negotiate junctions without mounting the pavement? Ok large things need to be moved about but when vehicles that are too big for their lane are on major roads they have blue/amber light escorts. Unrealistic perhaps, but maybe one day we'll see a similar thing in city centres.

 

Seems that way to me.  To me it didn't look the cyclist was in real danger - plenty of time to slow/stop/divert.   But the lorry driver was displaying a typical might-is-right mentality, because that junction isn't appropriate for that vehicle.

 

  There are places near me where I know never to stand on the corner of the pavement because larger vehicles routinely drive over it as they can't get round the corner otherwise.

Our city centres weren't built for these vehicles, they need to find an alternative route and an alternative delivery method.

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brooksby replied to FluffyKittenofTindalos | 5 years ago
0 likes

FluffyKittenofTindalos wrote:

Our city centres weren't built for these vehicles, they need to find an alternative route and an alternative delivery method.

This, definitely; with several million likes if I could.

 

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brooksby | 5 years ago
4 likes

Wasn’t even exactly safe on the footpath! Tbh I would have admitted I was in the right but then waited/ held back in that situation- no way would I have carried on forward when that arse in the lorry was doing that!

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