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Near Miss of the Day 720: Impatient driver almost causes collision with oncoming vehicle on steep climb

Our regular series featuring close passes from around the country - today it's Wiltshire.....

Slogging up a 14 per cent berg can be hard enough without an impatient motorist rushing an overtake and almost causing a head-on collision with another road user...

Gordon regularly uploads examples of bad driving he experiences while out riding in Wiltshire, including this clip from last November on Chetcombe Bottom, near Mere, of a motorist who just could not wait to see what was around that blind corner.

Instead, taking a guess it might be clear, they overtook, only to soon see another vehicle coming down the hill.

> Near Miss of the Day 719: Oncoming van driver ignores cyclist — company promises to talk with driver (video includes swearing)

The Volkswagen driver reacted quickly to avoid the overtaking Škoda driver, slamming on the brakes to escape a crash.

Gordon said the police uploading procedure was too complicated "and I doubt they would bother anyway".

Unfortunately he also reported "close passing or badly parked is quite normal here for a small town" and sent us another clip to prove the point..."other things on their mind?"

> 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

Dan is the road.cc news editor and has spent the past four years writing stories and features, as well as (hopefully) keeping you entertained on the live blog. Having previously written about nearly every other sport under the sun for the Express, and the weird and wonderful world of non-league football for the Non-League Paper, Dan joined road.cc in 2020. Come the weekend you'll find him labouring up a hill, probably with a mouth full of jelly babies, or making a bonk-induced trip to a south of England petrol station... in search of more jelly babies.

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8 comments

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Crippledbiker | 2 years ago
0 likes

I have to wonder if that second one is a victim of target fixation..?

Obviously not excusing it!

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Captain Badger | 2 years ago
1 like

Scary!

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Pyro Tim | 2 years ago
2 likes

I drive one of those, in that colour. Mine's newer though, and wouldn't be making moves like that

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carlosdsanchez | 2 years ago
10 likes

If you don't report it, nothing will change. Even if only a warning letter is sent out, it may hopfully have some sort of effect. 

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HoarseMann replied to carlosdsanchez | 2 years ago
2 likes

Hopefully in this case, the fact they nearly had a head-on with a car will serve as some deterrent!

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belugabob replied to HoarseMann | 2 years ago
5 likes

I wish I had your optimism

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Secret_squirrel replied to carlosdsanchez | 2 years ago
7 likes

I agree with this. I've just checked the Wilts police portal and it's no different to the TVP one. Takes you through a submission step by step.   It's not hard!
 

We need to remember that even if they do nothing it becomes a recorded stat that can be used to performance measure them Nationally.   It also becomes material subject to FOI requests.  Potentially pressure to change too. 
I know it sometimes seems pointless but we need to play the long game here. 5 years ago camera submissions were barely a thing. Police Scotland still don't do it properly for instance. 

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wtjs replied to carlosdsanchez | 2 years ago
0 likes

If you don't report it, nothing will change

It's a long thankless task for the simple reason that the police would generally be quite pleased if a few troublesome cyclists are wiped out. You have to watch them like a hawk, as they try to omit replies to certain videos in the hopes you won't notice. 

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