A recently uploaded YouTube video shows a lorry driving along inches – if not millimetres – behind a cyclist. As the two exit the shot, it appears that the truck begins to overtake the cyclist, allowing minimal space. The incident is thought to have taken place earlier in the week in Bradford.
The uploader, skip_1, describes what is seen as a truck ‘almost tapping’ a cyclist. “As they went past the cyclist waved at the front of the truck and shouted to the driver to 'F off'. Listen carefully and you can hear the cyclist shout through the open sunroof.”
No further information is given, but some of those leaving comments are of the opinion that the incident took place in Bradford.
The truck involved clearly bears the branding of a firm called Joda Freight who are based in Keighley. Road.cc tried to get in contact with them, but no-one was available for comment.
61 thoughts on “Caught on camera: Terrifying incident involving lorry and cyclist on busy road”
This is one of the worst
This is one of the worst stories I’ve seen on here. A 7 second video show what looks to be a lorry close to a cyclist, but the angle it is filmed could just show it worse than it seems.
This isn’t even news, it is barely forum material, who screens stories before they are published, because the “clickbait” is getting worse.
Gkam84 wrote:This is one of
I disagree. The video clearly shows the lorry within inches. I hope this video helps to get the driver off the road – that was reckless.
Gkam84 wrote:This is one of
You are JollySelfRighteous and I claim my five pounds.
Gkam84 wrote:This is one of
I agree on the general rise of clickbait, but that’s an internet-wide phenomenon, not restricted to road.cc.
On your assessment of this though, you’ve gone a bit far.
Your phrasing doesn’t make logical sense, given what you’re trying to say, but I note your use of the weasel word “could”. On a superficial assessment you “could” come to that conclusion, but you only have to watch the video a couple more times to see that you’re wrong. All it’d take is a minor pothole/rut, or lapse of concentration, and the cyclist is going under the truck.
What makes this newsworthy is that it’s as clear an example as any I’ve seen of the everyday intimidation of vulnerable road users that happens up and down the country. 99 times out of 100 no (physical) injury will be done, but are you seriously trying to tell us that behaviour like this [i]shouldn’t[/i] be highlighted as much as possible? That there is some sort of grading system whereby if the cyclist wasn’t actually injured then it shouldn’t be on the main website but should be relegated to the forums, if at all? I wonder would it make a difference to you if the victim was on a decent road bike and clad in lycra and not just some ordinary guy on a Halfords gaspipe special?
Gkam84 wrote:This is one of
Strongly disagree – the Jason Wells Brew story was minor compared to this. One slip from the cyclist and he would have ended up under the truck. Shocking behaviour from the driver.
Gkam84 wrote:This is one of
one of the poorest observations I’ve seen on here for a while, from a fellow cyclist no less.
Gkam84 wrote:This is one of
Well, you’re not *required* to read it or comment.
In any case, check out the shadows and wheel contact points in the still above, it looks at *least* as bad as it appears at first glance.
Wow – he’s inches away. If
Wow – he’s inches away. If that cyclist had tumbled he’d be dead and the driver probably wouldn’t even feel the bump. I hope that he loses his licence but more likely he’ll just lose his job and end up working for a competing haulage firm.
MUST GET IT IN FRONT. IT IS
MUST GET IT IN FRONT. IT IS AN INSULT TO MY ENORMOUS PENIS TO BE BEHIND A CYCLIST.
vonhelmet wrote:MUST GET IT
Tell that the bint who HAD to pass me yesterday in her stupid SUV even though I was travelling at the speed limit for that piece of road.
vonhelmet wrote:MUST GET IT
Fixed that for you…
Would the driver even be able
Would the driver even be able to see the cyclist in that position?
Bradford is a mecca for shit
Bradford is a mecca for shit uninsured drivers.
Dangerous or What!!
Happens
Dangerous or What!! X(
Happens all too often.
Wow! That is absolutely
Wow! That is absolutely shocking. The truck is actually getting closer and closer to the cyclist throughout the sequence __ pause the video and then watch the cyclist’s shadow as it travels downwards on the front of the truck. By the time the truck passes the camera car it must be within a foot or so of the cyclist.
That Joda driver needs to be identified, prosecuted and taken off the road before he kills someone. He is literally playing games with another man’s life.
Road.cc please continue to press Joda Freight for a response. They cannot possibly want a liability like that in their employment.
About right standard of
About right standard of driving around Bradford and Leeds.
Slightly ironic music
Slightly ironic music playing.
This morning I got cut up by
This morning I got cut up by a similarly sized lorry, he stared swerving around the road and only me lurching left onto a bus stop-layby prevented me from being crushed.
I caught him at the next set of lights and knocked on his front window. At which point he looked up placed the iPad on the seat next to him and told me to jog on.
If I’d been killed I don’t think he would have even noticed and certainly not admited fault when caught.
I’m thinking of carrying paint stripper in my drinks bottle so I can spray it on offending vehicles.
You end up drinking it !
You end up drinking it !
GREGJONES wrote:
I caught him
Rebuking other road users, especially on a subjective basis, is not the remit of cyclists but the police. It is the basis of all the road rage videos I have watched. It is best to just let them go and not instigate confrontation that can go badly wrong.
Don’t even think about criminal damage as his ‘offence’ was your subjective opinion but criminal damage of any sort is absolute. Because, unlike drivers with number plates, cyclists aren’t and any driver or person who is subject of criminal damage, can take whatever steps to detain the perpetrator and this can even mean chasing a cyclist, who can soon disappear up an alley and stopping him by any means. Extreme as it may sound, it is something that, so far, has not been put to the courts but, even so, it has happened already and legal or not, isn’t a good place to put yourself when on a bike.
GREGJONES wrote:
I’m thinking
Wouldn’t it melt the plastic?
pakennedy wrote:GREGJONES
Was thinking that myself. Brake fluid would be a better option. 👿
giff77 wrote:pakennedy
Was thinking that myself. Brake fluid would be a better option. 👿— GREGJONES
I was think of strapping a Uzi 9mm across my back – Imagine how many punchlines you could come up with as you sprayed a hail of bullets at the assholes 😉
This apparently happened in
This apparently happened in Yorkshire, but this firm are also Bronze level TfL FORS (Transport for London’s Fleet Operators Recognition Scheme) members.
For how you can contact FORS about anything which you think they may be concerned with: http://rdrf.org.uk/2015/03/05/cyclists-stay-back-stickers-something-you-can-do/
For context, where we are with FORS over cyclist warning stickers: http://rdrf.org.uk/2015/05/06/cyclists-stay-back-stickers-is-transport-for-london-doing-what-it-can-to-get-wrongly-used-ones-removed/
ChairRDRF wrote:This
Interesting. I was on a cycle maintenance couse last week. The instructor said TFL have been making all HGV drivers attend cyclist awareness courses. They have now extended this to van drivers, because they are having more conflicts than HGVs. He said the van drivers are a harder crowd because they have no special driver training at all. Just regular license etc.
https://www.facebook.com/page
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Joda-Freight-HQ/193061297389182
This happend to me a couple
This happend to me a couple of years ago! I banged on the cab the whole time as the idiot overtook. Wasn’t until after I realised how close I came to getting dragged under the wheels! I was so shocked at the time I didn’t get any details of the lorry. Still gets my blood pumping when I think back to it. Urgh
Even more convinced I should
Even more convinced I should carry a camera or four when I cycle.
As far as I can make out, the
As far as I can make out, the lorry comes into contact with the cyclist just as it is going out of shot of the camera (if not before). It is not overtaking it, because the shoulder of the cyclist is in front of the lorry at the time it reaches it.
Elroch wrote:It is not
Nah I think the truck just makes it around, but there is a gnat’s pube between that rider and the side of the cab:
So lucky could of been easily
So lucky could of been easily a death
Has Road cc been able to get
Has Road cc been able to get a comment from this firm and have they spoken to local police in Keighley to highlight this video. ?
CXR94Di2 wrote:Has Road cc
This is *West Yorkshire* police, who have a long record of strong hostility towards anyone on bikes.
They absolutely will not do anything about a report of this sort of thing.
Even if the victim himself reported it, he would barely be likely even to get the “courtesy” phone call to say that they would not be investigating.
The cyclist is in the drivers
The cyclist is in the drivers blind spot….puts tin hat on.
Vid wrote:The cyclist is in
Sure. They key question is how the cyclist ended up in the driver’s blind spot. Only two possibilities really – option 1: cyclist came up inside lorry from behind (stupid cyclist); option 2: lorry came up on cyclist from behind (criminal negligence from driver). Hard to tell from the video as it is so short and you can’t see the context leading up to it, but it looks to me more like option 2, as the lorry appears to be coming up on the cyclist with a clear road ahead. I don’t think the video on its own would be enough to prosecute though, you would need testimony/evidence from someone about what happened before the incident.
hylozoist wrote:Hard to tell
There is a longer video, but it doesn’t add much to the context. Only thing I noticed was that a few additional cars seem to appear in front of the lorry from when you first glimpse it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSBL87w7cGM
hylozoist wrote: I don’t
The tachometer will record the drivers speed/acceleration/deceleration just prior. That might shed some light..
ydrol wrote:The tachometer
A key question might be: if the driver was genuinely unaware of the cyclist then why was he driving at the speed of a bike when he is in a 40 and the longer video shows a good 20-30 second gap ahead of him?
Vid wrote:The cyclist is in
He didn’t just magically materialise in the driver’s blind spot though, did he?
Sent a tweet to @BBCLookNorth
Sent a tweet to @BBCLookNorth it will be interesting to see if it makes the news!
Terrifying.
At first, I’d
Terrifying.
At first, I’d criticised the cyclist for hugging the kerb. That being said, for all we know, the lorry might have pushed him that far in.
Prick needs dragging off the road (the lorry driver that is).
It’s the low level sun made
It’s the low level sun made the driver miss all that is on the road.
Driver is risking killing the
Driver is risking killing the cyclist here, he should go to prison, dangerous driving does not get much more dangerous than this. It looks like at times the lorry is touching the cyclist.
Yep as I keep telling
Yep as I keep telling cyclists, it’s bloody dangerous mixing & mingling with very big moving machinery operated by complete strangers of varying ability and mental capacity. i.e. Humans. If it were a fairground ride it would be banned.
Yep, It is mostly motor vehicles operated by drivers that kill most cyclists. That’s a no brainer. Of course it is. So what’s to be done? How about self protection and don’t do it. An obvious answer that cyclists just can’t tolerate.
In this case, it was a horrible piece of road with no escape space. What appears to be a solid wall. What a terrible place to be on a bike. Will he go back the next day and do it again? You betcha!
What guts? And telling this big machine to ‘F…..K off’ too! Oh right. That sure sorted the problem.
Here is the stretch of road
Here is the stretch of road featured in the video in case anyone wants to take a nosey around in Street View:
https://goo.gl/maps/BZHKS
Anyone reported this footage
Anyone reported this footage to the plods or any plods on here going to take action on it and investigate? The driver needs to lose his HGV license.
Interestingly coming through
Interestingly coming through Deptford in south east London this morning not half hour ago I saw a red Joda artic lorry that was a touch keen to not stop at a give way in order to try and dodge in front of the traffic coming through a filter light of which I was at the front. Touch of accelerator then realised it wasn’t on even though it never had been and then a heavy brake. I’d have basically ridden into the side of the trailer if he’d have gone through with it.
There are several Joda
There are several Joda employees on the road.cc facebook comments who say that they have spoken to the driver who says the cyclist undertook the lorry. One even said that the cyclist phoned in to Joda and said as much himself.
If he did put himself in that position then he is an idiot and doesn’t deserve much in the way of sympathy.
There is still the question of whether the driver knew he was there or not though. According to one Joda guy:
It’s hard to say either way, but I suggest people are careful with those internet pitchforks.
GrahamSt wrote:There are
But to use bad behaviour to meet bad behaviour is just stupid. If he had undertaken then there is still no justification for the truck to continue that close to the cyclist. lift off the accelerator and allow a gap to open up. Driving on the motorway this weekend I had lots of people pull across me into my correct 2 second gap, I didn’t close right up to them because its ok because he put himself there. I backed off slightly allowed a safe distance to be established and then continued my journey without a second thought.
If the machinery in the clip
If the machinery in the clip were anything other than a lorry the HSE would be investigating immediately. If the person in fear of their life were anything other than a cyclist the police would be investigating immediately. Because it’s a lorry and a cyclist it gets investigated by Joe Public on Facebook and the relevant authorities who could stop this happening are not remotely interested.
Deaths at work halved in last
Deaths at work halved in last 15 years…
http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2013/10/30/1383129524523/87149121-bbba-4ccc-a20f-9d21868452e9-bestSizeAvailable.png
Violent crime halved in last 20 years… http://www.poverty.org.uk/87/ah.png
While cycling stays as dangerous as ever… http://cyclinguphill.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/2013-cycle-casualties-per-bn-km-500×361.png
@catfordrichard: aye, but if
@catfordrichard: aye, but if the cyclist really had slipped up the inside to that position, I’d expect that the lorry driver would have had no idea that the cyclist was there at all.
Of course, “he overtook me on the inside, not my fault” is much easier to say to to your colleagues than “yeah, I was driving like a c*nt, what a w@nker I am”. It looks to me as though the lorry is traveling at a speed that would have made that manoeuvre by the bike unlikely – but the clip is too short to have any certainty at all.
One thing to bear in mind about cyclist outrage at this clip, though: enough of us think it likely that the lorry driver was acting dangerously because lorry-driving like that happens regularly…
adamthekiwi wrote:It looks to
The longer clip does show the lorry in traffic and possibly stationary, about 30 seconds before the incident. So it is quite possible the cyclist stupidly undertook him at that point.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSBL87w7cGM
GrahamSt wrote:adamthekiwi
Having watched the longer clip I would suggest the cyclist undertook the truck while it waited at road works and it’s unlikely the driver knew he was there. I once saw a Smart car being pushed sideways along the Marylebone road by an LGV in similar circumstances.
I drive a truck and I cycle to work. Truck drivers may intimidate cyclists by sitting on their rear wheel. It happens but, in my opinion, not it this case.
Vid wrote:GrahamSt
Having watched the longer clip I would suggest the cyclist undertook the truck while it waited at road works and it’s unlikely the driver knew he was there. I once saw a Smart car being pushed sideways along the Marylebone road by an LGV in similar circumstances.
I drive a truck and I cycle to work. Truck drivers may intimidate cyclists by sitting on their rear wheel. It happens but, in my opinion, not it this case.— adamthekiwi
It’s admirable that you want to give the driver the benefit of the doubt, but if he didn’t know he was there why is there such a big gap between the truck and the car in front as it finally passes by the stationary car recording the event? The first few seconds of the clip show the oncoming traffic moving including, it appears to me, the Joda truck.
From either of the video’s
From either of the video’s you can’t say for certain that the cyclist was under taking and I definitely won’t be taking the word of some fellow lorry drivers.
Regardless of the circumstances of how the cyclist ended I up there I wouldn’t expect a ‘professional’* driver to going out of their way to try and put another human being in even more mortal danger.
By *professional, I mean has at least 3 driving bans, a number of drinking driving convictions and probably doesn’t hold the correct licence or any insurance.
Housecathst wrote:Regardless
I understand your scepticism, but you are still assuming the lorry driver knows the cyclist is there. We don’t know that he does and the cyclist certainly appears to be in a position that would only be visible in one down-facing mirror, if that.
GrahamSt wrote:Housecathst
If the driver does know that the Person is there, they shouldn’t be behind the wheel or the vehicle shouldn’t be on the road. I understand that this is not generally accepted, because were happy that 5 people die on the roads every day and 60 plus are seriously injured. But I don’t accept that.
“It’s admirable that you want
“It’s admirable that you want to give the driver the benefit of the doubt, but if he didn’t know he was there why is there such a big gap between the truck and the car in front as it finally passes by the stationary car recording the event? The first few seconds of the clip show the oncoming traffic moving including, it appears to me, the Joda truck.”
Because I’m observant…three vehicles ahead of the camera car is a white LGV. There is not enough room where the road narrows for that LGV and the Joda truck to pass. Oncoming traffic continues until the Joda truck stops and gives way to the white LGV. The white LGV continues as does the following traffic. 6 seconds into the video you can see the white LGV and the Joda truck with no gap in the traffic. 28 seconds in ,just beyond the 40 mph sign on the left, you see the shadow of the white LGV move forward. At this point notice there is no oncoming traffic because the Joda truck has stopped to let the white LGV through.
I don’t buy that version of
I don’t buy that version of evens at all. The video gives no evidence as to how the cyclist ended up so close to the front of the lorry. As a lorry driver you make the assumption that “all” cyclists undertake and that’s how he ended up there. As a cyclist I make the assume that all lorry drivers have at least 3 driving bans, a number of drinking driving convictions and probably don’t hold the correct licence or any insurance and they like to go out of there why to put other people’s lives in danger. (That assume has kept me safe on the road so far)
But that gets us no where really. The lorry driver shouldnt be driving his vehicle into a space he can’t see, surely that is the most basic bit of road safety. It’s clear that he has a downward facing mirror, why isn’t he using it ?
The question was asked why
The question was asked why was there a gap in the oncoming traffic. I’ve explained how that occurred with the video evidence..
“The video gives no evidence as to how the cyclist ended up so close to the front of the lorry.” Eureka! ( An earlier post said the cyclist admitted undertaking but the video is inconclusive)
“As a lorry driver you make the assumption that “all” cyclists undertake.” No I consider the possibility that they might and I have to look out for them.
” As a cyclist I make the assume that all lorry drivers have at least 3 driving bans, a number of drinking driving convictions and probably don’t hold the correct licence or any insurance and they like to go out of there why to put other people’s lives in danger. (That assume has kept me safe on the road so far)”
You should extend that to include all people and animals.
As a cyclist I ride with the attitude if I have an accident regardless of who is at fault I’m the one going to hospital.
“The lorry driver shouldnt be driving his vehicle into a space he can’t see, surely that is the most basic bit of road safety.” That’s a good point.The driver unlike a cyclist cannot see his front wheels.
Latest truck designs bring the drivers position down to the cyclists level like the new London buses.
” It’s clear that he has a downward facing mirror, why isn’t he using it ?”
Why do you think the cyclist is still alive ?
I have to ride to work now and harass some cyclists with my truck. :H