The latest edition of our Near Miss of the Day feature took place in the Peak District, involves a driver towing a caravan who overtook a cyclist far too close for comfort, and has a bit of a comic twist.
“Here’s the good bit,” says road.cc reader Martin Peake, who sent us a link to his YouTube video of the incident.
“The numpty then met a bus coming in the opposite direction, allowing me catch him and discuss his driving.
“Apparently, he had waited too long behind me, he was a cyclist, I gave cyclists a bad reputation etc etc…
“At this point, the guy in the red car which had passed me first came and joined in by laying into the caravanner.
“Good show!”
We couldn’t agree more, and also found some comedy gold in the video that YouTube chose to show next – there isn’t a bicycle in sight but trust us, it is a must-watch.
> Cyclist gets own back on caravan-towing driver who almost knocked him off his bike (+ link to video)
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@road.cc" target="_blank">info@road.cc or contact us via the road.cc Facebook page.
20 thoughts on “Near Miss of the Day 4: “Caravan idiot” passes cyclist way too closely”
There is a god. Poetic
There is a god. Poetic justice at its finest, and if only this happened to all those imbeciles doing the close passes.
I hope “Near Miss of the Day”
I hope “Near Miss of the Day” is just a week-long feature.
Just a thought; if this was
Just a thought; if this was shown to Jeremy Clarkson, would he self combust in a spiral of indecision about who to hate more, caravans or cyclists?
Typical caravan driver,
Typical caravan driver, probably forgot he was towing one.
Wasn’t an Audi though so some
Wasn’t an Audi though so some road.cc members will be confused about this.
Yorkshire wallet wrote:
I can confirm that there is no confusion for us Audi owners we are not drivers just car and bicycle owners.
Yep, not a cyclist either:
1. have hair on legs
2. Have 6 bikes and told the wife it was enough
3. There are loads of other reasons.
Anyway I blame the BMW and Mercedes owners they’re the real culprits – they think they own the road when we all know that roads are ONLY for Audis oh and maybe a few other VWG vehicles…
FatBoyW wrote:
VAG vehicles, isn’t it? Appropriately enough…
I don’t have a caravan but I
I don’t have a caravan but I do drink Peroni.
I feel a diagram coming on.
I feel a diagram coming on.
So if he caught caravan man
So if he caught caravan man up……where’s the video of his admonishment? I’d rather watch the argument or does it require a ‘none of this really happened’ jpg?
Yorkshire wallet wrote:
Because the camera is fixed below my Garmin and was thus audio only.
I’m curious where that close
I’m curious where that close pass incident took place. It looks like a stretch of the route I take from the M1 when I drive to Buxton. It might be the A6 before you get to Matlock. It doesn’t really matter, I’m just curious.
OldRidgeback wrote:
I think you are right, it does look like the bit between Belper and Matlock
ClubSmed wrote:
Isn’t it southbound between Hathersage and Grindleford bridge? If it is its a horrible bit of road for cycling the light/dark combined witht he twistiness mean its somewhere I would avoid riding.
ClubSmed wrote:
Yep, that’s the bit I think. Though some of the other posters think otherwise. Like I said, it doesn’t relly matter.
I’ve never cycled round there, though I’ve ridden my motorbike on a number of occasions and that was great.
I’ve been thinkinf taking my bike up there some time though. Some of the old railways are now cycleways and have some stunning scenery, which i’d be able to see on my bicycle, as i certainly can’t when i’m on my motorbike!
OldRidgeback wrote:
I will be down there cycling this weekend so I’ll let you know
The problem with long
The problem with long vehicles/vehicles with trailers is that drivers are oblivious. Once they have passed you they “forget” that there vehicle or combination maybe another 5 – 10m long and feel safe pulling back over.
This is bad enough from car drivers who have had no training operating vehicles that long. What is worse to me is the number of supposedly trained commercial vehicle drivers who also seem oblivious (or just don’t care) about the length of the vehicle they are responsible for.
1961BikiE wrote:
Exactly. I have a regular close passer on my commute – a f***-off great big coach (no markings, unfortunately). Last time was just yesterday, and he then stopped at the shops up the road, I gave him an earful when passing, he didn’t even look in my direction. Wanker.
I didn’t want to confront him as a) it won’t make the blindest of difference, and b) he has a 5 ton weapon under his ‘control’. Next time I might not think so rationally – although taking the reg number and reporting it would be wise I know. As would be actually carrying/using the camera I have.
“OldRidgeback [2759 posts] 5
“OldRidgeback [2759 posts] 5 hours ago
I’m curious where that close pass incident took place. It looks like a stretch of the route I take from the M1 when I drive to Buxton. It might be the A6 before you get to Matlock. It doesn’t really matter, I’m just curious.”
looks a bit further north to me – reckon it is the road heading south out of Hathersage to Grindleford, B6001 with the Derwent down to the left – narrow and winding with a few places to pass safely as the driver of the red ford demonstrated – when I see good passes like that I think forget 1m/1.5m laws – just make it “must fully change lanes to overtake cyclists”
antigee wrote:
Sir, you are correct.