A post on Twitter by five-time British time trial champion Alex Dowsett in which he related how he had to swerve yesterday to avoid being hit head-on by a speeding Porsche Cayenne driver who was overtaking another car has resulted in hundreds of his followers sharing their own experience of similar incidents with him.
The post by the 27-year-old Movistar rider, who will be riding for Katusha-Alpecin next season, has been retweeted more than 4,000 times on the social network.
My thoughts from today’s frightening near miss. If you agree, have had the same or can relate to this, I’d appreciate it shared. pic.twitter.com/wd53AdFE94
— Alex Dowsett (@alexdowsett) December 18, 2017
Dowsett wrote: “Today a new red Porsche Cayenne overtook another car but in doing so he came straight at me on my side of the road doing, I would guess (given it was an overtake in a powerful car) around 60-80mph. I was doing 25mph. A head-on at this speed is an impact speed of 85-1005mph with a 2040kg car and an 80kg me… you can do the consequential maths.”
He continued: “He saw me, we made eye contact, I don’t know if he saw me before he started the overtake but once he was mid-manoeuvre he saw me, he didn’t try to squeeze the Fiat 500 he was overtaking, nor did he tray and brake or even lift off and I’m fairly sure of this, he took a chance that we would all fit.
“Of course, I was angry initially, in shock that someone could take such a chance with someone else’s life for the sake of an overtake.”
He added: “I was in tears afterwards. It’s the closest I’ve ever been to a career or life-ending crash and it’s scared the living daylights out of me, made me question why we do what we do and if the consequences are worth it.”
Dowsett, who said that as of today he will ride with a camera fixed to his bike, ended his post with a message for the driver of the Porsche Cayenne.
He said: “If you get the chance to read this, I hope you had a fright also, I hope my thoughts of what my loved ones would do if I didn’t come home from a training ride mirrored the thoughts of how your loved ones would be having to visit you in a cell, or how you’d feel with the guilt you’d carry, and so I really hope it’s something you won’t do again.”
His post has received more than 300 replies, including this one from James Hayden, winner of this year’s fifth edition of the Transcontinental Race.
Alex, I’ve had this to, horrible. Perhaps you could use your position to leverage the importance of this matter with Essex police. So they take this more serious, for everyone else.
— James Hayden (@JamesMarkHayden) December 18, 2017
A number of people questioned whether Essex Police would do anything even if presented with footage of the incident, given the video that emerged over the weekend showing a cyclist in the county being deliberately knocked off his bike and assaulted by a motorist, against whom no charges were brought.
Essex police a joke. They turned a blind eye to an incident the other day that was clearly caught on camera and said there wasn’t enough evidence.
— Andy Turner (@shoulderpedals) December 18, 2017
Former British road champion Brian Smith spoke of two recent incidents that had happened to him.
Sorry to read this Alex. Today while on a Kent lane i was gestured by an oncoming Range Rover to move over while driving at me at approx 40mph.On Friday it was an Audi TT at 60mph.We go to the lanes to keep away from cars. Not to risk life/injury by idiots driving at us at speed!
— Brian Smith (@BriSmithy) December 18, 2017
Dozens upon dozens of ordinary, everyday cyclists shared their stories too, leading Jason Bradbury of The Gadget Show, who has also presented The Tour Series on TV, to make this observation.
The amount of detailed near-miss replies says it all!
— Jason Bradbury (@JasonBradbury) December 18, 2017
19 thoughts on “Alex Dowsett tweet of scary near miss sees dozens share similar stories”
Sounds like a particularly
Sounds like a particularly bad overtake. I daylight run a powerful front and rear light on flash, and often have a camera set to fast time-lapse on longer rides – to enable better battery life. I have no evidence that the lights actually help, and I do understand the ‘lighting arms race’ counter arguments. Images and video may be of some use if commercial vehicles are involved, or for the police if dangerous driving is clear; maybe not – as we frequently see reports of.
I had a truck on the wrong
I had a truck on the wrong side of the road, overtaking another truck in rural Shropshire. He must have seen me as I could see the start of the manouvre and was in the middle of the road waving at him before stuffing the bike into what little verge there was.
Neither hi viz nor a helmet would have been of benefit to me in this collision were it to have happened.
The company who he drove for said that he’d been fired as a result of this, whether he had or not, I don’t care. Hopefully there’s one less dangerous driver out there and one more traffic manager who knows that company logoed vehicle bring bad news to the company when drivers drive like arseholes.
Glad you’re safe Mr Dowsett, a truly frightening experience.
Somehow I fear this #metoo
Somehow I fear this #metoo campaign will have less impact that the other one.
PRSboy wrote:
Maybe we need to get Matt Damon to explain it properly…
Police WILL pursue drivers
Police WILL pursue drivers where there is evidence from video footage of seriously bad driving like this. Reports on here of the police ‘not doing anything’ about bad drivers is the opposite of my own experience. Have reported three ‘bad driving’ incidents to them this year alone and, using my video footage as evidence, the police have taken action against three different drivers. I could post videos on here but legal proceedings are still under way so i can’t at the moment. You have to make your case to them in writing and do it through the proper channels. A phone call to a police station or police control room will seldom be effective as often you are put in contact with someone who is misinformed and invariably NOT a police officer. Getting fobbed off is more than likely.
So my advice would be get a camera and stick with it.
Don’t let w*nkers intimdate us and drive us off the roads.
How do you make sure that
How do you make sure that your camera has a clear view of the driver? One issue is that it needs to prove unequivocably who was at the wheel at the time.
This driver got off on the basis they couldn’t remember who was driving and the car was rented.
Modern windscreens seem oddly opaque from outside from some angles so you can’t see in… some sort of heat reflection presumably.
PRSboy wrote:
The driver used a defence that is not widely accepted and, I believe, will only succeeed in rare circumstances.
You don’t need footage of the driver for the police to prosecute.
Otherwise everyone would get off their speeding fines whenever they got a fixed penalty from a speed camera, very few of which show a clear image of the driver. And of course motorcyclists would never get caught on that basis.
My two closest calls were
My two closest calls were both, depressingly, on quiet country roads and in great conditions with no excuses.
Intentional: Two morons in a 4 x4 who ignored a passing place and drove at me and a mate at 40 mph in a raised flood plain single track road . We had to split either side both into the grass almost ending up in deep ditches. Any hesitation on our part would have meant impact. They drove on laughing.
Stupidity: I was approaching a completely sighted gentle left hand bend – no hedges you could see for 200 feet either side of the bend. I was head down making some effort, heard an engine and looked up for a split second vision of a mini taking what what Clarkson calls ‘the racing line’ through the bend with a girl holding her phone behind the wheel. She jinxed the steering wheel left and missed a head on by less than three feet. Her driver’s side mirror must have missed by 6 inches. I was going 25 mph she was doing at least 45mph. One extra word on the text she was reading and I would’ve been jam.
You just carry on don’t you?
I know there’s a fair few of
I know there’s a fair few of us on here who tire of a perceived near miss obsession (I read ‘near hit’ elsewhere – I like that), but this is a real issue that shouldn’t be brushed under the carpet. A problem is much of the footage looks tame behind the keyboard, when it’s far from that at the time.
Anyway, without wanting to sound trite in relation to the issues she was addressing, I’m reminded of the famous Margaret Atwood quote, but with a cycling twist:
Motorists are worried that cyclists will piss them off. Cyclists are afraid motorists will kill them.
I had two ridiculously poor
I had two ridiculously poor overtakes nearly end me on the same stretch of the A30 near Blackbushe Airport a couple of years ago. Both of them were massive 4x4s overtaking traffic going the speed limit in the opposite direction. Both of them saw me well ahead of the overtake and carries on regardless. The continuing media frenzy and hyped up ‘war’ between cyclists and people in massive metal boxes legitimises these acts and allows them to feel righteous in nearly killing us
The main issue is that the
The main issue is that drivers like this clearly couldn’t give a toss about the lives of cyclists, and somehow that’s socially acceptable, in a way that drink driving isn’t anymore, despite being a gigantic arsehole arguably causing more risk to others than being slightly over the alcohol limit.
But a secondary point is that a new Porsche Cayenne is 198cm wide, not including big and heavy wing mirrors. Chances are someone with the money to afford a £56K luxury SUV is middle-aged. That means they probably would’ve learnt to drive in something like an Austin Metro, which was 43cm narrower, and with puny and lightweight wing mirrors. Alex Dowsett’s bike is 44cm wide, the same width that racing bike handlebars have always been, for people of his build. So we’ve ceded very nearly a bicycle’s width in order to pamper the similarly-ballooning buttocks and egos of car drivers, and to boost car manufacturer sales. Yet cyclists are routinely described (even on the BBC) as “road hogs”. Alex himself felt the need to preface his report of this incident with disclaimers that he is a “respectful cyclist” who “rides over to the left”, as if choosing anything other than a multi-tonne death machine isn’t respectul in itself.
handlebarcam wrote:
Yep – its the people on bicycles who are hogging the road, not the ones in a 2 metre wide, 2 tonne metal box carrying just one person and their phone…
As we can see here from the
As we can see here from the mentioned examples, a big part of dangerous road driving is performed by owners of luxury cars. It may be fine to show off for somebody that he owns luxury items, but when this leads to dangerous situations it must be tackled. My proposal? Sky high taxes for luxury cars with all the extra money collected going on road safety infrastructure and police enforcement. Not collected enough money due to people stopped buying luxury cars? Even better, problem solved beforehand!
I can’t see taxing ‘luxury’
I can’t see taxing ‘luxury’ cars as an option – there is no worst category of driver or vehicle. It’s not as easy as the old/young/ tractor/bus/sports car/luxury car/4×4/taxi/truck are the worst. They all have their fair share of patient drivers that give room, as well as the idiots that think the road is made for them and them only.
Until driver education is improved we sadly have these people on the road, so as it’s the season of good will, do something nice, and when you get a close pass or SMIDSY, point out they should read rule 163 of the Highway Code and item 3 of British Cycling riding on the road safety guidelines. ‘Cos let’s face it – some people that drive really shouldn’t be allowed to – and they do need help to understand the basics…
A couple of years ago I
A couple of years ago I nearly went through the windscreen of a Land Rover Freelander coming the other way that was overtaking a parked car. There is no way he didn’t see me before pulling out, but didn’t give a shit about forcing me off the road.
Plenty of other times, but that was the closest and most deliberate one. Most of the others I think just didn’t realise how fast a bike can go and thought they’d got enough time.
A lot of drivers are high on
A lot of drivers are high on drugs.
kingleo wrote:
A lot?
don simon wrote:
Well I don’t know how you quantify a lot, but it’s quite often I get car pass and I can smell skunk. On the bike and when working by the road, common enough to be worrying to be honest.
An impact speed of 1005mph?
An impact speed of 1005mph? Blimey, that really doesn’t bear thinking about.
Strangely, my experience is almost the inverse of this. I’ve seen a few ill-advised overtakes coming towards me, but none that really left me feeling in danger. What I have had several times is drivers overtaking me in the face of oncoming traffic, giving me reasonable clearance, but coming perilously close to ploughing in to the other car. Which is almost worse, as it endangers all three parties.