A cyclist says he experienced “easily the worst close pass I’ve ever had” at the hands of a driver who “buzzed” him while attempting an overtake at a traffic island – and who, despite being slapped with some sort of punishment by the police, close passed the same cyclist just weeks later.

road.cc reader David admitted he was left shaken and “upset” following the near miss, which took place as he cycled his usual commute on a 50mph A road in Pembrokeshire, an area popular with local cyclists and home to Ironman events and the Long Course Weekend Wales.

“I’d just come past a traffic island that splits the bypass for people to cross when I was buzzed pretty closely by a driver,” he told road.cc.

“They made no attempt to slow down or give me any space, and I’d estimate they were doing more than 30mph. I swore because I was so stunned by the feeling of the speed and closeness to which they passed me.”

David continued: “It wasn’t until I went home after work and reviewed the footage that it hit me how close it was – and I’ll be honest, I was pretty upset.

“I had the misfortune to be hit by a driver last year who came out of a junction and ‘didn’t see me’. Fortunately, that was a slow hit that knocked me into a hedgerow, leaving me with some scratches, a bent derailleur and hoods. 

“It took a while for me to feel confident cycling to work again, and this most recent pass has brought the fear back. This is easily the worst close pass I’ve ever had.”

David said he submitted footage of the close pass to Operation SNAP, but was forced to “chase it up” after he received no updates within the allotted 14-day timescale.

“They eventually emailed me back with the typical response that positive action would be taken, but they would be unable to provide further details of exactly what because of data protection,” he said.

When approached by road.cc, Dyfed Powys Police told us that the case was handled by GoSafe, the Welsh Road Casualty Reduction Partnership, who rather unhelpfully informed us that the close passing driver received either a warning advisory letter, a conditional offer of a diversionary course, a conditional offer of a fixed penalty, or a date in court.

“Following direction from the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) and our force legal departments, we cannot provide the exact outcome in order to comply with the Data Protection Act 1988 and General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR),” the force said.

“I’m assuming it was little more than a warning letter,” David concluded. “Because I was buzzed again a few days ago by the same car – not quite as aggressive but still mildly hair raising.”

> 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@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