Usually the footage on our Near Miss of the Day series is just that — a near miss, always scary and with the potential to turn into something much more dangerous but fortunately doesn’t, and most of the time free from any physical contact, let alone a physical altercation.
Not this time though, as the driver first overtook the cyclist with oncoming traffic with so little space that he was able to offer one of those harmless taps on the car with just a flick of his shoulder. However, the driver wasn’t pleased with that, pulling ahead and screaming that he gave the cyclist loads of room, before allegedly committing a physical assault.
The incident took place on Carrs Hill on the N28 between Carrigaline and Cork City in Ireland, where the cyclist ‘Righttobikeit’ has had a couple of close passes, one of those in July last year on this same stretch of road when the motorist involved mistimed their approach to a cyclist (possibly not helped by the van driver close behind) and was forced to brake suddenly having realised there would be no safe way past.
This clown added an assault charge causing harm to his deliberate dangerous overtake. Waited up ahead and pulled to ground while still on my bike because I touched his car. Justice will come to him . Said he gave loads of room. pic.twitter.com/iWS1vU05XB
— Righttobikeit ?? (@righttobikeit) August 13, 2024
This time, the driver was following the rider with his right indicator on, impatiently looking for the tiniest of gaps to overtake in the presence of heavy oncoming traffic. As soon as the motorist smelled half an opportunity, he revved his engine and decided to complete the manoeuvre, barely leaving his lane and scarily close to the cyclist.
The cyclist told road.cc: “He pulled over after around 200 or 300 metres and got out of the car. I had to stop in case he attacked me while moving with so much traffic. He started shouting and screaming at me for hitting his car.
“He then pulled my bike to ground while I was on it causing me to fall over. I pulled out my phone and started calling the Gardai. But he refused to remain at the scene.”
He suffered flesh wounds on his leg, noting that they were “just scrapes and nothing serious”. He added that the motorist was in his “late 20s early 30s” and was with another woman who managed to somehow pull him away when he got back up to his feet.
He said that he hadn’t reported the assault to the gardai yet and was deciding to withhold footage of it until the police procedure had concluded, adding: “It was an assault so I won’t be going through our traffic watch system I’ll have to go to the station tomorrow and make a statement.”
Loads of room pic.twitter.com/qwmJm765jd
— Righttobikeit ?? (@righttobikeit) August 13, 2024
The rider, who regularly uploads footage of dangerous driving from their commutes and has appeared on this website previously, had previously told road.cc that this stretch of road in Cork County has been something of a hotspot for close passes.
Besides the near miss from July last year where the motorist stalled their car while blaring the horn at the cyclist, another incident on the same road saw a driver receive a careless driving conviction, €300 fine and five penalty points on their licence after being reported by Righttobikeit.
> 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
10 thoughts on “Near Miss of the Day 914: Driver close passes cyclist… then proceeds to pull over and assault him for touching his car”
I don’t think I’ve seen a
I don’t think I’ve seen a closer pass without there being a collision.
I fear posting it up on here comprises a prosecution, because if the driver chooses trial by jury, the jurors themselves are compromised. Unfortunately the driver also has a witness to back up any allegation that there was an assault. Though that may be mute, if he has video evidence.
If you fear a close pass, take the primary position. They can honk all they like, let them pass when it’s safe!
No footage of the assault, so
No footage of the assault, so no prejudice.
Where more than offence, police will typically focus on the most serious one (assault in this case) over the close pass as the maximum sentence is more severe.
He needs to take the video
He needs to take the video off sites as he’ll be jeopardising any future assault case.
billymansell wrote:
He specifically states that he hasn’t uploaded the video of the assault and won’t until the Guards have finished their investigation, so no grounds to say it would jeopardize anything.
Good job you rode with your
Good job you rode with your knees tucked in as otherwise you’d be needing a new right kneecap.
There is a name for ‘drivers’ like that … and it’s *cunt*.
Although, I fear that’s not insulting enough.
Surely a gentle tap is the
Surely a gentle tap is the best way to counter the argument that it’s not possible to determine from the camera lens whether it was under 1.5m?
That was definitely beyond a close pass, that was pure luck he didn’t knock him off but then decided to attack him afterwards!?
No mentioning the fact it was
No mentioning the fact it was over a solid white line so no overtaking should have been taking place anyway. If the Garde don’t prosecute for that part alone – failing to observe a road sign or markings.
The pass is open and shut.
The pass is open and shut.
A lying driver who couldn’t wait for a gap in the opposing traffic so did a dangerous pass on the same line instead.
I don’t know what the regs are in Ireland for cyclist speed and crossing white lines whilst passing.
mattw wrote:
I believe they don’t even have the “slow moving road user” exemption that’s in the British Highway Code, only permissible to get round an obstruction as far as I’m aware.
I don’t know what the regs
I don’t know what the regs are in Ireland for cyclist speed and crossing white lines whilst passing.
Doesn’t matter what the ‘regs’ are- it’s the police that determine the law in this part of the globe and we know that the police have decided that any offences to, or around, cyclists are ignored. It’s only days since we were told on here that Kent police are not even ashamed of their ‘don’t call us, we’ll call you (except we won’t unless you can prove you’ve been KSI’d) policy about close-passing- which means that close-passing officially does not exist in Kent. In Lancashire they don’t admit that, but simply bin all such reports.