Near miss of the day 28: Driver turns across cyclist at speed

Today’s near miss sees a white Audi overtake at speed on a 30mph dual carriageway before turning left from the outside lane, narrowly avoiding a collision with a cyclist. Although the footage was brought to their attention, Greater Manchester Police are said not to have investigated as there was no complaint from the cyclist.

The incident took place in late June on Chester Road in Old Trafford at the junction with Great Stone Road.

Andy, who sent us the video, said it was taken from the dash cam of a close family member as she was driving home from work.

“As a responsible citizen and with nothing to gain from this herself she sent the video to the police as they have recently publicised an initiative/campaign to make the roads safer for cyclists as part of Operation Considerate.

“We heard nothing back from the police, so I contacted Operation Considerate myself last week and was told the case was not going to be further investigated as the cyclist had not come forward.

“There were no issues with the quality of the footage or identifying the registration number of the car – it was simply that they had been given guidance from the Crown Prosecution Service not to even send cases to them for prosecution where there was no complaint from the person actually affected by the incident, i.e. in this case the unidentified cyclist.

“I was also told that they don't re-contact people who send these videos in unless they are to be called to court, so we would never have been told about this if I'd not got in touch.

“We were not happy with this decision. Not only did the footage show a blatantly dangerous bit of driving but it also seems that the police have failed to send out a Notice of Intended Prosecution to the driver so any opportunity to prosecute is now effectively lost as they have not complied with correct procedure.”

Andy went on to say that he had recently reported a separate close pass incident to a neighbouring police force which was dealt with “professionally and thoroughly.” He added that the bad driving in that particular incident, “was much less appalling than the one in the attached video.”

Greater Manchester Police has been contacted for comment.

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 [at] 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.