Near Miss of the Day 91: Cyclist has two close passes while returning from ride

Police have told a cyclist in Northern Ireland that they will speak to the drivers of two vehicles who made close passes on him as he returned from a group ride at the weekend.

Matthew License, who submitted the footage to us, said: "This video shows the two close passes I had coming home from a group ride.

"They both happened on a fairly steep climb (between 5-7 per cent gradient) so I wasn't going particularly fast.

"With both, if I'd put my arm out (not even fully stretched) I could have clipped their wing mirrors.

"I found the second one particularly bad given that he had the entire other lane to use as all the traffic coming the other way had gone. 

"I reported them to the PSNI (Police Service of Northern Ireland) and have been told they'll have a chat with the drivers as part of their See The Cyclist campaign.

"Hopefully they'll give a bit more space going forward."

The PSNI launched its campaign last year following the death of North Down Cycling Club committee member Gavin Moore, killed when a driver crashed into the group he was riding with.

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.