Today’s video in our Near Miss of the Day series shows not one but two cyclists getting a close pass from the same driver – but as the road.cc reader who submitted the footage has found out before, there’s something of a postcode lottery at work in whether police act on the video.
It was shot earlier this week by Mike, who said: “Here's a video of me and a fellow cyclist getting a dose of impatience from a driver on Tuesday.”
We know that some police forces are hot on acting on videos such as this – West Midlands Police, for example, who pioneered the close pass initiative since adopted by forces across the country, or Surrey Police, who on their Twitter account regularly correct motorists’ misconceptions about the law as it applies to cyclists.
Not so in Mike’s part of the world, however. “I’m not even considering police, last time I enquired with Wiltshire Police they told me unless there's a collision they're not interested,” he told us.
> 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 [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.
> What to do if you capture a near miss or close pass (or worse) on camera while cycling
Simon has been news editor at road.cc since 2009, reporting on 10 editions and counting of pro cycling’s biggest races such as the Tour de France, stories on issues including infrastructure and campaigning, and interviewing some of the biggest names in cycling. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, his background has proved invaluable in reporting on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, and the bike industry. He splits his time between London and Cambridge, and loves taking his miniature schnauzer Elodie on adventures in the basket of her Elephant Bike.