Near Miss of the Day 322: Driver turns across path of cyclist - one of the closest we've seen

ktache wrote:

Well done for using the PMs quote there Brooksby, "Dead in a Ditch", many news programs have been using "Dies in a ditch", which is wrong, he can die anywhere, it's just that his lifeless body must be left "Dead in a ditch"

I think they must be conflating it with "Do or Die"

And I am not in any way using extreme language, just the actual things our PM has said, and it's necessary logical implications.

Someone ought to start twittering No 10 photos of Olde English Ditches, in case he needs any suggestions.

After all, we know he'd rather be in one of them than still in No 10 on 1st November, looking forward to a general election...

"What's that, Sooty? You think he'd rather just pretend he never said that so he gets to cling onto any power no matter what?  Well, I think that's very cynical of you, Sooty!"

Philh68 wrote:

Good effort on the panic stop. I’m surprised that Rodney turned into the direction the BMW was travelling, most people seeking to avoid a collision turn away from the encroaching vehicle. Given the poor visibility and road condition that was probably a smart choice, but one few make in a split second decision.

yes for some reason I didn't want to swerve into the road not knowing exactly what was behind me other than the lorry, didn't want to fall off in the road and get run over!

Rodney

Philh68 wrote:

Good effort on the panic stop. I’m surprised that Rodney turned into the direction the BMW was travelling, most people seeking to avoid a collision turn away from the encroaching vehicle. Given the poor visibility and road condition that was probably a smart choice, but one few make in a split second decision.

yes for some reason I didn't want to swerve into the road not knowing exactly what was behind me other than the lorry, didn't want to fall off in the road and get run over!

Rodney

Judge dreadful wrote:

That was stupidly close. What a dim witted piece of driving.

Wet road man. Car driver would know his vehicle yet at that rate (old dude here with normal brakes, not ABS) he/she probably didn't see the cyclist and 'oh far cut' cut it early and gone.
Or probably did see the cyclist and 'oh far him' and..
Looks like a Welsh summer..
Rather than dim wit, light up approach. Although if lit was, just another idiot.

slappop wrote:

What I take from that video is, regardless of the terrible behaviour of the car drivers, what a miserable place the UK is to ride a bike.

Where are you from?  It can, and normally is, really nice riding a bike in the UK, but I mainly ride for leisure, so if the weather is really miserable out I tend not to go.  There are some beautiful quite lanes, and only the very occasional idiot.

DoctorFish wrote:

Where are you from?  It can, and normally is, really nice riding a bike in the UK, but I mainly ride for leisure, so if the weather is really miserable out I tend not to go.  There are some beautiful quite lanes, and only the very occasional idiot.

I'm from the UK, but I've lived in Switzerland for the past twenty years. 

slappop wrote:

What I take from that video is, regardless of the terrible behaviour of the car drivers, what a miserable place the UK is to ride a bike.

Its not that bad!

I've not long come back from a three day trip to the Mt Ventoux area.  Some of the aggressive driving, horn blowing and close passing we suffered on local roads would have made even a British driver blush.

Maybe the locals are fed up with the number of cyclists in the area, who knows...

PRSboy wrote:

slappop wrote:

What I take from that video is, regardless of the terrible behaviour of the car drivers, what a miserable place the UK is to ride a bike.

Its not that bad!

I've not long come back from a three day trip to the Mt Ventoux area.  Some of the aggressive driving, horn blowing and close passing we suffered on local roads would have made even a British driver blush.

Maybe the locals are fed up with the number of cyclists in the area, who knows...

I found them fine when i went, maybe just the time of day means you get a certain type of driver.

As noted above, leisure riding you tend to get 1% of dickheads, commuting times it's around 30%.

alansmurphy wrote:

PRSboy wrote:

slappop wrote:

What I take from that video is, regardless of the terrible behaviour of the car drivers, what a miserable place the UK is to ride a bike.

Its not that bad!

I've not long come back from a three day trip to the Mt Ventoux area.  Some of the aggressive driving, horn blowing and close passing we suffered on local roads would have made even a British driver blush.

Maybe the locals are fed up with the number of cyclists in the area, who knows...

 

I found them fine when i went, maybe just the time of day means you get a certain type of driver.

 

As noted above, leisure riding you tend to get 1% of dickheads, commuting times it's around 30%.

I've had agressive and impatient drivers in every country I've been too, Dutch drivers* are not all that on the actual road and out of sight of prying eyes, French are pretty good out in the sticks and the 30km/h speed limit in many small conurbations helps a lot but in the bigger cities/towns it can be just as bad as here. Oh and too many of their roads make down town beirut look like a bowling green!

Germans, meh, Belgians, similar to the Dutch, good and ruddy awful in typical UK ratio IME, Spanish, not bad for the most part actually, Italians are just a bit mental but for me the worst road users I come across on the continent are Swiss and Italian motorcyclists, they simply don't give a flying one and every strip of road is Monza or somesuch, German motorcyclists completely different AND the good old Eastern European HGV drivers, stereotyping it might sound but feck me they are rubbish!

That's the thing, we see/experience a small snapshot of where we cycle and most of it is here, so it mounts up in the memroy banks that's it's dog do, yet on the continent places like Germany, France, Italy, even NL have actually worse road KSIs than the UK.

*It's actually quite hard to fathom how despite all the segregated infra and number of cyclists the Dutch manage to have over 200 cycling deaths with a significant chunk of that down to motorists particularly at junctions/cyclist priority.

slappop wrote:

What I take from that video is, regardless of the terrible behaviour of the car drivers, what a miserable place the UK is to ride a bike.

Oh, I don't know, we have some of the best cycle infrastructure in the world.

AlsoSomniloquism wrote:

I'm assuming the lorry driver was asking if you were ok and not stating the need for Road Tax?

yes nice of lorry driver to stop and ask if I was ok, he said that was very close! 
Rodney

burtthebike wrote:

Most drivers don't seem to adjust their driving to the conditions and continue to drive at their normal speed and behaviour when it's raining, dark, foggy.  This was a spectacular example of bad driving; too close to the car in front, not indicating, not observing.

Was the reg obtained?  It's impossible to read on the vid, but eyesight might have been better.  If so, was it reported?

Monumentally impatient. The default setting these days.

You can sort of make out at least part of the reg in the very last frame before the back of the car disappears off screen. Pretty sure it's DV57 *****. Perhaps the origianl video is of better quality and can be seen more clearly.

Kendalred wrote:

burtthebike wrote:

Most drivers don't seem to adjust their driving to the conditions and continue to drive at their normal speed and behaviour when it's raining, dark, foggy.  This was a spectacular example of bad driving; too close to the car in front, not indicating, not observing.

Was the reg obtained?  It's impossible to read on the vid, but eyesight might have been better.  If so, was it reported?

Monumentally impatient. The default setting these days.

You can sort of make out at least part of the reg in the very last frame before the back of the car disappears off screen. Pretty sure it's DV57 *****. Perhaps the origianl video is of better quality and can be seen more clearly.

yes number plate was very clear on original video, and was reported to local Police.

Rodney

Saintsman2000 wrote:

Kendalred wrote:

burtthebike wrote:

Most drivers don't seem to adjust their driving to the conditions and continue to drive at their normal speed and behaviour when it's raining, dark, foggy.  This was a spectacular example of bad driving; too close to the car in front, not indicating, not observing.

Was the reg obtained?  It's impossible to read on the vid, but eyesight might have been better.  If so, was it reported?

Monumentally impatient. The default setting these days.

You can sort of make out at least part of the reg in the very last frame before the back of the car disappears off screen. Pretty sure it's DV57 *****. Perhaps the origianl video is of better quality and can be seen more clearly.

yes number plate was very clear on original video, and was reported to local Police.

Rodney

First of all well done for avoiding a nasty collision. Secondly, I trust that the CPS with throw the book at that idiot. He needs to be removed from the road.

iandusud wrote:

Saintsman2000 wrote:

Kendalred wrote:

burtthebike wrote:

Most drivers don't seem to adjust their driving to the conditions and continue to drive at their normal speed and behaviour when it's raining, dark, foggy.  This was a spectacular example of bad driving; too close to the car in front, not indicating, not observing.

Was the reg obtained?  It's impossible to read on the vid, but eyesight might have been better.  If so, was it reported?

Monumentally impatient. The default setting these days.

You can sort of make out at least part of the reg in the very last frame before the back of the car disappears off screen. Pretty sure it's DV57 *****. Perhaps the origianl video is of better quality and can be seen more clearly.

yes number plate was very clear on original video, and was reported to local Police.

Rodney

First of all well done for avoiding a nasty collision. Secondly, I trust that the CPS with throw the book at that idiot. He needs to be removed from the road.

Lets hope! Would love to be a fly on the wall when he opens that letter! 

Saintsman2000 wrote:

iandusud wrote:

Saintsman2000 wrote:

Kendalred wrote:

burtthebike wrote:

Most drivers don't seem to adjust their driving to the conditions and continue to drive at their normal speed and behaviour when it's raining, dark, foggy.  This was a spectacular example of bad driving; too close to the car in front, not indicating, not observing.

Was the reg obtained?  It's impossible to read on the vid, but eyesight might have been better.  If so, was it reported?

Monumentally impatient. The default setting these days.

You can sort of make out at least part of the reg in the very last frame before the back of the car disappears off screen. Pretty sure it's DV57 *****. Perhaps the origianl video is of better quality and can be seen more clearly.

yes number plate was very clear on original video, and was reported to local Police.

Rodney

First of all well done for avoiding a nasty collision. Secondly, I trust that the CPS with throw the book at that idiot. He needs to be removed from the road.

Lets hope! Would love to be a fly on the wall when he opens that letter! 

 Be sure to let us know the outcome.

burtthebike wrote:

Most drivers don't seem to adjust their driving to the conditions and continue to drive at their normal speed and behaviour when it's raining, dark, foggy.  This was a spectacular example of bad driving; too close to the car in front, not indicating, not observing.

My wife always reckons that HGVs drive closer to the vehicle in front when the weather is bad (particularly rain).  She thinks maybe they think need a man in front with a flag or something...

ktache wrote:

Such impatience from the BMW driver.

I thought that was pretty patient for a BMW driver.