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Near Miss of the Day 363: White van man in ultra-close pass - but police say cyclist at fault (includes swearing)

Our regular series featuring close passes from around the country - today it's Glasgow...

It's Chinese New Year tomorrow as we enter the Year of the Rat - but in Near Miss of the Day land it's the Year of Dangerous Overtaking at Pinch Points, going by some of the recent submissions we've had to our feature.

This latest one happened on Glasgow's Mosspark Boulevard with the driver of the white van involved overtaking getting so close that he actually made contact with the cyclist. However, Police Scotland decided to take no action.

The footage was filmed by road.cc reader Robert, who told us: "The police did nothing so I complained and they still found nothing other than my riding to be at fault. 

"In the chicane the van made contact with my handlebars and shoulder ,slight but it happened, they said I should have braked and that I did not take into consideration the hazards ahead. 

"They said I should have indicated before pulling out of the dedicated cycle lane (I assume they mean the bit at the side of the road that cars park on. I will be complaining to the PIRC [the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner] regarding this." 

> 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 joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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43 comments

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nicmason | 4 years ago
0 likes

Bad driving by the van driver. But looking after yourself by owning the situation would have been good . You saw him coming. i would have taken action and slowed  not been waving my arms about energetically (hopefully).

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AlsoSomniloquism replied to nicmason | 4 years ago
9 likes

Yes Nic. There was a lovely bailout zone of a curbed grassy area with two massive steel bollards and to actually slow fast enough to not be going through at the same time of the van would have meant heavy braking. Of course, no one loses control whilst heavy braking  these days if they have antilock brakes which all bikes do or course. 

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nicmason replied to AlsoSomniloquism | 4 years ago
0 likes

very mimimal slowing would have done it. I'm not excusing the van driver  here for bad driving but its good to live in the real world where you take action to protect yourself not the I cycle at this speed and must not slow and if anything out of the ordinary happens I crash but have the moral high ground as i heal world.  .Seems a lot of people on here would benefit from some defensive cycling / motoring training.

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Exup | 4 years ago
3 likes

Yes, this should be brought to the police commissioner.
I too submitted video footage to the Police in Belfast and never heard anything......
An idiot went straight on at a right turn only junction, when I was turning right. Missed my right hand side by millimetres. His numberplate was easily readable from the video.

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Xena | 4 years ago
1 like

If the cyclist new that road then he can only blame himself . In situations like that I make sure I move towards the centre of the road  in plenty of time when I know that the road is going to narrow .  I signal before I move out  , I use the Contador  pistol gesture . Pointing to the space I'm moving into.
. When  the road  widens I move back to the side of the road and signal thanks to the veichle behind . Most times they wave back with a acknowledgement. 
 Common fucking sense people, common fucking sense.  Unless some driver deliberately is trying to run you off the road ,stop bitching and moaning and take control otherwise walk or take the bus etc . 
 

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Hirsute replied to Xena | 4 years ago
6 likes

Thanks for your erudite comments but you failed to meet your quota of eff words per sentence.
On the other hand you exceeded the threshold for victim blaming.

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Xena replied to Hirsute | 4 years ago
0 likes

Listen I take responsibility for myself. I've been riding a long time and also worked as a cycle courier in London for a while and had plenty of crashes during that time .
It's always easy to blame someone else, instead of taking responsibility for yourself. 
i have rode my bikes all over the world  , I live in London and do my riding / workout rides in London .  I've not crashed once , not once since I took up riding a road bike and that's been quite a few years . Admittedly you can be very unlucky and some idiot does  something crazy, I had a head on going down Highgate hill west , a driver with no patience decided he would drive up the wrong side . I managed to squeeze past him . He made a bad decision and lucky for me I never got hit . Things happen but most of the time common sense and defensive riding will see you safe . I put the gas down where I know it's relatively safe .  I didn't know there was a threshold for victim blaming. Perhaps you can post a pie chart or some stats you have made up in your head because somehow you think cyclists should have more rights on the road than anyone else and everyone should tiptoe around them . Learn to ride a bike and  know how to handle yourself and you won't have any issues. Simple as that. 
 So fuck off .....humour  by the way .

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Hirsute replied to Xena | 4 years ago
4 likes

Of course I did not say that "cyclists should have more rights on the road than anyone else", not that making stuff up seems to worry you.

It's ironic that in your next post you tell us not to be angry.

I'm not your mate, so best not to tell me to eff off.

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kt26 replied to Xena | 4 years ago
9 likes

So you need to know a road now before you can ride down it and follow yet more non existent rules.
How does the van driver know if the cyclist knows the road? Is it his fault if they don't?
At what point does hitting someone with a vehicle you have sole control of become your fault exactly. According to you it is down to the experience of your victim and nothing to do with your actions.
What nonsense.

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Hirsute replied to kt26 | 4 years ago
3 likes

Don't worry all drivers understand and accept the contador gesture but it's all in how you deliver it

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kt26 replied to Hirsute | 4 years ago
0 likes

Something along the lines of Trinity in The Matrix - "Dodge this"?

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AlsoSomniloquism replied to Xena | 4 years ago
4 likes

Do you keep on staring back at the vehicle behind to catch the waved acknowledgements?

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Xena replied to AlsoSomniloquism | 4 years ago
1 like

No they acknowledge me when they pass . Simple . I tend not to look back I'd prefer to see where I'm going .  
 

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giff77 replied to Xena | 4 years ago
5 likes

On the other side of the coin. Transit Man will also have been familiar with the road and would have known that the pinch point existed and should have dropped back rather than barged through.

There's several pinch points on my commute that even with my taking a strong position they will still attempt to barge through with some passing on the other side of the island when they realise they are about to impale their vehicle on a bollard. 

This is representative of shoddy driving demonstrated by many motorists who have no regard for other road users. 

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srchar replied to Xena | 4 years ago
4 likes

Xena wrote:

I use the Contador  pistol gesture

Kicking myself for missing this last time I refreshed my knowledge of the Highway Code.

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ibr17xvii | 4 years ago
1 like

Ridiculous although at least you get to submit footage.

My force won't accept it as they don't have the resources to view them all.

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bike_food replied to ibr17xvii | 4 years ago
1 like

Wiltshire by any chance?

That's my local force who offer the same level of support.

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nicmason replied to bike_food | 4 years ago
1 like

Complain about the government not the police. Apart from the cuts in front line police there where also huge cuts in support staff. Exactly the sort of people who would deal with these videos.

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hawkinspeter replied to nicmason | 4 years ago
3 likes

Why not both?

The government should be blamed for the overall resourcing of police, but some of that blame should also fall onto the top police chiefs for not making their case sufficiently (or maybe resigning if they're not being taken seriously).

Meanwhile, the police have to be blamed for not performing their job properly. I can't defend police who blame a cyclist when the van driver is clearly at fault. I don't see how that's a resourcing issue. In fact, I would consider that the police are creating more work for themselves as they'll presumably be looking at dealing with a complaint as well as having to deal with the original incident.

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crazy-legs | 4 years ago
7 likes

It's incredible isn't it. Submit a video and your cycling for several hours both before and after the incident must be beyond reproach (including those random "laws" that people make up - you can't break any of those either which is difficult when the laws can be made up on the spot, even by the police).

But you can literally drive a van into someone and it's not found to be careless or dangerous. That means (by process of elimination) that the driving must not have fallen "below" or "far below" the standard of a normal competent driver (the legal defintiions of careless and dangerous driving respectively).

And that is terrifying!

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ktache | 4 years ago
9 likes

It's such a motorist attitude with the police here (of course (sorry to those working hard at the WMP)).  Any form of white line near the gutter is automatically a cycle lane and woe betide any rider not using it.  Makes no difference to how the motorist should behave, drive in it, park in it every bit of tarmac belongs to them.

 

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Hirsute | 4 years ago
11 likes

Was the cop even watching any video let alone this video?
Cyclist was travelling at a lick, lined up for the hazard some way out and was then cut up by the moronic driver. Oh, I suppose the driver was 'provoked'.
Rider needs to escalate this one because that is an appalling response from police.

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jacko645 | 4 years ago
9 likes

That is a shocking decision from Police. The cyclist was never in the "cycle lane" (which is definitely just parking space for cars) in the first place so of course he doesn't need to indicate out of it.
Appeal and complain as loudly as you can!

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eburtthebike | 4 years ago
8 likes

Completely ridiculous response from the police.  If that was me, I'd be wondering who the driver knew in the force.

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srchar | 4 years ago
5 likes

The police don't seem to care when drivers use the bike lane as a car park, so I suppose it's only fair that they tell bike riders to use the car parking as a bike lane. Very even-handed.

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Captain Badger | 4 years ago
2 likes

Not a dedicated cycle lane - dotted lines indicate cars can use if unavoidable, and in any case it terminates abruptly at the traffic island.

I don't recall "dedicated cycle lane" even appearing in the HC?

 

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brooksby | 4 years ago
11 likes

Why is it the cyclist's business to brake and watch out for hazards ahead when he's the one in front?  Surely it's the van driver's responsibility (as the following vehicle) to brake and watch out for hazards ahead?

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zero_trooper replied to brooksby | 4 years ago
3 likes

Nailed it there Brooksby!

The van driver has an excellent view of what's ahead of them, including the cyclist and completely screws it up in a dangerous manner.

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kt26 | 4 years ago
2 likes

Stan Lee would be so proud his comics have had such a profound influence.

With great power comes no responsibility... wait a second...

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hawkinspeter | 4 years ago
12 likes

The cyclist was established on the road and following a straight line and the van driver created a dangerous situation for absolutely no reason.

The police should be ashamed and need to learn some roadcraft and also how they should be doing their job.

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