A group of cyclists, including record-breaking British time triallist George Fox, experienced the nearest of harrowing near misses on Thursday, when a motorist lost control on a slight bend and flew across the road sideways, avoiding the oncoming riders by inches before crashing into another car.
Fox, who holds the British 10-mile time trial road bike record, was cycling with a friend near Sywell, Northamptonshire at around 1pm on Thursday 6 November, when the driver of a Suzuki Swift suddenly appeared around a slight bend, moments after the cyclists began riding in single file to enable a van driver to pass.
In shocking footage posted by Fox on social media and captured on his rear bike camera, the oncoming motorist can be seen losing control of his vehicle and skidding across the road sideways, missing the cyclist, who manages to just about react in time, by the narrowest of margins.
The motorist then slams into the car of an oncoming driver who was travelling behind the cyclists, before ending up in a ditch.
In the video, a shocked Fox can be heard exclaiming “f***ing hell”, before getting off his bike and running to the scene of the crash.
A photo posted by the cyclist on Instagram shows the serious damage caused to both vehicles by the collision, though Fox says that, thankfully, no-one was seriously hurt.
“For whoever needs to see this, just drive sensibly please FFS,” Fox posted on social media on Thursday.
“Nearest of misses for myself and a friend today, my Garmin Varia capturing the scary moment we were nearly flattened by a sideways Suzuki Swift. Everybody walked away, just.”
Speaking to road.cc on Friday morning, Fox – the 2024 national road bike time trial champion – said he regularly cycles on the road where the shocking near miss took place, just outside Sywell.
“After recently getting a Garmin Varia [a rearview radar light that tracks vehicles travelling behind] for my birthday, I’d seen that there was a van behind us when we were two abreast, so moved to single file to let it past,” he told road.cc.
“The van driver passed us completely safely, but as soon as he had the white Suzuki came flying round the slight bend towards us and was sideways before we could even see it.
“Fortunately, it missed us by a matter of centimetres but unfortunately crashed into another car that was waiting behind us.
“Luckily nobody was seriously injured and everybody walked away from it generally unscathed.”
Since posting the video on Facebook and Instagram, Fox has been inundated with comments from fellow cyclists, both criticising the dangerously reckless actions of the sideways Suzuki driver and noting the sheer amount of luck involved in ensuring the cyclists emerged unharmed.
“I was thinking ‘near miss’? That van has left plenty of spa… Oooh!” wrote Colin Williams on Facebook.
“Bet them bibshorts got cleaned that day,” added Colin, while Scott Redding simply said: “Hoolllly shit!”
And Harry Macfarlane, the reigning two-time British hill climb champion, took to Instagram to advise Fox to “buy a lottery ticket”.
We’re not sure if he has any luck left after that, if we’re honest.
39 thoughts on ““Buy a lottery ticket!” Cyclists “nearly flattened” after speeding driver loses control and crashes into oncoming car in horrifying footage”
Good job that van meant they
Good job that van meant they moved to single file.
?
?
The average shitness of UK
The average shitness of UK driving continues to increase year on year.
There seem to be increasing numbers of drivers who make no allowance for road layout, weather conditions or unexpected events.
Not only were the cyclists lucky, so was the driver. He could have been looking at jail time.
Mr Blackbird wrote:
If there was any sense in the law he would be. As Ernest Hemingway used to say when explaining why he would cut people off who had let him down even if there hadn’t been serious consequences, if your shotgun went off when you were climbing over a stile because of your carelessness I don’t care if it hit someone or not, you still did it. If the police see that video the driver should be charged with careless driving at least, no way should they escape with no sanction for that.
Some have Hemingway’s life
Some of Hemingway’s life philosophies are being taken on board by Peterborough drivers. Mainly the heavy drinking and re-enactment of his plane crashes with VW Golfs and Audi’s. Some of them even have guns in their vehicles.
If the white suzuki hadnt
If the white suzuki hadnt involved another driver, I for one wouldnt be calling emergency services for him.
Wow, nice attitude.
Wow, nice attitude.
Imagine if a cyclist lost control on a wet bend, left the road and landed in a bloody heap. Would you just drive/walk/cycle past because what you deemed their lack of skill/attention/care caused it?
Not defending the Suzuki driver, who clearly made a mistake or drove without due care. But come on, to say you’d leave them to fend for themselves if they needed medical attention… That’s pretty chilling.
Jail time for killing a
Jail time for killing a couple of cyclists? Not so sure.
If anyone wants to check it
If anyone wants to check it out on the map that’s the junction of Moonshine Gap, Sywell Rd and Highfield Rd. That’s Highfield Lodge when they pull up. Not a serious bend by any stretch. Driver just going far too fast for the conditions. Not a busy road but cars do speed along there. Still worth it to grab a coffee at Wythmails a couple of miles further along.
Can’t fathom how you’d get
Ha! Wish I’d read your comment before I did my own detective work. Can’t fathom how you’d get sideways there, but maybe I just don’t have the imagination required for reckless driving. https://maps.app.goo.gl/dcjHw2wNYpwEns147
Not having any tread helps.
Not having any tread helps.
Watching that frame by frame,
Watching that frame by frame, its aboslutely horrific. I’m really not sure how that missed them.
Any motorist who comments on
Any motorist who comments on a cycling thread that cyclists are a danger on our roads should be made to watch this video.
Saddly they all are and as
Saddly they all are and as usual its the cyclist’s fault, WTF 🙁
This case, and the police
This case, and the police response to it, needs to be monitored closely.
If this driver isn’t arrested, prosecuted, and subject to a lengthy ban, then I will be outraged. I won’t be surprised, but I will be outraged.
This case, and the police
This case, and the police response to it, needs to be monitored closely
How do you suggest this monitoring is achieved? The aim of the police resort to ‘GDPR’ whenever anybody tries to discover the outcome of a road traffic offence is to ensure that nobody finds out that they did precisely nothing
If the cyclist (George Fox)
If the cyclist (George Fox) hadn’t been where he was and been able to react and swerve the way he did, we would be looking at a death or serious/life changing injuries.
All because someone chose to drive dangerously.
While we may not know the cause yet, how likely is it to be a mechanical failure as apposed to dangerous driving?
Exceptionally low.
So if the driver evades serious sanction, what message does it send to the rest of those who refuse to behave themselves and drive safely?
If I were the cyclist here, I
If I were the cyclist here, I’d make sure it was reported to OpSnap. Northants do publish submission outcomes.
They must have been doing some speed to lose it on that bend…
https://maps.app.goo.gl/pbRj4BkA6zkmiaDA7
Northants do publish
Northants do publish submission outcomes
We have discussed this several times before! Is it not the case that the police publish what they claim is what they think is going to happen to the offender at the time they first consider the case, NOT what actually DID happen? In other words, the spreadsheet is never revised after dodges like ‘couldn’t identify driver’ are deployed, as is the case in Essex
They publish twice – once
They publish twice – once with the intended course of action, then six months or so later, there’s another spreadsheet with the outcome.
Thanks- I’ll see if I can
Thanks- I’ll see if I can connect using the information you have provided in the past. If I can’t get it to work, I’ll request your assistance. As you know, the importance is that Lancashire declares it to be against GDPR for anybody, including the victim, to find out what happened to the driver.
Ok, so it’s not perfect –
Ok, so it’s not perfect – just looking over it, the court outcomes are not listed, just that it’s been prosecuted. But driver awareness courses etc are listed…
https://www.northantspas.com/PAWeb/Public/Content/16
But driver awareness courses
But driver awareness courses etc are listed…
I wonder what this ‘Retraining Course Withdrawn’ dodge means? The case is ‘Closed’
No idea. Quite a few are
No idea. Quite a few are withdrawn for admin errors. Perhaps it was on of those? Or maybe they found out they’d already been on a course, so were issued with an FPN instead but it’s not listed as such?
At least they seem to be actively doing something and there’s a semblance of transparency.
Transwomen XY aren’t women XX
Transwomen XY aren’t women XX. Cycling is indeed for everybody, even those who pretend to be whom they aren’t. One can change the rhetoric but not the genetics, irrelevant of their degrees.
What the fuck is this comment
What the fuck is this comment doing here?
Yup.
Yup.
Sounds like they’ve an issue with panto, or Carnival…
Simply wrong thread.
Simply wrong thread.
Wrong headed more like. Then
Wrong headed more like. Then again bigots are never the sharpest knife in the drawer, it’s a wonder they manage to remember to breathe nevermind find the correct comment section to spew bile in.
Yes, I was just looking at
Yes, I was just looking at the homepage to see which article might have tipped him over the edge and I reckon it’s the Lezyne Pressure Drive review.
High speed, shite tyres, low
High speed, shite tyres, low skill and agri diesel slime on the road.
Mostly driving like a dick, though.
Its FWD car though with
Its FWD car though with stability control, and the bend is im assuming a right hand curve.
In theory even at the limit the car should just understeer, so it would just steer more left whilst you want it to go right, whilst that looks like the car is pitched into oversteer.
Ive seen it where people have understeered onto a verge over corrected and caused snap oversteer as they lift off but never into a spin like that except on a race track.
I was scratching my head a
I was scratching my head a bit too. My guess would be that the driver of the white Suzuki was already out of shape going into the corner having had to correct back into their own lane when the van appeared coming towards them. Then, like you say, some confusion over where to point the car and which pedal to press in that situation put the weight onto the front wheels which by then were pointing in an unhelpful direction …
I think it’s caused by panic
I think it’s caused by panic braking with the nearside wheels on the slippery verge.
There’s only grip on the right-hand side of the car, so if you stab the brakes, the car basically does a ‘tank turn’.
‘A spokesperson for
‘A spokesperson for Northamptonshire Police said the crash “involved three cars – a blue Volvo V50, a white Suzuki Swift, and a grey Fiat 500” and “no-one was seriously injured”.’
More to the point, Northants Police, it involved at least five people, at least two of whom could have been killed. Focus on the cause and prosecute that dangerous driver with the full force of the law.
Great to see no one was hurt,
Great to see no one was hurt, but what this footage brings home to me is the key difference between cyclists and motorists. If the car was slightly over, it would have been life changing if not ending for the cyclist. Yet two cars collide and they both get out and walk. It’s this inequitable relationship that is missing from much of the polarised on line and real world rage.
Nobski wrote:
And yet drivers still manage to cap all this by playing the victim, not least in car / bike interactions “do they have to give you 1.5 metres?” etc
TBF the car driver did go
TBF the car driver did go single-file there (if they had a passenger)…
Great to see no one was hurt,
Great to see no one was hurt, but what this footage brings home to me is the key difference between cyclists and motorists. If the car was slightly over, it would have been life changing if not ending for the cyclist. Yet two cars collide and they both get out and walk. It’s this inequitable relationship that is missing from much of the polarised on line and real world rage.