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news
Near Miss of the Day 404: Hermes driver almost delivers cyclist to A&E
The streets may have been quieter than usual during the lockdown, but the close passes keep coming - this one from the driver of a Hermes van who nearly ended up delivering a cyclist to the local hospital's A&E department.
It happened on Shipborurne Road in Tonbridge, Kent. From the footage, the carriageway looks fairly narrow here, and as we so often see in our Near Miss of the Day series, the driver overtakes the cyclist as another vehicle is approaching, rather than waiting until it is safe to start the manoeuvre.
A delivery truck parked partly on the road, partly on the footway a little further along doesn't help matters either.
The footage was shot by road.cc reader Andy, who said: "Hermes delivery may be classed as key workers but do they need to make attempts to increase the numbers visiting hospital?"
> 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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19 comments
I accept that this could be a useful feature if only to flag up the number of appalling drivers on the road, but personally some of the examples which have been used are nothing more than I would expect on busy roads and don't seem to me to be in the category of a "near miss". A near miss to me is when I can feel the vehicle brush my elbow. As an aging roadie I am used to the cut and thrust of the road and wonder whether it may be that some of the cyclists who are complaining are themselves perhaps guilty of poor behaviour. Just a thought.
Well this one was an example of a professional driver, someone who drives as part of their job, in a rather large and heavy vehicle overtaking far too close with an oncoming vehicle in the other lane. There have been many others in the NMotD series that weren't this bad, why pick this one?
Cool story bro'
I'd agree with you about quite a lot of the close passes near misses etc on here but that one did look too close. As for a near miss being brushing your elbow . Thats not a great invitation to go cycling is it.
Hermes; only just a fraction better than Yodel - which is without doubt the worst courier service in the history of the world.
I have stopped using Wiggle now, much prefer any online store that uses Royal Mail or DPD
Probably in a hurry to get to the depot where they sell off all the "undelivered" (ie nicked) parcels before the customers can complain...
Been a victim of this myself. Won't use them again, ever. Crooks.
"Hermes driver almost delivers cyclist to A&E"
Nah, that would mean actually delivering something. I was under the impression thet play football with parcels at the depot then hide them "somewhere in a similar postcode" to the delivery address.
That pass really is unacceptable and would understandably rile the rider up. I really hope you report this to Hermes.
That said, after the pass, the acceleration towards a clear obstruction does seem a bit risky from the rider. Take care of yourself!
Agree with the both points above. Totally shit first pass and should be reported to both Hermes and the Police. But then to ride up the inside to try to remonstrate was as dangerous to the cyclist as the initial first pass.
It was silly to ride up the inside with the parked lorry, but I think it's fair to say the rider's adrenaline would have been through the roof, so it's understandable he wanted to give the arsehole driver a piece of his mind. When he realised there was no room, he was able to stop, so it's not really comparable to the van driver endangering someone else's life just to save a couple of seconds.
That's not acceleration - it's the van braking
The driver displayed complete lack of concern for the life and limb of the cyclist, and overtook when it was clearly dangerous to do so. Please tell us that this has been reported both to the police and Hermes; we have to get these selfish, incompetent, dangerous drivers off the roads.
Interestingly I spent a bit of time on the Hermes website just now to see how you would report it. Who'd've thunk it, but no obvious way to initiate contact that isn't to do with giving them money.....
Both Wiggle and ProBikeKit use Hermes for delivery.
I wonder if we could encourage them to move away from Hermes unless Hermes take action to have their drivers act professionally.
Twitter. Get there twitter handle and post it along with the video. It's public, instant, out there, garnering much ive against the company. Usually gets a response.
I've tried before, they'll tell you that their drivers are self-employed and therefore it's not their problem!
Close pass in the face of oncoming traffic, narrow road, built-up area (30mph speed limit - ie not much faster than the person on the bike), approaching a pinch-point/hazard in the shape of an unloading LGV.
Way to go Hermes, your drivers clearly are the pinnacle......
I hope you contacted Hermes and reported it the the police