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Near Miss of the Day 414: Driver overtaking cyclist at speed almost hits another head-on

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

Police forces around the country are currently telling drivers to "Slow down and save lives" as well as highlighting the need to be aware of increased numbers of cyclists on the roads - a message that clearly has not got through to the driver featured in today's Near Miss of the Day video, who in overtaking one rider at speed almost hit another head-on.

The video was filmed earlier this week in Somerset by road.cc reader Peter, who told us: "Here's a nice bit of driving I captured on Tuesday.

"I was cycling around Chew Valley Lake and this driver decided to overtake a cyclist on the other side of the road, but ended up coming too close to me at quite some speed.

"It looks to me like he was speeding round the previous bend and rather than slowing down just aimed for the middle of the road. Not quite the 1.5m overtake, though I thought that was for cars on the same side of the road. 

"I've submitted it to Avon & Somerset Police and they replied yesterday morning (quick response) with the usual 'Thank you for taking the time to upload your footage which has now been processed (a warning letter or a fixed penalty or a prosecution has been issued)'.

"I did let them know that DVLA show the vehicle as untaxed and out of MOT though I think there's a 6 month grace with MOTs at the moment."

He's correct on that last point - although the extension only applies on cars, vans and motorcycles that were due to have their MOT on or after 30 March, and not ones where it was due prior to that date.

> 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.

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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15 comments

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MrGhostrider | 3 years ago
5 likes

No Mot - No Tax- bet the police , if they check find out that car is not insured.   Easy to check - this should be treated as seriuosly as driving drunk -  it can have catastrophic effects on a victim of a non insured car, but just seems a minor offence, often set to one side.

 

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ktache replied to MrGhostrider | 3 years ago
7 likes

Bez on his excellent Beyond the Kerb did a peice on the economies of not bothering to get motoring insurance.  I tried to find it but cannot right now.  He seemed to propose (and Bez, I think really would like drivers to fulfill their legal obligations and get insurance and drive better too) that because there was very little chance of getting caught, seeing the reduction in roads and traffic policing, that the poor driver, because of the way the system has been set up, could save quite a bit of money by not getting insurance.  If they were caught the fine was often derisory and not even the amount of one single years insurance.  With a extra few points which would put their insurance up, but what does that matter, they are not going to bother getting that.

It does need to be looked at, maybe with the governments upcoming review of traffic laws and sentencing.

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Muddy Ford replied to ktache | 3 years ago
1 like

ktache wrote:

Bez on his excellent Beyond the Kerb did a peice on the economies of not bothering to get motoring insurance.  I tried to find it but cannot right now.  He seemed to propose (and Bez, I think really would like drivers to fulfill their legal obligations and get insurance and drive better too) that because there was very little chance of getting caught, seeing the reduction in roads and traffic policing, that the poor driver, because of the way the system has been set up, could save quite a bit of money by not getting insurance.  If they were caught the fine was often derisory and not even the amount of one single years insurance.  With a extra few points which would put their insurance up, but what does that matter, they are not going to bother getting that.

It does need to be looked at, maybe with the governments upcoming review of traffic laws and sentencing.

Fortunately it is very easy to be caught without insurance and it incurs a significant cost. I know this because I was caught, not intentionally, driving without insurance. One Sunday I had just bought a car from a used dealer and incorrectly assumed our multi car policy from Admiral would cover the journey home under a 3rd party allowed to drive any  car. These policies only allow this for the policy holder and not any additional named drivers, and require the car to be fully comp insured by the current owner (i.e. Not a trader). Anyway I was pulled over, the copper informing me his car camera and computer did the check automatically and alerted him as I passed him in the layby. He also said these same cameras are at petrol stations and on some traffic cameras. Car impounded. Requires special insurance to retrieve (virtually all normal insurance doesnt enable you to retrieve car from impound) and you need the police station local to the pound to stamp a retrieval authorisation. £400 cheapest insurance. £175 per day for impound. £250 fixed penalty. 3 points on licence. IN10  code means less choice for insurance and its generally 50% dearer for 1st year after offence, taking 4yrs before insurance cost returns to normal.  A costly, stupid mistake on my part and I definitely would recommend reading the small print in your policy before assuming you are insured.

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ktache replied to Muddy Ford | 3 years ago
1 like

The most recent google hit has about 1 million, or roughly 4% of driver uninsured.  Though a guess of course as they are driving illegally.

Police Interceptors (Catchin' wrong'uns (in cars)) generally tells me it's 10%.

You seemed to be unlucky and got caught, and you seem generally honest so it costs you.  The dishonest ones push up every honest persons costs.

Little scrote drives a cheap car, doesn't get caught for a few years, saves money, car gets seized, bit of a fine, not even one years 3rd party, few points, doesn't bother getting car back, just buys another crap car, no MOT, what does it matter, little scrote will drive without a licence.  Just gets more points.  If they are proper dodgy they will just clone someones legal number plate.

But it's those cyclists that are a  real danger on our roads.

Cycling rates never get to 4% of vehicles, so there are more uninsured drivers, driving completely illegally than there are cyclist on our roads at any one time.

Except a few weeks back, when the roads were so quiet...

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Sriracha replied to ktache | 3 years ago
0 likes
ktache wrote:

If they are proper dodgy they will just clone someones legal number plate.

High time this was clamped down on. I see illegal (heavily tinted) number plates openly advertised, and much in evidence on the street. Obviously it's not hard to get plates made up by unscrupulous sellers and neither party is troubled by the police. I'm sure cloned plates are just as easy from similar sources.

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Muddy Ford replied to ktache | 3 years ago
1 like

The irony for me is that I rarely use a car, and probably if I had to would manage life without one. The lockdown has given insight into what that life could be if more people cycled than drove and I have loved it.

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David9694 replied to Muddy Ford | 3 years ago
0 likes

On the strength of what you're describing, that sounds - for once - like it should have been a case of "mind how you go, Sir."  Most of us would be mortified to be stopped by the police. 

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Sriracha replied to MrGhostrider | 3 years ago
3 likes

I thought the whole idea when SORN was introduced was that you had a binary choice, either pay VED or take the car off the road. So why is the third option still tolerated? Clamp it or tow it. Not for revenue collection, but because of the correlation with other driving offences. Whilst they are at it, DVLA could rescind the rights to any cherished registration seen to be heavily smoked/tinted.

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ex_terra | 3 years ago
6 likes

Avon & Somerset police have received numerous reports in recent weeks of cars being raced round Chew Valley Lake and have done absolutely sod all about it - perhaps they are conserving resources for mass enforcement of people having picnics.

The problem of cars being raced around the lake has been very audible at night with a lot of the trouble centred around the pub in one of the nearby villages that's supposed to be shut but actually isn't.

Chavs from over the hill in South Bristol have been causing problems for years - the nuisance from them has been compounded in recent weeks by the police shutting Cheddar Gorge - which moved the racing onto Burrington Combe and the lake and doubled the numbers.

PC plod would do well to note that many of the cars have been modified and are almost certainly uninsured unless the mods have been reported to the insurers.

It will probably take the death of a child in Chew Stoke or Harptree before Plod bothers to do something about it - a cyclist death would almost certainly just result in the usual warnings to wear bright colours and a helmet.

 

 

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HoarseMann | 3 years ago
3 likes

If that's the B3114, it's got a 50mph limit and that car was doing nearly 70mph with lots of vulnerable road users about.

I do hope it was more than a warning letter.

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hawkinspeter replied to HoarseMann | 3 years ago
1 like
HoarseMann wrote:

If that's the B3114, it's got a 50mph limit and that car was doing nearly 70mph with lots of vulnerable road users about.

I do hope it was more than a warning letter.

Yep, B3114.

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P3t3 | 3 years ago
7 likes

Thanks to the precident set by Dr Helen Measures if you wobble and get hit it'll be 100% your fault despite the driver overtaking into oncoming traffic...

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Sriracha | 3 years ago
1 like

If you'd been riding two abreast like the ones ahead...

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hawkinspeter replied to Sriracha | 3 years ago
2 likes
Sriracha wrote:

If you'd been riding two abreast like the ones ahead...

Well that's one advantage of solo riding - you make a smaller target.

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Dao | 3 years ago
2 likes

reminds me of my recent leisure ride from home to leek and back. 2 cars back to back close passes on the way there, and on the way back in near enough the same area a big grey van in oncoming traffic overtook a car on the inside of a blind bend, straight at me and didn't even attempt to pull over faster or abort the reckless act.

I had to pull myself along the very edge of the road to dodge a vehicle that shouldn't have been there. Couldn't report as I didn't have a camera recording on that trip (battery would have died before that point of the ride regardless) and I didn't exactly have the time and peace of mind to look at the license-plate while trying to stay alive and intact.

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