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news
Near Miss of the Day 416: HGV driver powers past cyclist despite oncoming van – police take very swift action
Today’s near miss has so many familiar features it almost feels like an archetype. An HGV driver – so a professional driver – sees fit to overtake a cyclist far too closely, at significant speed, despite the presence of an oncoming van.
The driver doesn’t allow much room to start off with and appears from the footage to be pulling in to avoid the John Lewis van before having passed the cyclist.
The incident occurred on the A403 near Aust, heading north, at around 5.10pm yesterday.
Nick, the cyclist who experienced the close pass, reported it to Avon and Somerset Police that day and this is where the story starts to differ from so many of the near misses we’ve covered in this feature.
Nick received a response from the force this morning, advising him that action had already been taken.
He was informed: “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). Thank you for helping to keep our roads safe.”
> 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.
Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.
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19 comments
Fixed penalty notice is far too lenient for such a dangerous manoeuvre. The margin for error, with cyclist and oncoming traffic, is infinitesimal. He should be off the road for a year in my view and the penalty should be widely advertised to act as a deterrant.
Nick - hopefully you won't have need to report another one of these in the near future, but just in case you do can I suggest you set your date/time correctly on your camera -- year was showing as 2022.
not just me that noticed that then,I wondered if it was a future close pass sent back in time
If you can read the number plate then it's definitely worth complaining to John Lewis directly.
How are John Lewis involved ?
It's their 2 vans that are the oncoming vehicles.
I don't know how this would help?
So they don't tell you if they're prosecuting or just sending a letter.
14 days passes and you eventually find out that a murderous close pass gets a mild warning , by which time it's too late to affect the decision.
How does not telling you what action Police are taking square with the 'Victim's Code' which allows you to 'seek a review of a decision not to prosecute.'
I think it might be due to it not being a collision, so you're considered to be a witness to poor roadcraft rather than a victim of it.
Probably right Peter, but if you can be a victim of an assault without actually being hit, maybe they should reconsider. I would have been every bit as fearful of physical harm as if someone had taken a pot shot at me with a gun had I been the cyclist in the clip above.
I agree with both of you. I think it's an attempt to not have any complaints when the victim/witness disagrees with the police decision. I'd prefer to know how the police view incidents so that it gives me a better understanding of what they view as serious etc. (I don't want to waste time uploading footage of minor infractions that the police don't care about)
It is a strange use of the witness/victim thing.
Are those threatened with knives or guns victims or merely witnesses?
grr, Ajax!
Wow. Bloody scary.
Agree. I'd be changing my underpants....if I wore them under bibshorts!
Good on the cops for letting you know and being on to it fast
".....a warning letter or a fixed penalty or a prosecution has been issued"
Well done Nick for reporting this, and well done to A&S police for very prompt action, but which is it: warning letter or fpn or nip? Should be a prosecution as that was dangerous driving. One pothole, a gust of wind, and Nick wouldn't have been around to submit the vid.
A&S don't give more information than that and they usually include this sentence as well: "I can confirm that as you are a witness to this offence, you will not receive any further updates."
They certainly seem to be processing them quickly these days.
Seems rather odd that they would not keep the victim informed about the progress of the criminal case against the perpetrator, and at least tell them what action they had actually taken, not this, that or the other.
Same in Wales too.
When you submit footage, you get a standard response thanking you and it goes on to say that if they take action, the only time you'll hear anything is if it goes to court, when you'll then be called as a witness.
You do get a letter after the intial response if they decide to take no further action though.
To be honest I'd rather they spent the time doing their job rather than writing me letters
Weird that they consider you a witness but not a victim, given that you could definitely have felt in fear for your life, etc. with this sort of driver behaviour!