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Near Miss of the Day 450: Crap driving, embarrassed accelerating away

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

Today's offering in our Neaer Miss of the Day series shows a driver overtaking a cyclist and having to pull in sharpish due to oncoming traffic - then accelerating away as though in embarrassment.

It happened in Brook in the Hampshire part of the New Forest and road.cc reader John, who submitted the clip, summed it up quite pithily.

"Terrible overtake, on a bend with oncoming vehicle, subsequent cut up' followed by heavy braking!"

> 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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8 comments

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PRSboy | 3 years ago
1 like

On embarassed drivers, my favourite was the one who tried to overtake me round a blind bend, an oncoming car appeared and they had to brake hard to try to pull back in whilst I gave them my views on their driving.

They then followed some distance behind for about 3 minutes on an otherwise clear road, even to the point of stopping 50 yds behind me at a junction to avoid any further engagement.

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kil0ran | 3 years ago
0 likes

Classic grockle behaviour. No idea they're stuck behind the open top forest tour bus - which is lucky to do much over 20mph. And so they overtake in a 30mph limit, over a narrow bridge, with zero view of the road ahead (that's a tight corner so it's not like they could have looked ahead and timed it). And of course not thinking that more often than not the hedges just round the corner are frequented by donkeys, pigs, and the occasional sheep. For context, that road is half a mile from the M27 and any time you gain by a dangerous overtake will be dwarfed by the imminent return to motorway speeds.

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Gary's bike channel | 3 years ago
0 likes

 

     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7yekcdPBAg

is brook somewhere near here? 

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David9694 replied to Gary's bike channel | 3 years ago
0 likes

Same general area, yes - at one point they ride into Fordingbridge.

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kil0ran replied to Gary's bike channel | 3 years ago
0 likes

If you happen to do that route again, you're less likely to get close passes at high speed if you turn right at the petrol station then immediately left, then take the first left up Stuckton Hill just past The Three Lions. Stuckton Hill is also a nicer climb with a better road surface than the main road. Adds about half a mile to your ride.

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NZ Vegan Rider | 3 years ago
1 like

Dangerous, dangerous, dangerous....

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quiff | 3 years ago
2 likes

Not sure how you infer they were embarrassed (though they should be) - looks to me like they just matched the pace of the car in front. 

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David9694 | 3 years ago
0 likes

Not helped by the fact that that stretch of road is frequented by the new Forest livestock - sheep, pigs, donkeys, ponies).

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