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news
Near Miss of the Day 455: Police act against close pass (police) driver – “a warning letter or a fixed penalty or a prosecution has been issued”
Police in Bristol have taken action against a motorist caught on camera making a close pass on a cyclist – with the offending driver being one of their own officers in a marked police car.
The footage was shot last Friday in Filton by road.cc reader Nick, who submitted it to Avon & Somerset Police.
The force has now told him that the report has been processed, saying: “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).”
They added: “Thank you for helping to keep our roads safe.”
Nick caught up with the car at a set of traffic lights following the close pass, and noted that “Their road positioning was pretty crap at the Advance Stop Line, they were almost blocking the cycle lane.”
He said that he decided against remonstrating with the driver because “I can’t see the occupants of the car accepting that they were in the wrong,” and “I would always fear that they would have taken the camera off me and denied all knowledge.
“Maybe I have seen too much television,” he added.
> 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.
Latest Comments
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Radar tells me their closing speed, if they are slowing and how far away. Then I decide to say a prayer. The change of light pattern is incidental.
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Quite so, which is why our village 20mph zone covers the whole residential extent. Of course, enforcement is another thing..
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No, that's very doubtful while proper testing would be fully destructive.
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25 comments
Wow. Maybe the Met police could take a leaf out of Bristol's book and take on their own.
I had a case recently where a Met police officer overtook me. (Quite well, I might add. I had no issue with the actual overtake on me.)
The issue was that they overtook in the opposite lane directly in the path of an oncoming vehicle which had to slow and pull to the kerb to avoid a head on collision.
As seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIihwepg1_c
i once got into a road argument battle with two panda cops. They blared the horn and siren then pulled alongside me, with the passenger pointing at the on road cycle lane. I pointed at the pinch point, saying they had just broken the law themselves by beeping at me and that the cycle lane WAS the road. They insisted the cycle lane was where i had to be, so i called them both idiots and rode off where they couldnt follow me. The police arent trained any different to any other driver, unless they take the advanced course or go on to do pursuit training/ traffic cop courses.
“Maybe I have seen too much television,” he added.
or the movie "The Negotiator". I can imagine that policeman driving that car hijacking his police station while protesting his innocence.
Maybe the Prius driver could run the next Police driver course; perfect overtake and stops outside of the cycle lane at the lights.
Has any one told the police that we are trying to encourage cyclists not frighten the life out of them.
Wow! Looks like a traffic car not an ordinary patrol. That is bad, and stopping so as to obstruct the cycle lane. The driver has not got proper control of the car and couldn't give a sh1t either.
And yet, in the interests of serving the public, it would be so quick, simple and easy to check the cyclist is OK, hold your hand up and admit you'd made a mistake and apologise.
I had a paddy wagon close pass me on Thursday night coming out of Reading town centre and under the IDR, it was wet and dark and the tarmac is truly bad, I was not impressed but had to hold myself back as I realised from past interactions that nothing positive will come of it and they will turn on you.
Well done for keeping your composure and doing things through official channels.
I don't think you're supposed to call a police vehicle a paddy wagon any more, tbh.
I'm of Irish descent and I find SJW attempts to cancel freedom of expression on the grounds that someone, somewhere may be offended, to be quite ridiculous.
I find attempts to dismiss someone's point of view by using meaningless epithets like 'SJW' and hyperbole about 'cancelling freedom of expression' to be quite ridiculous.
It's not attacking freedom of expression - people can use the word 'paddy' as much as they like, but they also have to deal with the consequences of that (much as shouting 'fire' in a cinema is frowned upon). You obviously can't stop people from getting offended (that's their own emotional reqction which you don't control) but you can choose to avoid loaded words that are considered out-dated even though you don't have a problem with that word.
Freedom of expression does not mean freedom not to be gently reminded to consider your words.
Hello Crimebodge, is that you?
It is at least encouraging that the cyclist wasn't given the runaround after reporting it. Seems no-one is being given special treatment despite their position
Hard to tell from the clip, but did the driver also enter the ASL box on the red light
Do you think he just got the letter or the prosecution though...
I've often wondered what I would do if following an incident someone tried to take my camera. My conclusion is that I would tell him them that I'm livestreaming.
There's no way they can know and generally they're going to be a LOT worse off if they get caught nicking your camera as well as dangerous driving. These guys would immediately lose their jobs, for instance.
Driver needs to be put on desk duty for some considerable time.
Shouldn't be necessary. Should be a pretty quick easy lesson for an officer to learn with that footage. I wouldn't mind if they had to go on a refresher course before being allowed behind the wheel of a police vehicle again though.
I'd hope they get a damn good amount of stick from their fellow officers to help them realise how far this falls below expected driving standards.
You don't think that they have already been on courses to drive a police vehicle?
Well: not based on this particular video anecdote, no...
May not have been a police officer driving, could have been a civilian member of staff transporting the vehicle.
Don't they have to cover the markings over if civilian
Only fake police cars for The Bill
Well I suppose there have been budget cuts.
Squidgy - I'd hope that there would be a civvie standard to follow that required not to bring the police into disrepute.
I expect there is, hopefully meaning some action will be taken. Doesn't look typical behaviour of a traffic cop.