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news
Near Miss of the Day 481: A very scary close encounter with 'Farmer Giles' (includes swearing)
A cyclist who was riding downhill and suddenly encountered a convoy of tractors as he headed under a railway bridge says the incident is “one of the top five near misses I’ve had, filmed or not.”
The incident happened in Houghton near Preston, Lancashire, with road.cc reader Jon, who shot the footage, saying: “On a commute to work in the evening I changed my route so was going downhill and approaching this corner when out of the darkness there appeared a massive tractor taking the whole road – hence the swearing as it was very scary.
“What made all this harder is the poor road surface, people on a pavement and taking a corner so having to lean over so needing more space.
“I’m not blaming the driver it was just one of those incidents,” 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.
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40 comments
Personally I cannot see the reason for the swearing... the cyclist was going too fast to be able to avoid the oncoming traffic - yes - I agree the tractor should have had his lights on - this would have helped, but the cyclist was going too fast to be able to stop - he went into the pinch point assuming that there would be no other traffic.
A tractor (with 2-wheel braking) is restricted to 25mph - an HGV has a 40mph restriction on a road like this. The tractor was not going at full speed. In my opinion he had no option to cross the white lines as the vehicle was wide.
So the tractor was wrong for not having his lights on - the cyclist was wrong for traveling too fast to be able to stop in time.
The majority of tractor drivers aound here make no concessions to cyclists, ever, and do not slow down or allow even adequate clearance to cyclists. I have noticed that they allow considerably more clearance to parked cars.
It's the same where I live too and it's because they are paid per load, this promotes a 'must get the next load at all costs' attitude, which isn't conducive to considerate driving.
Pity you weren't driving a juggernaut - that would have been a fair altrecation with these callous tractor drivers, not having an escort vehicle ahead and warning of wide vehicles.
Worth reporting these farmers, before they kill, for not taking health n safety of others seriously
The worst thing about this road, Gib Lane, (and it's Hoghton, as in Hoghton Tower, which is behind the rider) is the road surface. Coming to the bridge from either direction, there are potholes and rough, cracking tarmac everywhere. I always approach this with caution, for this reason above any other. I can't blame the tractor driver, if he kept hard left his trailer could have collided with the bridge. I guess it's just one of those things, on any country lane we should all be cautious. The lane gets much more narrow further up, just off Goose Foot lane. I wouldn't want to be meeting a tractor on that bend.
Has anyone reported the road to the council?
Luckily it wasn't an "incident."
Aside from it would have been helpful of the driver to have been illuminated, this probably indicates why SLOW was painted on the road just prior to the bridge. My old driving instructor, ex-copper and a regular caution (have I said that somewhere before?) used to say paint costs money. The only reason they've spent it is if they know from experience there's likely to be a crash. The rider would have been wise to heed the warning....
Typical there's a nice slippery looking drain cover slap bang between the tyres and the kerb!
Similar to, but perhaps more terrifying than this:
https://youtu.be/Ij7_Gj6amFA?t=58
Given some of the close encounters with tractors I've had over the years (South Cumbria, so not a million miles away), this would probably have warranted a quick blowing-out of the cheeks and a roll of the eyes. Maybe I'm getting immume to them, but I've had much worse than this on counrty roads. I tend to find with farmers in tractors it's a case of 'might is right' - some of them do not give a shit and will plough on (ho ho) regardless of what's coming.
Second and third tractors both look like they had headlights on, but not the front tractor. Not very thoughtful.
I would have thought lights should be mandatory all the time on something like this when using the road - but apparently it isn't.
Just one of those hazards to look out for really in the countryside.
Garstang is not far north of the scene of this incident, and I can confirm that massive tractors are a major hazard. These vehicles are pretty much invulnerable- they would crush a Transit no bother. Consequently, the drivers don't care. In my pre-camera days I was very nearly terminated by a massive tractor/ trailer swerving onto my side of the road because of parked cars on his lane- all on the way to Garstang Show along the narrow residential streets nearby. I had nowhere to go and was right by the kerb, he didn't slow down at all and I skidded on the mud all over the road. I was very nearly off and immediately under those massive wheels. You have to bear these tractors in mind on all back roads of North Lancashire.
Near miss, but as the guy has said, no issues with the driver- bit more caution needed on poorly sighted areas with crappy surfaces
Not seeing this as a pinch point.
The tractors should a) have lights on and a flashing yellow on the roof
b) with a load as wide as that and unable to stay within their own lane should have had an escort
What were the tractor drivers going to do if they had met a similar tractor and load?
Looks a bit narrow to me. That tractor was further over than I would have expected, but I guess that's to give enough room to get their trailer through. Hazard lights would definitely be a good call.
And if you flip it round, why did the tractor driver think it was ok to go through a narrow section where they could not see oncoming traffic? Add to that they took up nearly the whole road under the bridge.
Presumably, the way ahead was clear when they started going through the tunnel and unfortunately there's very poor visibility around it so there was no way they could determine if they'd encounter traffic after they'd started through it. If they'd had a nice flashing warning light on top then that would've been a good heads-up for the cyclist, but in this case I think the cyclist should have been more careful on the approach. I guess the tractor could have been closer to their side but they didn't look to have much room to spare with that trailer behind them.
The other thing that could have been done is to sound the horn, although I have never heard anyone do this (have rarely done it myself). If you do go narrowboating, it is something you would do a bit more often, given the size of the boat and unsighted bends.
I'd be more than worried if I met a narrowboat on a road like that.
Bloody tractors, taking up the whole road.
Have you been to the country? Loads of minor roads/ lanes that are used by agricultural vehicles are not even wide enough for two cars to pass without using passing places or pulling right up onto the verge.
"should have had an escort"
I must be imagining those wide loads I see everyother month on the local roads with an escort.
In this instance, there were 4 tractors, not one.
I've seen combine harvesters with "wide load" signs and escorts. Standard tractors, not so much.
It was more that there were 3 in a convoy (doubled checked and the other vehicle I saw was a car), which I think tips the balance a bit.
If the first tractor did have headlights and the orange/yellow strobe on, that would have probably made a big difference to the oncoming cyclist's approach.
youll get escorts with combines, as they can take up the whole road even without the cutting bit attached on the front, but not tractors like that, and thats a standard tractor size thesedays, they havent blinged up and got a super grande version.
its the noise of the tyres on the road that I think always make tractor encounters more shocking when you experience them, than perhaps they would be with other vehicles in similar positions. I mean it could easily have been an hgv manouvering slowly through without an escort either, and I dont think you could have had any complaints as a rider in that setup, so why is the tractor different ?
tractors on country roads, you are never quite prepared for them,but I at least kind of accept its a recognised hazard of riding around rural roads, just as theres a ton of mud currently on those roads, the trucks taking away the stuff dug up from the fields Ive less time for as they seem to be driven by frustrated taxi or delivery van drivers.
The hgv would have take the low bridge out...
As above, it was the number of tractors involved, one would have been ok. You could envisage a situation with another large vehicle where none of the 4 vehicles could easily move.
This is not anticipating the obvious, vehicles coming the other way at a dark obscured pinch point. Slow down when you cant see what's around the corner.
Only travel as fast in what you can stop in or expect to encounter what you did
agreed - driving a car under that bridge at 27mph (failing to heed the 'slow' caution painted on the road) without seeing the road was clear would be reckless driving IMO
Not only that, he consciously accelerated from 23mph to 27mph just as he approached the obviously pitch black tunnel.
I do agree the corner should be approached with more caution, but that also goes for the tractor - the video also shows that while traveling on the wrong side of the road, round a blind corner, the tractor had no intention of stopping despite a high probability of causing death or injury to anything oncoming - which seems to be a problem with anyone behind the wheel of a big vehicle - this assumption the others will compensate to not get hurt.
As has been pointed out if a tractor with the same mindset was coming the otherway it would of been a colision. Actually the only reason there wasn't a collision here is because Jon was on a bike, anything wider being used in a similar way to either the tractor or the bike would have been a collision.
Unless we can determine the speed of the tractor I don't beleive either is a valid conclusion. The rider himself has indicated that he didn't hold the driver responsible.
This is one of those gods given situations that allow us to say (when we've stopped swearing) "that was close, learned something there" without any harm done. We've all been there.....
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