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Near Miss of the Day 516: Overtaking driver brakes to avoid hitting oncoming car

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

It’s a two-for-one in our Near Miss of the Day series today with a pair of videos submitted by a road.cc reader – the one above showing a Mini driver who had given a group of riders plenty of space while overtaking them forced to brake to a halt to avoid a head-on crash with a BMW coming the other way.

The second video, below, shows another overtaking manoeuvre in which the motorist doesn’t just put the cyclist at risk, but also themselves and the occupants of the vehicles coming from the opposite direction, missing a pair of cars by a matter of inches.

The Highway Code says (Rule 162) that “Before overtaking you should make sure the road is sufficiently clear ahead” and that drivers should ensure that “there is a suitable gap in front of the road user you plan to overtake.”

Rule 163, meanwhile, tells motorists to “Overtake only when it is safe and legal to do so,” and to give motorcyclists, cyclists and horse riders at least as much room as you would when overtaking a car.”

Mark, the road.cc reader who sent in the clips, told us that he had also submitted them to Sussex Police’s Operation Crackdown, and that both motorists had been sent warning letters.

> 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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17 comments

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iandusud | 3 years ago
2 likes

I cannot for the life of me understand why those incidents resulted in warning letter and  not a prosecution. I'm not one for throwing the book at every error of judgment or lapse in attention but both those videos are examples of outright dangerous driving putting the lives of other road users at risk. Both drivers should have ended up with points on their license (possibly to add to those they may already have with the possibility of disqualification). 

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Awavey replied to iandusud | 3 years ago
2 likes

my problem with labelling these particular examples as "outright dangerous driving putting peoples lives at risk" and Im not saying these were great examples of driving at all.

But where does that then leave us trying to describe the really close passes ? the ones where you as a cyclist actually feel you are about to get hit the vehicle is so close to you, the ones where you actually then experience emotional trauma because of it, that stays with you for days, weeks maybe even months or years afterwards.

Those are the ones I want prosecuted and off our roads.

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Rendel Harris replied to Awavey | 3 years ago
1 like

Awavey wrote:

my problem with labelling these particular examples as "outright dangerous driving putting peoples lives at risk" and Im not saying these were great examples of driving at all.

But where does that then leave us trying to describe the really close passes ? the ones where you as a cyclist actually feel you are about to get hit the vehicle is so close to you, the ones where you actually then experience emotional trauma because of it, that stays with you for days, weeks maybe even months or years afterwards.

Those are the ones I want prosecuted and off our roads.

In the first one, the Mini driver doesn't put the cyclists' lives at risk (apart from the risk of being collateral damage from a primary crash) but they definitely put lives at risk, firstly with the oncoming driver who, if they hadn't been paying attention, could have gone head on into them, and then on the second overtake going into the bend on the wrong side of the road and nearly hitting the motorcyclists. Very much fulfills the criteria you mention and I'm amazed that they got away with a warning.

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BIRMINGHAMisaDUMP | 3 years ago
1 like

I had the first type just yesterday. Black Audi, smoked windows. I wouldn't bother reporting it. It's just another day another dodgy overtake isn't it? 

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ChrisB200SX | 3 years ago
1 like

First video... Mini nearly has a head-on with the motorbike!

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eburtthebike | 3 years ago
7 likes

Both of those drivers should have been prosecuted; a warning letter is patently insufficient.  They aren't capable of driving safely so they should be deprived of their ability to do so until they have learned that they don't own the road and other people have rights; not least to their lives.

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wtjs | 3 years ago
1 like

Even I wouldn't have bothered about the first one, but the second would have been completely ignored by Lancashire Constabulary, like the one below which is a comparabl clearance. The advantage of reporting close passes on other cyclists is that you get a view which the police are more accustomed to, and which they find more difficult to ignore.

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Awavey | 3 years ago
2 likes

was the letter on the first one because of the failed overtake or the nearly collecting the motorcyclists ?. As the timestamps arent synched cant really work out if the MINI committed to the initial overtake and could see if the oncoming traffic was visible.

Personally I wouldnt have been too fussed with that first one, I thought you were allowed to pull out because it gives you a clear view ahead and abort the overtake if necessary, its not as the majority behave once you start an overtake you are committed and then make the space by cutting in on the cyclists.

less happy with their subsequent go, but its bad enough reporting your own close passes, not about to start reporting other peoples for them.

As for the Audi, well colour me surprised it was an Audi involved.

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zero_trooper replied to Awavey | 3 years ago
1 like

Nothing wrong with pulling out to get a better look. In fact the Mini pulled out plenty early. Just couldn't get any view! So they committed to a blind overtake and then aborted.

Just as well it was the oncoming car and not them motorbikes.

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Awavey replied to zero_trooper | 3 years ago
1 like

its not the best example of safe overtaking for sure, and youd have thought after the MINIs 1st attempt, to be a bit more circumspect on the 2nd.

but I kind of look at that first one and if that type of pass was the worst kind of thing we encountered on the roads, Id actually be reasonably ok with that.

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Rendel Harris replied to Awavey | 3 years ago
2 likes

Awavey wrote:

its not the best example of safe overtaking for sure, and youd have thought after the MINIs 1st attempt, to be a bit more circumspect on the 2nd.

but I kind of look at that first one and if that type of pass was the worst kind of thing we encountered on the roads, Id actually be reasonably ok with that.

Partly agree - would LOVE it if they all passed at that distance...but if the oncoming driver had been speeding,  looking at their 'phone or otherwise distracted there could have been a head on and cyclists often end up as collateral damage. It was not good.

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Wardy74 | 3 years ago
6 likes

Poor anticipation and planning, but I'm glad discretion was the better part of valour here, not that it excuses crap driving though. Many would have chopped in regardless.

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Mungecrundle | 3 years ago
10 likes

The 2 videos also demonstrate that single file or 2 abreast makes absolutely no difference to the safety of the overtake.

Total failure of roadcraft, basic observation and ability to plan ahead. These drivers need remedial tuition not warning letters.

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zero_trooper replied to Mungecrundle | 3 years ago
4 likes

Which is where a driver improvement course comes in. Driving like that are they going to benefit from a warning letter? 

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alchemilla | 3 years ago
5 likes

A normal day out on the road, nothing special about these videos.  This happens literally every time I'm out on my bike.  It's so common it's unremarkable, but doesn't make it right.

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kil0ran | 3 years ago
13 likes

Feck - went for that from a long way back and then did it again with oncoming motorcyclists who looked like they were also out on a bit of a group blast. Bend with low winter sun (m'lud), guarantee they couldn't see the motorcyclists. About half a second from a multi-vehicle accident as the following motorcyclist would have had nowhere to go. Incredible that Op Crackdown just thinks that's a warning letter.

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zero_trooper replied to kil0ran | 3 years ago
0 likes

More Crackinup than Crackdown kiss

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