Near Miss of the Day 542: Shockingly close overtake (video includes swearing)

The rider on the receiving end of this very close pass into oncoming traffic in Leicestershire says he was forced to steer towards the gutter to avoid being knocked off his bike.

Chris, the road.cc reader who sent the clip in, told us: “This occurred on 17 September 2020 whilst I was commuting home from work.

“As per the video description, the pass was far too close into oncoming traffic. It was pointless, I could still see the car over a mile later (although it is probably a good thing I didn’t catch up with him). Apologies for the swearing as he passed me.

“I reported this one to the police, it's not often I do this but if this driver continues like this then a vulnerable road user could come off badly.

“The driver has been offered a re-training course at his own expense, which if he doesn’t accept he will likely be fined and receive points. I consider this a reasonable outcome, and hope he learns from it.

“I had to steer towards the gutter to avoid a potential collision with the rear of the car as he moved left and the road was narrowing,” Chris added. “I was moving around 17-18mph at the time.”

> 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