Here’s an interesting entry in our Near Miss of the Day series – the driver of what we presume is an unmarked police car starting to overtake a cyclist and thinking better of it due to a couple of other riders; as well as another motor vehicle, coming in the other direction then after weaving through them, flashing their blue lights.
The footage was filmed in northwest Kent by road.cc reader Philip, who said there was no apparent reason for the driver to have flashed the lights other than because “that for some reason excused and justified their bad driving.”
He told us: “Having just cycled up Hogtrough Hill (just next to the better known Brasted Hill in Kent) I was heading down a quiet country lane. I started taking a left turn, arm out in a clear signal with a car still approaching on the opposite side of the road. The car then continued to turn as I turned but onto the wrong side of the road, towards an oncoming car and two other bicycles.
“The car then had to stop sharply but couldn’t pull over because by this point it was parallel to me and had nowhere to go. It pulled in behind me, allowed the oncoming car and bikes to pass and then continued to pass me. While I was fine and nobody came close to me, had the oncoming traffic been faster or closer we could all have been seriously hurt.
“As I gave my usual disappointed shake of my head that I reserve for this sort of thoughtless driving the car lit up its blue lights. I can only assume that this was to show me that it was an unmarked Police car and that for some reason excused and justified their bad driving. There was no reason to light up its lights after passing the other vehicles and while passing me and at no other point were their blue lights on and almost as quickly as they passed, they turned off their lights again. (Note, in the video their side lights appear to flicker but this is just a side effect of the camera’s frame-rate).”
He added: “I find in general road users’ lack of consideration for cyclists disappointing but it is really sad that I often find that the Police are just as bad as any other ‘regular’ driver.”
> 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@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
104 thoughts on “Near Miss of the Day 550: Unmarked police car driver weaves through cyclists”
WTAF?
WTAF?
Lucky that 4×4 didn’t arrive
Lucky that 4×4 didn’t arrive 5 seconds earlier.
Is that really safe driving even if in a pursuit?
Did you report it? (Although not sure what the offence would be)
Certainly a ‘driver training issue’.
hirsute wrote:
RTA 1988, s3:
Careless, and inconsiderate, driving.
If a person drives a mechanically propelled vehicle on a road or other public place without due care and attention, or without reasonable consideration for other persons using the road or place, he is guilty of an offence.
And according to https://www.sentencingcouncil.org.uk/offences/magistrates-court/item/careless-driving-drive-without-due-care-and-attention-revised-2017/ it should probably be a fine of 50% weekly income plus 3-4 points.
hirsute wrote:
In pursuit by definition is unsafe driving.
Not if you are trained to the
Not if you are trained to the correct level.
hirsute wrote:
By your sentence that means that the risk to bystanders would be equivalent to normal safe driving. Looking at plod’s safety record on pursuits we can see that’s not the case.
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2019/jul/02/deaths-uk-police-pursuits-chases
Some enlightened jurisdictions, even in the States, are beginning to follow non-pursuit policies. It is rare that the pursuit is the only opportunity to apprehend a scally. The risk to the wider public is too great, for little or no payback.
I’m waiting for them to
I’m waiting for them to abandon using police cars for pursuits and instead employ some spotty faced teens flying some racing drones instead. (Probably wouldn’t need to be racing drones, but you know, why not?). A driver wouldn’t be able to do much to lose a drone except for drive around long enough to exceed their flying time and it’d be easy enough to have drone-chase-relays to follow the driver around until they give up and/or abandon their car.
hawkinspeter wrote:
That’s spot on. Helicopter patrols have been used in some jurisdictions to trace vehicles and occupants without the need for a highspeed chase, thus reducing risk for officer, occupants of pursued vehicle, and public at large. Trouble is the cost associated. Using Drones would be fab. With modern tech they would not necessarily need to be piloted directly.
Mind you reapplying the tech could result in something far more sinister…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fa9lVwHHqg
I was under the impression
I was under the impression that the police could only use their flashing blue lights when they were responding to an incident or had a specific need such as drawing attention to a hazard. So perhaps they were admitting that they are the hazard and the problem and will report themselves.
I once saw a marked “panda”
I once saw a marked “panda” use it’s blue lights to get through a traffic jam in Kings Heath High Street a long while back. Once beyond the lights and the queue he turned them off.
Not surprising, last week I
Not surprising, last week I got lectured by a police officer for swearing out loud after he pulled across me on an empty road, having done a u-turn and chased me for half a mile to tell me off. Of course, he was a cyclist as well. Video to follow next week if the Met don’t action my report
lukei1 wrote:
Can’t you do him/her for wasting police time?!
I would think the video being
I would think the video being published on here would have shameful enough, obviously as a keen cyclist himself, I expect the Officer will see it on here
I had a similar experience –
I had a similar experience – I was riding alongside another rider on a wide, 2-lane road, approaching a corner a marked car honked and close passed. I gestured (not rudely) in a ‘really?!’ kind of way. The car pulled up and the officer flagged us down to say we ‘must ride in single file’. I got a copy of the highway code up and pointed out that a) his use of a horn was illegal unless he considered his driving to be dangerous b) his overtake was dangerous and c) we were fully entitled to ride side by side, and had been doing so to try and dissuade an unecessary overtake into a corner… He shut up and drove off PDQ.
lukei1 wrote:
Should have said that you were a keen police officer yourself…
I suspect the driver will be
I suspect the driver will be buying the tea break biscuits when their office get wind of this!
I wonder if they were a student under training and an instructor? Maybe the flash was a kind of ‘sorry’. It was a very silly manouvre. All low speed and thankfully the 4×4 driver was paying attention and was able to stop.
This is also why I don’t indicate left anymore if there’s a car waiting to turn right. I used to get this sort of thing when I commuted to work, pretending I was going straight on seemed to solve the issue.
How will they ever know whi
How will they ever know whi it was, it’s not like they’ve posted an unmarked car’s reg numb…. oh never mind.
Yep, cake and coffee all round I think. While they “could” be on a call not requiring a full blues response, if they felt the need to pass quickly, flashing the lights before the junction would most likely result in the cyclist waiting and letting them go, so they can turn them off again.
Looks like almost a “sorry”
Looks like almost a “sorry” flash. They were obviously in a hurry to get somewhere and while it was a bit of a dick move to try and over take you off the corner, they did give you room when passing.
I’m less generous than you,
I’m less generous than you, but to me it looks like a total SMIDSY (Smidgaf) followed by ‘maybe if I bip the blue lights it’ll look like I’m going to an emergency’.
I they were in a genuine
I they were in a genuine police hurry then I would have thought the lights would be on, had they been I for one would have been waiting short of the junction to let them get on thier way.
The road positioning as they turn into the junction is atrocious (regardless of the purpose of the trip) and that in itself should be reported
Agree. I would report it
Agree. I would report it solely for that turn which could have been disastrous and appears to have been a move to get in front. Not worth the risk.
Also you assume it’s a police car – it could equally be Fire who also have unmarked cars with blue lights or the NCA. I’d report it either way
I’d report it either way
I’d report it either way
Well, you could try! It wouldn’t get a response in Lancashire, just as the Coach Carpets close pass below didn’t- although maybe it would… from an Inspector.
Gkam84 wrote:
Pull the other one! It was quite clearly a bit of “willy-waving” – “actually I’m an unmarked police car so you can’t object to my atrocious driving”. If s/he was on an emergency call the blues would have been on already, so “I’m in a hurry to get somewhere” doesn’t cut it. Who’s ever heard of police flashing their blues as an apology? Pure assertion of power I’m afraid.
Rendel Harris wrote:
Not in an undercover vehicle. If let’s just say they were tracking down a stolen car or a drug dealer, it’s a bit obvious banging on the lights. They approach at speed without identifying themselves.
Gkam84 wrote:
So they were keeping themselves undercover (from whom, at this point?) but decided to blow their cover to apologise to the cyclist? Get oop t’street lad!
I dont think it was a sorry
I dont think it was a sorry flash as it started before the overtake.
I think it was either :
a) “On the blue lights coming through”
b) Additional visibility to on coming traffic.
Odd either way though.
Gkam84 wrote:
I don’t believe that for one second. I agree with the rider’s analysis of the use of blue lights.
The dick turned into a side road on the wrong side of the road (effectively a blind bend on a single track road) without good reason and tried to overtake immediately. A really stupid move, I doubt the SUV driver was impressed. Worra twat.
If he/she was in a genuine hurry they could have used the blue before they and the cyclist turned into the road and took priority into the junction.
No, they wanted to push past so used the blue lights
to justify the manoeuvreas they’d just got a message saying that sarge has bought doughnuts again.I appear to be the only one
I appear to be the only one here who thinks this is a non-story. I yield to no-one in my desire to catch the police out in bad driving, but even I wouldn’t even have bothered to save this one. He/ she didn’t do it, but halted. I haven’t yet caught a police driver on video- sadly, I wasn’t wearing the camera when a police car illegally crossed the unbroken white line on a humped bridge. I consoled myself that it wasn’t The Holy Grail: Lancashire TacOps.
Yet this case below (technically excellent video sent in to this site a week ago) wasn’t put up on the site- there are some odd choices going on here.
Are you trying to talk this
Are you trying to talk this video down because you’re jealous they didn’t pick yours? Get a grip man
Are you trying to talk this
Are you trying to talk this video down because you’re jealous
Simple – mine really is a pretty bad NMotD carried out by a large fast vehicle, and this one isn’t.
This NMOTD an example of poor
This NMOTD an example of poor driving but the police won’t be interested as the driver got away with it. So much for preventative policing. The one good thing is that the cyclist wasn’t put in danger as the driver chose to inconvenience the oncoming car instead.
To WTJS, you may find this interesting. Google “PC Jon Illife” and read the Gloucestershire Live story.
To WTJS, you may find this
To WTJS, you may find this interesting. Google “PC Jon Illife” and read the Gloucestershire Live story
Thanks, very interesting! It’s different in Lancashire, though. The stupid get-out-of-jail-free dodges used by Professional Standards are approved by the bosses, and unless you force the traffic officers they just don’t reply. Therefore they dodge having to say if they’ve done anything. The practice in other forces of just saying ‘we did something but we won’t say what it was’ must be to avoid Illife’s fate. I will bear this in mind as the present complaint drags on and on. I ought to make it clear, though, that I’m not after the individual officers, just the LC system that allows them to essentially ignore complaints by/concerning cyclists.
The red car may have halted,
The red car may have halted, but that was still dick driving. Going for an overtake that they never had a view on. The view the oncoming car driver had of the oncoming manoeuvre/shenanigans would have been interesting to say the least.
Complete non story. Police
Complete non story. Police or fire on blue lights going somewhere in a hurry may get quite close to you. I’ll put this in my file of “I’m a special cyclist and my journey is vital” videos.
Lol, yep
Lol, yep
You were quite happy with the
You were quite happy with the way they drove into the junction on completely the wrong side of the road then with no clear view of any traffic approaching the junction? As I said earlier, good job the 4×4 was late to the show.
Junctions are good places to
Junctions are good places to pass. there’s bit of extra road width usually and everyone has slowed down. The car turning in had a look and changed his/her mind. If the 4×4 had been further back he or she would have passed as it is they braked tucked back in well behind the bike and then passed when it was clear. Wheres the problem ?
nicmason wrote:
The Highway Code disagrees with you
“The car turning in had a
“The car turning in had a look and changed his/her mind”
At the point they committed to fully driving on the wrong side of the road, how could they know it was safe to do so? How did they have a view that no one was coming?
Do you think you would have passed your driving test if you turned into a junction like that?
” If the 4×4 had been further back”
And if the 4×4 had been further forward then what would have happened?
Please tell me you don’t drive if you think it was all ok.
I do drive thanks.
I do drive thanks.
I’m curious .
All the critical responses to this . How many are by drivers trained for response driving.
BTW the only thing that would count would be video from the red car driver POV so you could see what he/she can see.
What I see is the usual roadcc group think pile on.
You drive?
You drive?
Do you think you would have passed your driving test taking the corner like that?
“BTW the only thing that would count would be video from the red car driver POV”
So in order to refute the criticisms, you have decided that visibility was ok even though you dont know that.
There are hedges on both sides with a very restricted view of what is approaching the junction, there are also rules 166 and 167 but despite all this, it some sort of group think and that posters should assume it was a safe manoeuvre until proven otherwise.
I know you like to take a minority postion, but this one is ludicrous.
No I’m pointing out that
No I’m pointing out that theres a lot of criticism of the police based on a poor quality video including a car that may not even be a police car. thats group think.
the driver may have thought he could turn in and get by before the oncoming vehicle and then changd his/her mind as they turned in.
As I said happy to hear criticism from trained reponse drivers not so much from armchair video clip warriors.
In that case I’m happy to
In that case I’m happy to concede that the term emergency services should be used.
How does that affect the terrible driving?
“the driver may have thought he could turn in”
They had no view to make that decision and no knowldege of what was oncoming, and for the third time – do you think you would have passed your driving test taking a corner like that ?
“armchair video clip warriors.”
You mean cyclists who use the roads and have been on the end of many, many poor driving incidents who are fully aware of actual and potential accidents and who have developed hazard awareness and defensive road use?
nicmason wrote:
Those that are are responsible for a staggering number of injuries to the public
due to their driving position they were not able to see what was coming round the corner. Hence the interaction with the 4×4. That’s why junctions are not a good place to pass
If by that you mean it’s f*cking obvious to most people that this was a crap piece of driving…..
“Those that are are
“Those that are are responsible for a staggering number of injuries to the public”
how many ?
heres some numbers . not very staggering at all IMO
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/329259/FOI-30835_Road_traffice_casualties_and_collisions_involving_police_vehicles.pdf
nicmason wrote:
That link’s got some extraneous characters – should be: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/329259/FOI-30835_Road_traffice_casualties_and_collisions_involving_police_vehicles.pdf
nicmason wrote:
Your lnk doesn’t work
Try this one, which details that 2018-19 out of 42 deaths, 30 were during pursuits, and 10 the victims had nothing to do with the call. Considering teh low number of miles driven in this manner, this is a staggeringly high death toll, and absolutely not worth it
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/police-custody-deaths-uk-car-crashes-pursuits-victims-a9092561.html
Here’s a more qualitative piece, which details the general incompetence of police when it comes to dynamic risk assessment during pursuits. (not that I blame them, they’re human. But it points out that engaging is rarely justified)
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2019/jul/02/deaths-uk-police-pursuits-chases
Excusing shit driving with blue lights is not acceptable. A fully trained and competent driver will understand that high-speed response is rarely of ever justified.
And in the case at hand, at the risk of stating the bleeding obvious, the driver was being a twonk.
nicmason wrote:
HAving just reviewed these figures (thanks HP) are we looking at the same list.?
Over 2 years 40 deaths and the best part of 200 serious injuries, the vast majority being to members of the public.
Hope it was worth it.
Nic, back in the day I was,
Nic, back in the day I was, in the words of my examiner, a ‘very good (police) advanced driver’.
Trust me, that was a shit manoeuvre at the junction and if I’d pulled the same stunt on my Advanced Driving Couse I would have expected to have had to pull the car over, being bawled out by my instructor and made to sit in the back whilst someone more competent took over 🙁
Proviso: despite the above, I’m still quite capable of making bad decisions with my driving and for that matter, my cycling. Hopefully just inconsequential ones. (Apart from the time I thought that I was Peter Sagan. I still can’t straighten my finger without wincing!)
Well I’ll respect your
Well I’ll respect your opinion. OTOH all this opinion is based on one poor quality video.
Nevertheless you managed to
Nevertheless you managed to give your opinion as
“Complete non story. Police or fire on blue lights going somewhere in a hurry may get quite close to you. I’ll put this in my file of “I’m a special cyclist and my journey is vital” videos.”
Not
“no one can tell anything from the video.”
I suppose you can’t see the white lines or junction from this poor quality still
Its still a non story.
Its still a non story.
As it seems to upset you so much I’ll file it under “inconvenient . could do better”
Because cutting the corner
Because cutting the corner blind has no consequences
https://road.cc/content/news/near-miss-day-501-hgv-driver-had-cut-corner-278927
I suppose that one is poor quality footage too.
hirsute wrote:
And thats nothing like this is it.
Another example of a driver
Another example of a driver turning into a side road with no visibility of what was coming. So yes, it was like it. Although you seem to think that cutting a corner isn’t an issue at all.
For a fourth time – if you cut the corner like that on your test, would you pass?
LOL I refuse to answer on the
LOL I refuse to answer on the grounds I may incriminate myself.
You know you really might want to get over yourself.
Nic, you’re wasting your time
Nic, you’re wasting your time trying to explain mate. These lot are all experts on everything and nothing. Very happy to sit behind a keyboard and give their expert opinions, but not got the bottle to actually go and do the job, but will moan like hell, when it takes the Police longer than 30 seconds to turn up to the call they’ve made. I just usually read their opinions on everything and enjoy the entertainment and comedy factors they have in their lives.
nicmason wrote:
By luck only, not management. That’s the thing about risk.
Safe driving is all about reducing risk. This twonk did quite the opposite. Then flashed his lights as if t say “it’s okay, I’m a highly trained driver”
nicmason wrote:
— nicmasonIncorrect. That’s what you want to see.
There are a range of views presented in the comments. Most commenters are experienced road users and can recognise shit driving when we see it.
The red car driver’s PoV – and their pathetic excuses – is not (and should not be) the only way to analyse their behaviour.
Simon E wrote:
obvs I disagree . Note the italics there. is that like an enraged hiss.
The red car driver is rather anonymous in this though. they have made no excuses.
Perhaps they should have used
Perhaps they should have used blue lights and sirens to begin with, no sign of blue lights unti after the junction, taken dangerously.
Blue lights on from the begining should mean that cyclist pulls over and unmarked car can take junction on correct side of the ride. Landrover can’t see the police car until they are face to face, has no reason to expect it will come round the corner on the wrong side. And no sires or blue lights either.
nicmason wrote:
No, their emergency is not our problem. Blue lights should not be seen as a sign off to endanger lives that are nothing to do with your current job.
Driving safely around the vulnerable is not a courtesy, it is a bare minimum.
If you read the accompanying
If you read the accompanying text, it is indicated that the police weren’t attending an emergency; they just flashed their blue lights to indicate they are police and therefore above the law (at least it’s presumed that must have been what they intended to signal). They did not have their blue lights flashing as the approached the junction. After passing the cyclist and flashing the lights, they then turned off the blue lights again and carried on their merry way.
Even if the police were attending an emergency, they are not above the law and the RTA still applies, with specific limited exceptions for emergency services. It’s a long read, but there’s some detailed discussion in the Guardian article from a while back: https://www.theguardian.com/news/2019/jul/02/deaths-uk-police-pursuits-chases
Ho do you know its the police
Ho do you know its the police ?
It could be a fire officer on his way to an incident.
Also how do you know if it is the police if they where attending a incident or not . Have you got a secret connection to emergency services despatch you havent tod anyone about.
nicmason wrote:
Do fire officers generally drive unmarked cars with concealed blue lights?
Yes they do.
Yes they do.
https://www.fireservice.co.uk/information/blue-lights/
nicmason wrote:
Interesting, thanks for the data
[/quote]
[/quote]
Do fire officers generally drive unmarked cars with concealed blue lights?
[/quote]
They do in many cases yes. But if ot was a fire officer on an emergency call their blue lights would be on for the duration of the journey, and two tone horns would be used where appropriate.
nicmason wrote:
Regardless of whether it’s the police, ambulance, or fire service on an emergency call they would have blue lights on for the whole time.
dreamlx10 wrote:
Sure, just as soon as the call comes in.
nicmason wrote:
‘So what’ about all of this? No emergency response driver is taught to put other lives at risk in order to save time. Whoever this was wasn’t ‘responding’, they were just driving like a twat, and trying to defend it makes you just as bad as them.
Thanks for that.
Thanks for that.
I didnt see anyones lives put at risk. In fact they drove into the turning very slowly.
nicmason wrote:
So what purpose did cutting the corner actually serve?
[/quote]
So what purpose did cutting the corner actually serve?
[/quote]
avoiding the cyclist obvs
nicmason wrote:
Avoiding the cyclist by overtaking on a corner that you can’t see what’s coming. Had the 4×4 been faster or sooner, our fireman friend would have responded by either taking the hit or swerving into the rider – I wonder which option they would have selected…..
Or, and this is a real stretch but bear with me, take the corner as you are supposed to (eg on the correct side of the road) , remain behind the rider until it is safe to pass, and do so in a competent and safe manner.
Obvs
its not really like that in
its not really like that in the video though is it but I understand your need to take a worse case scenario about all these clickbait roadcc videos.
nicmason wrote:
O’taking on a junction – tick
Turning into an essentially blind corner on the incorrect side of the road- tick
approaching 4×4 only seen at last second – tick
Shit driving with no regard for other road users -tick
My description seems to be at least reasonable and defensible
However your “it was safe cos they were going slowly, and overtaking on a junction is fine cos it’s a good place to do it” seems to be inconsistent with the HWC, safe driving theory, or indeed reality.
Dude, you are feeling sore cos a number of people have reasonably challenged your view that the driver behaved safely. As more than one has pointed out, the HWC also disagrees, as do a couple of past and present coppers in the comments.
S’fine, but be a bigger person and retire gracefully rather than digging in.
I’m not the one getting hot
I’m not the one getting hot under the collar on here.
Its the usual list of angry people as far as I can see..
nicmason wrote:
Lol course you aren’t. Have a great weekend dude
and you !
and you !
I don’t know it was police; I
I don’t know it was police; I assumed based on the article title. It does seem most likely to have been police given the unmarked car, but the rest of what I said applies to any emergency service.
Again, I can’t prove they weren’t attending an emergency, I can only point out that their behaviour did not seem typical of emergency services if they were in fact attending an emergency.
Finally, my point was that even if they were attending an emergency, that does not absolve them of a duty of care to other road users.
nicmason wrote:
If they were on a blue light emergency call then their lights should be on the whole time, and they would also use two tones where appropriate
Thatll be generally true but
Thatll be generally true but an incident may be called off while someone is on their way and then they’ll turn them off.
nicmason wrote:
So which is it?
Was this driver responding to an emergency call and should have had blue loghts on the while time.
or had the call been cancelled, in which case no justification for taking the junction on the wrong side.
nicmason wrote:
Wow
So the lights went on after the incompetent and dangerous turn into the junction, stayed on for 5s (check the vid) and then went off.
So that “emergency” was called and revoked in the space of 10 seconds if accounting for having to receive the call, negotiate the turn, operate the lights, receive the second call and deactivate the lights, all whilst overtaking one cyclist in the face of others.
Even if there was a call (and when considering the above, the balance of probability is that the driver was actually just being a twonk, and using the blues to either say sorry, or wave their willy) the actions of the driver would not have borne the risk-benefit analysis for that behaviour ;
And approaching that ‘I can’t
And approaching that ‘I can’t see into this junction, anything could be around the corner’ junction, sirens were definitely appropriate.
nicmason wrote:
Isn’t the purpose of the blue lights to warn other traffic? In that case, why were the lights not on when the driver was turning into the junction? I can’t see the point of using blue warning lights after the potentially unsafe maneouvre was performed.
Its quite a poor quality
Its quite a poor quality video and I would says it possible those flashing blue lights where on as it approached the turn and maybe you cant see them in the video. those embedded bue lights can be quite hard to see anyway IMO
Okay, I’ve re-examined the
Okay, I’ve re-examined the video to see if that’s a possibility, but it’s very clear to see exactly when the blue lights got turned on (just a second or so before the driver actually overtook the cyclist) and they most definitely were not on as the driver negotiated the corner.
I can understand why you might want to defend the police service (assuming it was the police) as they do a tough job and get lots of abuse, but when faced with direct video evidence, it’s better to just acknowledge that a mistake was made and figure out how to prevent those kinds of mistakes in future.
Okay, I’ve re-examined the
you and I must be looking at different video.
nicmason wrote:
That could explain why you think the video doesn’t clearly show what happened. On the video you saw, can you not see the blue lights on the front grill start up as the car pulled behind the cyclist (after turning the corner)?
By my reckoning it is at 23 seconds into the video.
https://youtu.be/hFpN1ycfc5k?t=23
Ok thats well spotted.
Ok thats well spotted.
But tbh doesnt change my opinion much. minor nuisance , nobody hurt.
That pic was zoomed in and
That pic was zoomed in and cropped so it may not have been clear to you if you were on a small screen (I happened to watch it on a big 4k monitor so it was easy to spot).
I do agree about it being a minor nuisance, but that doesn’t mean that the driving was appropriate or can’t be improved. I thought that the driver seemed more in control of their vehicle than the typical NMOTD videos but the taking a corner on the wrong side of the road wasn’t a good idea with that visibility.
nicmason wrote:
Is that your response to most of the near misses on this site then? The whole point of a “Near Miss” is that nobody is hurt. It was a MISS. Of course, “nothing” happened. Problem is, near misses are indicative of more serious accidents where people DO get hurt.
Your responses throughout this thread have been simply doubling down on your “non-story” opinion. If that’s the case, EVERY near miss is a non-story – nothing happened. Except when it does. But by calling out near misses, then hopefully they won’t happen. Less near misses means less serious accidents. Lots of IFS in this video that would have turned it from a “near miss” into an incident. More ifs turn it from a near miss into a fatal accident.
At the end of the day, this was an emergency vehicle (as evidenced by the blue lights). If the blue lights had been going throughout the video, even without sirens, then we wouldn’t even be watching it because the cyclist, like pretty much anyone else here, would have likely given way to the emergency vehicle allowing the car to turn right on the correct side of the road. But they weren’t. Now, even if it had been a marked emergency vehicle, again without blue lights or sirens going, the cyclist would have probably behaved in exactly the same manner regardless. The pass of the cyclist looked OK but turning right into oncoming traffic is a big no-no at the end of the day and that is where the near miss comes in. Next time the driver decides to turn into a junction like this, whether in their own vehicle or an emergency one, they might not be so lucky that the 4×4 coming towards them was 5 seconds too late reaching the junction, but knowing this video is out there, might actually stop them from making that turn and therefore avoiding any accident altogether.
These videos do nothing but
These videos do nothing but make cyclists like you angry and present the roads as very dangerous. The effecton the general population is (I think) just about 0.
Flashing lights that cannot
Flashing lights that cannot be seen would seem quite pointless, wouldn’t they?
Would have to have been fitted by someone quite incompetent.
ktache wrote:
Well, if you could see them all the time, they wouldn’t be flashing would they?
C’mon, that’s rubbish and
C’mon, that’s rubbish and dangerous driving:
Plod should be better than that!
The way they drove into the
The way they drove into the junction was crazy and it was a close call with the Land Rover, but looks like no cyclists were put in danger
Reminds me of a time I had a
Reminds me of a time I had a near miss with a cop car whilst driving
Approaching traffic lights at junction and I am from the side road. To my right, the main road is set slightly back, has a high wall and a tree, so I have no visibility. I wish to turn right.
The lights are green for me. I then notice a reflection of blue lights from a window and I stop. The next thing I see is a cop car travelling rather quickly through red on the main road coming from where I was about to turn into. Good job I was observant as there were no sirens.
I was persuaded by a retired officer not to report it but I wish I had now.
The Gardai…a class of their
The Gardai…a class of their own…
Having read the ‘pile on’ in
Having read the ‘pile on’ in the threads…please OP submit the footage
I’d love to know what was actually going on!
It happens everywhere. I live
It happens everywhere. I live in Greece. A mate was riding along Poseidonos in Alimos on the south coast of Athens when the police, who often ride two-up on motorbikes, almost knocked him off his bike as they rode, via a pedestrian crossing, into the carriageway. When he challenged them, they shrugged and said ‘But we’re the police.’
A fwiw.
A fwiw.
Haven’t a clue about the law around this, but I DO know that emergency services drivers can be subject to disciplinary action if caught out abusing their emergency signals.
In my case, it was an NHS emergency driver. He abused his siren, close passed, and pulled a really nasty cut in front of me. I complained to the relevant service. Initially, they pooh-poohed it … “Didn’t happen. Our drivers are highly trained blah-blah-blah …”
Until they saw the video; and THEN they took it seriously.
It went right to the top, with senior managers inviting me in for a couple of meetings. Something tells me said driver won’t have pulled the same trick again
.
I’d report, registering my concern that the use of the blue lights appears to be unusual (as well as pretty stupidly ineffective, given folks on bikes don’t generally have mirrors
). The timing of switching on, and switching off again, is (at least) … “odd”.
And let the report run its course? IME, emergency service managers take driving standards VERY seriously.