Near Miss of the Day 558: Van driver makes punishment pass on cyclist

The latest video in our Near Miss of the Day series shows the driver of a van making a punishment pass on a cyclist in West Sussex, leaning on the horn as he overtook so closely that the rider was able to bang on the side of the vehicle.

Describing the incident, road.cc reader James said: “I was riding along the A259 from Shoreham-by-Sea towards Hove.

The driver of a Citroën van decided to attempt pass at pinch point, when that appeared to not be on he sounded his horn and came within inches of hitting me.

“Of course, he followed that up with a punishment pass close enough that I was able to bang on the side of his van (no, my arms are not long enough to reach across the recommended 1.5-metre passing clearance).”

James has reported the video to Sussex Police’s Operation Crackdown, adding, “We will see if they come back with any action.”

> 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