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news
Ye old white van man . 1-21 screenshotNear Miss of the Day 565: A very aggressive white van man
A very aggressive van driver is featured in our Near Miss of the Day series today, beeping his horn behind a cyclist riding through pinch points, before making a punishment pass on the rider, then brake-checking him.
Filmed in Chorley, Lancashire It was posted to YouTube by user jthefishy, whose videos have previously appeared in this series.
In the description to the video, he said: "On my first ride on my road bike in 5 weeks and I come to a pitch point in the road and I have someone just pomping on their horn behind me, I gesture to them to stop, but after the pinch point he did a very close pass then cut in on me before brake checking me."
> 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.
Latest Comments
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loads of parking
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I hate it when I can't find the obvious source of a puncture.
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Now, if we're talking gravel bikes, that's a whole different story. Gimme, gimme, gimme! Apologies for the Facebook link....
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The police are operationally independent, in fact the regional Police and Crime Commissioners have to swear in their oath of office that they will...
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"'Right", said Fred, "we'll 'ave to get a move on…"
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80 comments
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That is absolutely outrageous. That driver needs to be taken off the road before he kills or seriously injures someone ... as surely he will with that agressive and dangerous attitude.
The couple of seconds that he thought he was being 'held up' by the cyclist is going to cost him plenty more time and hopefully lots of money too. Utter moron.
What was the outcome from the Police?
I'm betting on "no action taken"...And that's if they bothered investigating at all.
thats very poor . You've got a nice clear film. You should definitely report it.
What people shouldn't do is start using their keyboard warrior skills to attack the business etc.
You have no idea how many people may work there or who was actually driving the van.
Nope, it's fair game. Deliberate actions have consequences. He actually increased speed and closed the distance heading into the pinch point. He will have seen the car immediately in front of him overtake, and his high driving position means he will have seen the cyclist for quite a while. If you look at the start of the clip there's a skip lorry that clearly was able to overtake without issue. He chose to intimidate the cyclist and then chose to brake test him (the latter is incredibly dangerous, I've experienced that and crashed as a result). Deserves what's coming to him, and if the police won't fine him hopefully a few lost customers will hit him in the pocket instead.
Mob mentality. Always the first point of call for justice from the brain dead.
> You have no idea how many people may work there or who was actually driving the van.
Then its incumbent on that business to make a public announcement on the matter. Not edit their Google Maps entry to "A?" while removing their Facebook profile too.
It's a one-man band and he's been caught out. Fuck him and his business, I hope it tanks.
"Incumbent" Using a posh word doesnt make it a real thing. We have law and order so numbskulls aren't parading around with severed heads on pikes and pitchforks.
We don't have law and order though, because Lancashire Police routinely ignore incidents like this. So I say if the police won't do their job, let's do it ourselves.
If you don't like that, tough shit. PS - dictionaries are free and online.
Mob mentality. presumably you're happy for you and your famiy to be subject to that as well as to be handing it out.
We do indeed have law & order but my firsthand experience of reporting incidents to Lancashire Constabulary is that essentially they don't give a toss so what do you suggest the next step is?
Nobody is doing that (that's argumentum absurdiam even for you Nic), and neither is anyone breaking the law by publicising poor corporate behaviour.
<pedant>If you meant argumentum ad absurdum, that's a valid form of argument - demonstrating that a position must be false by showing that it leads to absurd conclusions. This would be more of an ab absurdo (appeal to absurdity) or a straw-man fallacy.</pedant>
I love a pedant me! Granted on both counts, and I'll defintitely stow that away for future use. Thanks MDF!
I agree that the police should be the first port of call and hopefully they'll take appropriate action. Targetting the business' reputation should be a last resort, but if they're happy to drive around with the business name on the side of the van, then they should expect their business reputation to suffer if they deliberately drive dangerously.
I don't see how the number of employed people is relevant to anything otherwise big businesses could get away with whatever they like (forcing employees to pee into bottles or something).
I agree that the police should be the first port of call and hopefully they'll take appropriate action.
Unfortunately, the police (Lancashire, at least) define 'appropriate action' as whatever action they took, which is almost always none. The recent LC reply ffrom an anonymous person at 'Force Control Room" to a question about the action taken over an indisputable red light crashing offence by PE70 DWJ was:
Good Morning,
The log was passed to the relevant department who will have taken any appropriate action in relation to the incident.
And they refuse to say anything else, so there is no doubt the online report was immediately filed in the bin. It is almost impossible to fail to despise the police.
Unfortunately, it varies a lot between different areas.
I submitted three close passes (all on one ride) to Avon & Somerset the other day and they came back with positive outcomes on all three though they don't specify exactly what action - either a warning letter, a fixed penalty or a prosecution. One of them was a BMW with a dodgy number plate and the officer confirmed that that would also be dealt with.
Their responses no longer include the "not a victim" bit which I think is a good move although they aren't giving any more information than before. I'm okay with knowing that they'll be taking action and it doesn't make much difference to me what action they decide to do, but at least they're confirming that they agree with my opinion of the standard of driving. (They weren't the worst close passes that I've had, but I can imagine that less jaded cyclists would be intimidated by them)
Unfortunately, it varies a lot between different areas
On your report, A&SC is good and on mine LC definitely isn't. Both of these riders went through on red. No response. No action.
Yeah, I also submitted a couple of red-light transgressions about a month ago which had the same response (action will be taken). One of them involved me having to brake sharply as the woman decided to turn left instead of going straight on and went through her red light into my lane (which was green). The other one wasn't dangerous but just a really stupid bit of unnecessary overtaking and running out of road space.
Maybe if you keep on raising your complaints they'll realise that it's easier (and far better) to work with you rather than ignore you.
Maybe if you keep on raising your complaints they'll realise that it's easier (and far better) to work with you rather than ignore you
Lancashire Constabulary has many dodges at the ready. My present complaint about failure to act on multiple red light crashing incidents was made on 28.1.21- 2 1/2 months later it still hasn't been 'allocated to a case officer'. They say they will communicate monthly about complaints- but they don't. They will delay for months longer in the hope I will lose heart (they don't learn very quickly at LC!) and the response will be very stupid (like the 'we must have confirmatory video from the offending vehicle' dodge). I will then complain to the PCC and it seems very likely that they will take months to say 'we can't interfere with police operational decisions'- thus proving what many of us suspect: PCCs are useless and are really just another department of the police. With Lancashire, you have to be ready to just keep going!
This is absolutely bang on the money as far as Lancashire Constbulary is concerned.
Rightly or wrongly I can't be ar*ed reporting incidents any more unless it is really bad.
It's fair game. I presume you are not suggesting that freedom of expression should be curtailed in order to cover up a business owners' poor behaviour in public.....
because complete twats end up creating situations like this.
https://www.basingstokegazette.co.uk/news/18582574.mistaken-identity-rap...
That's an example of mistaken identity; not the case here; fyi, every transport company in Australia encourages the public to lodge complaints about poor driving with them and/or the police; members of the public are free to use social media, as they see fit, to publicise poor driving they have witnessed.
What a horrible situation.
However, the argument that we must stop bringing poor corporate behaviour to public notice in case some tw*t makes rape threats to an unconnected person seems sketchy to me.
I have no problem with reporting it to the police and contacting the company involved who may be not aware of the drivers conduct. I've done it myself several times In London. I do have a problem with the mob pile on let drive them out of business tash their online reviews etc mentality we see here.
Look at the comment on YT when someone spoke to him, the guy clearly is a danger to cyclists & doesn't give a toss.
IME Lancs Constab won't be interested either so as I asked you before what's the alternative?
Good for you, so have I.
In addition I have no issue in publicly declaring poor behaviour. You clearly do, and that is for you. You are free to ignore negative reviews.
I for one do not want to provide custom to unethical businesses of any shape or size, and I would hope that folk who have had poor experiences would sing up and so help me make an informed choice - it's what business reviews are for.
One person works there and he was driving the van. There supplied the info so anyone who wants to review how bad his profesionalism is in that clip, what is wrong with that?
I personally would prefer to know how companies treat people in vulnerable positions before I employ them and this is the perfect opportunity.
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