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news
Near Miss of the Day 585: Close pass from police driver on country road
Now and again, we receive videos for our Near Miss of the Day series in which the motorist making a close pass on a cyclist is a police driver - and that's what we have for you today, with this clip sent in by road.cc reader Mitch.
“I’d have to say that this is pretty commonplace driving at least in my corner of East Sussex,” he told us. “The only reason that I have posted it is that it is a police car.
“I have raised this on the Sussex Safer Roads ‘Operation Crackdown’ website. But apart from an auto-response, I’ve not had any further feedback. Pretty much like every other incident I’ve raised on the website.
“It may be that they were responding to an emergency but I would have appreciated some sort of answer,” Mitch added.
> 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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25 comments
I have been looking out for years to catch a police driver on camera committing an offence. I haven't succeeded, and I wouldn't have bothered with this.
Not a close pass.
Agreed. Narrow country roads, yes - but this doesn't look like a close pass.
Close-pass, my ass! This one has no business being here. Just click-bait because its a cop.
Have I just become jaded by riding in London all the time? If someone gave me that much room I'd probably give them a thank you thumbs up! Seriously, the lanes must be at least 2m wide - probably more as at the beginning of the video a Mercedes van, width approximately 2.3m, passes entirely within its lane - and the police car passes with its nearside wheels maybe 50 cm tops over the line. By my reckoning that gives the rider around 1.8m of space to ride in, it's not even close to a near miss.
The recomendation is that you should be a MINIMUM of 2.25m from the kerb (0.75 plus 1.5) so on a 2.3m wide lane you should be on the other side of the road. There was no oncoming cars or other hazards so why not go onto the other side of the road. In my opinion the car should slow down as well but that's just me. So IMHO yes, you have become jaded. If the rider had hit a pothole and come off he would be dead or seriously injured, needlessly.
I think that some cameras don't get across how close some passes feel. I've been genuinely frightened on occasion but then I look at the footage and it doesn't look that bad. Speed is one factor in this.
Bungle, that may well be the case , but looking at the position of the rider on the road. The helmet is mounted on the right hand side of their helmet and to me it looks like the rider is riding too close to the edge of the road.
So I would think that the police car driver did give the cyclist the required 1.5m of road space and the fact that the rider was close to the edge of the road (in my opinion) meant that the driver did not have to cross entirely onto the other carriageway to complete the overtake safely.
Fair comment, but if the other side of the road is free why wouldn't you use it. I always do when I'm overtaking cylists and I slow down as well. One point I didn't make is that this pass is probably fine for an experienced (jaded) cyclist but if this had been someone who had just started it may be enough to put them off. I can't see why passing cyclists shouldn't be considered in the same way as passing horses.
Where is this recommended? Not in the Highway Code or RTA. I don't care what distance a driver is from the kerb provided they give me reasonable space, and it looks to me, for reasons stated above, that the driver did.
No. It's deductive, but misleading (albeit qualified by "a MINIMUM"). The Highway Code (163) says, "give motorcyclists, cyclists and horse riders at least as much room as you would when overtaking a car". (That's useless: as much room from the kerb? between? Either would be a bonus in a lot of cases). The image that accompanies the rule shows the car with just a few inches (slightly less than the police car) remaining on the left side of the road as it passes a cyclist .
The HC rule under recent consultation indicates 1.5m at up to 30mph for cars passing (bigger or faster should be further). This reflects the close pass mats that CyclingUK has been passing out to police forces that will use it (and is probably sitting in the mail room 'goods received' bay of those that won't). The mat shows a notional 75cm from the kerb at which a cyclist is considered to be cycling, with 1.5m as the distance between that point and the nearside of a car overtaking. Hence 1.5m + 75cm = 2.25m.
It is not an appropriate deduction at all:
The 75cm should only be communicated as a illustrative position of the bike. It tends to be shown with the bike wheels on the 75cm line, whereas the outer edge of the cyclist (right elbow; pannier; laterally-bungeed baguette) could be iro half a metre further right and that is the start of the 1.5m gap. 2.25m should, in that case, be 2.75m. But only if the cyclist's wheels are at 75cm from the kerb.
The true statement, based on the emerging guidance, is that the car should be a minimum of 1.5m from the outer edge of the cyclist/bicycle/baguette - whatever the cyclist's distance from the kerb (the driver's opinion of which may be educated or not, but is irelevant). In many cases, my wheels would be around 1m in secondary position, plus my half-width. A passing car would need to find itself around 3m from the kerb. Or wait if that means ploughing a new one in the opposite verge.
Thank you for the long explanation but I'm afraid I can only reiterate that the pass shown here would not bother me in the slightest and I certainly wouldn't bother reporting it (and I should state that I'm a three-bike-no-car man who has reported seven camera-caught offences this year already).
Not close...try this at 80kph...and it's the traffic division
Hmmm, this is one of those where the driver 'could' have given more room than they did, as there was more space available, but it looks to me like they still left 'enough' room. Left hand side wheels were only just this side of the central white line as they passed the cyclist. Sorry but I'm not sure I'd classify that as a close pass in my experience.
Hard to tell with the camera being angled and attached to the helmet but I wouldn't have called a close pass in the terms of what we normally see on here. It might have been worse for the cyclist at the time if they had wide bars and relative speeds though. Yes, the Police Car could have been fully over the central lines to set the perfect example of a pass, but definitely not NMotD material on viewing here.
Not brilliant, but hardly worth a mention in NMOTD I think
On the face of it I agree, BUT, next week this driver could be judging video submissions and deciding if they warrant further investigation/processing. hey should be starting from a default position of perfection and we should be able to expect/demand that level of driving from them. Just as they are expected to uphold (and the public demand) higher standards in other aspects of life. Now I don't expect discilinary proceedings etc, I would hope that the driver does have to go on a suitable driving course again
Fair play. I was looking at face value, though the bigger picture you paint is also very true.
Not seeing that as a close pass.
Normally, absolutely agree (as it appears the OP does). But you expect the police to drive to a higher standard, and that's looking closer than 1.5m. And if doing over 30, they should be leaving 2m.
I think the road must be over 4m wide with that painted central line, so more effort required from the driver.
For anyone who can’t be arsed watching the video – the police car passes him at 17 seconds with about two thirds of the vehicle (maybe more) over the white line – then the rest is of the cyclist…..cycling.
Not a very Near Miss of the Day at all.
if you note the cars road posture, you can see that the vehicle is being directed back onto the left side of the road prematurely, before suddenly straightening out. it can be presumed that the driver belatedly saw — or was notified of, the recording device and panicked.
I have watched at half speed and I'm not seeing that. The car seems to hold it's line from first sighting then later straightens into the bend.
Not sure I believe that the rozzers panic when they've been caught out - "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes"
Why isn't it completely over the white line?