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Near Miss of the Day 589: Angry driver brakes and swerves in front of cyclist after close pass
An impatient driver overtook a cyclist in busy traffic coming within inches of his handlebars - and then decided to swerve and brake in front of the rider before shouting at him for cycling 'in the middle of the road'.
The driver of the red Jaguar launched an angry tirade after performing the dangerous overtake, all while a young child sits next to him in the passenger seat.
The cyclist who submitted the video said he was concerned about the example being set and added the driver 'only needed to wait five seconds' to have overtaken safely.
He provided road.cc with a copy of the statement he sent to police.
It read: "I have been using a helmet camera for a few years and have reported over 200 incidents to the police.
"I have attached a video showing one of the worst incidents. Below is the redacted statement that I provided to the police. The driver received a Fixed Penalty Notice, which he did not contest.
"I was cycling along... away from [a] junction.
"There was traffic queueing on the other side of the road.
"After the junction the road gradually narrows and it became unsafe for vehicles to pass me but a car overtook, passing within inches of my handlebars.
"The driver could have passed safely about five seconds later. I hit the side of the car hoping that the driver would give me more space, which he didn’t.
"Fortunately I was able to move into a bus stop. After passing me, the driver swerved in and braked sharply in front of me. I pulled alongside cautiously.
"He falsely accused me of cycling in the middle of the road and gestured obscenely.
"This is the worst driving I have encountered for a long time and I am also concerned about the example being set to the child in the car.
"Six minutes later I caught up with him... where he was queueing and driving in a cycle lane, completely blocking it.
"I hope that this will encourage other cyclists to use helmet cameras and report dangerous driving."
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31 comments
"You were cycling in the middle of the road".
"So how did you pass me then?"
Although the first two cars also showed the same MGIF attitude but were just about on the right side of safe. His daughter had the "Fuck me he is off on one again" look on her face as well.
This is precisely the kind of place where I do now cycle in the middle of the lane, to stop the inevitable twerps like this doing exactly this if I don't.
Was there any sound on the video clip?
I find it strange that the car was allowed to drive away with both "wing mirrors"* still attached.
* queue comments from the "door mirror" guy 😉
* Cue comments from other pedants too.
If you'll allow me to step in here, I feel I might be of some assistance.
As the word video has its root in the Latin verb "videre", to see, we would not expect to hear anything. The correct terminology for a video clip accompanied by sound would be a video-audio clip, audio finding its etymology in the Latin verb "audire", to hear.
Oh, and it's door mirrors in this case, although some modern cars are still fitted with wing mirrors, for example, early models of the Renault Scenic.
Hope this helps.
(snipped some chat about Latin)
Captain B, can you find a picture of that Scenic? I think they're on the doors. I did find a reference to Japanese taxis having real wing mirrors in 2013, but apart from imported pick ups, not much in the UK since the mid 70s.
Last week I saw an episode of The Professionals, in which the villains drove a Vauxhall Victor FD with aero wing mirrors. Looks very cool now, though of course was shite saloon in the judgment of the primary school playground Top Trumps jury back then.
Your wish is my command. This is the 2nd generation very similar to mine (I believe it's a 2006. The 2003 also had wing mirrors). If it's not clear, I can assure you the mirrors are mounted on the rear quarter of the wing, just under the A-post, not on the door.
I had a first-generation too (99-03) in that case the mirrors were indeed on the doors.
Nice. Hard to see in a picture but I found an instructive video* on how to open the door. Which seems to be as follows: approach vehicle, grasp handle, pull. Sometimes I'm very glad that Tim Berners-Lee had his idea in the first place. I'm sure he'd be proud.
*Of course previous posts make me wonder if it was a video as there was music. Perhaps it was a film.
I must confess that's the first time I've seen that word used in relation to my car, but I like it.
I'm afraid the word "film" refers to the old technology of allowing light to fall on a "film" of celluloid treated with prepared chemicals in order to capture the image. Unless this obsolete technology was used in the production, I'd hazard that it wasn't.
I'm afraid I meant the research rather than the car. Sorry.
"Vide-o" "It's 'vid-ayo'!" (Absolutely).
Ahh, that takes me back! All episodes are available on the C4 website. Thanks, I guess I'll not be getting too much work done today!
Fun fact, English words which have their roots in Latin are not Latin words, nor are their meanings limited to that of their Latin root. A video clip with sound is a video clip.
Pedant
Exempli gratia, I presume the plural of referendum should be referendums not referenda as we are writing in English not Latin.
Northumbria police are generally very good at prosecuting on video evidence.
I however need to find a better camera as my current garmin has very limited battery life. Out for a 3 hour ride today, battery expired about 75 mins in. around the 90 min mark on the ride I witnessed what could so easily have been a fatality.
Driver passes me, and catches up with another cyclist. Driver is incredibly impatient and decides to overtake the cyclist on a blind corner with absolutely no visibility and comes head on with a vehicle coming the opposite way. Driver slams the brakes on and pulls back into the left of the road almost collecting the cyclist as they do so.
I may however have been a little bit bad, as I caught up with the driver a little later on, had a few stern words with them, and I got a DILIGAF look back from them.... at which I pointed to the camera mounted on the front of my bike and told them that I was going to be passing the footage to Northumbria Police, at which point they then became apologetic. I just said you brought it on yourself and cycled off at that point.
Don't feel bad. I've done that before and seen the same driver after and their driving improved around cyclists funnily enough. Reminding someone that they could be on camera is a great deterrent for a*seholery
Cycliq Fly12. I set it at 1080p/60 & image stabilisation on. With flashing light I get up to 4hrs With cam only (long rides I use a separate light) it's well over 6 hrs.
I've had the Garmin Virb then Virb+. They have replaceable batteries and I managed to get bigger capacity ones cheap off ebay. Then I was able to get 3hrs. However, I now have a cycliq Fly12 camera. It knocks the Garmin out of the park on both video quality and battery life. A full day of adventure riding (7hrs+) and image stabilisation as good as a go pro so I always get the number plate, even when its raining. And it has a 600 lumen light that I can control from the Garmin Edge, which has a great beam pattern making it genuinely useful if its a short journey. Expensive but worth it, there is no other camera for bikes that comes anywhere near the Cycliq.
What a good example to set to his teenager passenger.
Enjoy your points and maybe explain to your son why you're such an arse.
I don't think that's his son.
Only in the 'biblical' sense…
Impatient but has time to stop and harangue the cyclist. Dangerously pulls in and brakes sharply to stop the cyclist, shouts verbal abuse in the presence of a minor (an aggravating factor) and then blocks a cycle lane; just an FPN? No wonder drivers think they can get away with doing almost anything to cyclists: they can.
We need a much more rapid, vulnerable road user based, system of road laws and enforcement. That driver for instance, should have had his licence and vehicle removed for a week, with a second similar offence having them removed for a month, and a third, a year. After that, they should be effectively on probation for five years and would lose their licence forever and have their car seized and sold.
I'm sure the comprehensive report into road laws and policing announced all those years ago will recommend such measures.
What you're suggesting has no chance of ever happening. To much admin cost.
It would be an interesting project to work out what the cost of deaths and injuries on the roads is, compared to the cost of preventing them. In the absence of such analysis, I would contend that preventing the casualties would cost less.
"Accident and casualty costs" for the UK are around £35 Billion per year (link). Not sure how much it costs to prevent an accident, but if you put even 10% of that amount into safer infrastructure, enforcement and education I expect it would pay off massively.
Thank you kindly sir, for finding that statistic, and putting the whole thing into context. We could solve the problem, we have the funds, it would cost much less than the status quo, but we can't afford to offend drivers. Hey ho, it's only plebs.
One bloke (or lass - all equal opps here) with a few steering locks. Can't see a problem!
All at the cost to the driver.
And just recently Wales police said they would prosecute a cyclist if they swore whilst a driver attempted to kill them.
I would rather have the vehicle crushed into a cube and the offending lump of metal dumped on their porch as a permanent reminder of their ineptitude. If they have outstanding finance or a lease that would be more punitive than a fine as well!
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