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Near Miss of the Day 600: Caught on home CCTV edition

Our regular series from around the country hits another unwanted milestone, with near misses captured on CCTV and dashcam for number 600 in our series

It's never something to be celebrated when our Near Miss of the Day series hits another milestone, as in an ideal world there wouldn't be enough incidents for us to report on regularly... unfortunately that's not the case, and our 600th is the first submission captured from a home CCTV camera. There's also a 'bonus' filmed from the dashcam of road.cc reader Tony's van. 

At 19 secs into the first video, we see the driver of a black sports car pulling out of a junction, only to come to a sharp stop in the middle of the road as they spot a cyclist at the last minute. Though the footage is grainy, we can see the cyclist glance to their right as thankfully, the driver slams on the brakes just in time. 

In the second clip (taken on 16th June 2021), we see a driver overtaking a cyclist on a single carriageway while Tony is travelling in the opposite direction in his van. Rather than waiting for a couple of seconds for the van to pass, the driver overtakes the cyclist with inches to spare in the same narrow lane. 

Tony told us: "Unfortunately, neither car is identifiable so I cannot submit them. Maybe the cyclists will recognise themselves or the incidents."

> 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

Arriving at road.cc in 2017 via 220 Triathlon Magazine, Jack dipped his toe in most jobs on the site and over at eBikeTips before being named the new editor of road.cc in 2020, much to his surprise. His cycling life began during his students days, when he cobbled together a few hundred quid off the back of a hard winter selling hats (long story) and bought his first road bike - a Trek 1.1 that was quickly relegated to winter steed, before it was sadly pinched a few years later. Creatively replacing it with a Trek 1.2, Jack mostly rides this bike around local cycle paths nowadays, but when he wants to get the racer out and be competitive his preferred events are time trials, sportives, triathlons and pogo sticking - the latter being another long story.  

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13 comments

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Rik Mayals unde... | 2 years ago
3 likes

The 911 clip isn't a near miss, the driver did attempt to pull out, yes. But as soon as the driver clocked the cyclist, they stopped.

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Jenova20 replied to Rik Mayals underpants | 2 years ago
1 like

Agreed. That qualifies as a near everything if it's a near miss. Frankly I wouldn't have even kept that footage.

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Muddy Ford | 2 years ago
2 likes

I'd be happy if drivers used the same caution as the Porsche driver. They were observant through their pullout and stopped with enough space as not to intimidate the cyclist. This should actually be a video demonstrating good driver awareness, on a blind corner. They could easily have sped off in front of the cyclist along the hashed section of road, like has happened to me many times. "I'm marginally in front of you therefore I have right of way" attitude.

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caw35ride replied to Muddy Ford | 2 years ago
2 likes

If you try the "sped off in front of the cyclist along the hashed section of road" in a 911, you might just end up in somebody's garden.    1

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AlsoSomniloquism replied to caw35ride | 2 years ago
1 like

Not just 911's, I came around a corner on my ride today and a Range Rover had just decided to speed start out of a side road just before I came into view. I caught him almost coming onto my side before over correcting and almost going into a garden before he finally recovered and sped away.  

There was no other vehicle in either direction, he just decided I have a 5 litre engine and want to use all the power to pull away from a giveway line. I was far enough away that I wasn't in danger but glad he started his "manouvre" before I was close. 

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Dave Dave replied to AlsoSomniloquism | 2 years ago
0 likes

To be fair, that is just about the only situation where you can put your foot down in a fast car without doing anything too dangerous. You look a right fool if it goes as you describe above, but worst that happens is you bend your car and damage a garden wall or lamp-post - as long as there really isn't anyone coming.

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Wardy74 | 2 years ago
4 likes

The cctv clip actually shows continual observation by the driver. The slightly skew approach to the junction probably masked the cyclist in the A pillar. They made a mistake not pausing to make sure, but it seems they did a double-take when moving off rather than blithely continuing across.

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AlsoSomniloquism replied to Wardy74 | 2 years ago
0 likes

I expect it could also have been impatience. Driver arrived at a the junction and it was "clear", however they saw the approaching cars so waited. Unfortunately they had misjudged the speed of them and by the time he realised they were slow, they couldn't go. As soon as the gap arrived, they decided the cyclist would be slow but again it was misjudged and rider had alot of speed. If the car had got within inches or had pulled out and caused the cyclist to brake which is the normal things from junction joiners, I could see the NMotD monicker. However this like a couple recently don't really live up to the name. If the junction one was the norm out there in closeness, I doubt we would be at 600 and counting as most wouldn't bother with cameras. 

I'm actually interested how the submittee spotted it. Was he also watching from a bedroom window or does he justy review his CCTV regularly?

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Dave Dave replied to Wardy74 | 2 years ago
2 likes

That driver deserves an award, compared to the usual standards on the road. He didn't need to 'slam on the brakes' as the article claims, because he pulled out cautiously, allowing for the possibility of error. If he'd been trying to do a burnout, or pull away fast, he might not have stopped in time,  but as it was he had loads of time to look what was coming and stop.

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0-0 | 2 years ago
3 likes

Not to victim blame or anything.
But I wish more cyclists would use front and rear lights.
I caught up to someone whilst I was out for a ride today. Maybe 50 metres behind them.
They were dressed in dark clothing (like myself). But when they went under trees and into the shade, I couldn't see them.
So God knows what inattentive drivers see when they glance up from their phones.

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spen replied to 0-0 | 2 years ago
0 likes

Wearing sunglasses? 

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squidgy | 2 years ago
9 likes

I don't think the 1st clip is even worth going on youtube

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Awavey replied to squidgy | 2 years ago
3 likes

certainly doesnt strengthen the case that there are enough of these incidents to report on regularly if thats the best example weve got for today.

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