Near Miss of the Day 619: Close pass followed by punishment pass gets driver a “stern talking to” from the police – and nothing more

Today’s video in our near miss of the day series features a close pass followed by a punishment pass, earning the driver a “stern talking to” from the police – and nothing more.

The road.cc reader who filmed it, BucksCycleCammer, said: “So, here we have a close pass into oncoming traffic with a safe gap a few seconds later. This, apparently, is because this road is a nightmare and you have to get past cyclists whenever you can otherwise you're stuck for ages.

“Ignoring the fact that the car behind him managed to pass without any problem, and I have only ever seen these nightmare traffic scenarios on that road (as driver or cyclist) when it has been exceptionally busy due to roadworks or accidents – both of which means there's no point overtaking a cyclist in the first place.

“He apparently then sees me gesticulating (I threw my hand up in exasperation) and stopped to ‘see what the matter was’.  Less charitable people would instead assume it was actually a brake check, given the way it was carried out.

“But instead of stopping I went past him (I actually thought he may have been turning left based on the standard of his driving).

“So he then decides to perform another close pass, this time winding his window down. In response to me telling him he’s on camera, he says that he shouted I should be on the cycle path if I don't like it.

“This is all according to Thames Valley Police who spoke to him today,” BucksCycleCammer continued. “Even though they agree he's an idiot, and his excuses are without merit, he still only warrants a ‘stern talking to’ but hopefully he is truly now ‘in no doubt’ as to what he did wrong.

“Just what warrants a FPN for driving ‘without reasonable consideration for other persons using the road’ is anyone's guess,” he 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