Today’s video in our Near Miss of the Day series has two separate incidents that happened minutes apart to a cyclist in Hampshire.
First off, as road.cc reader Martin waits in Titchfield, near Farnham, to turn onto a road towards the hamlet of Meon close to the Solent coast, a Volvo driver passes him on the inside.
That incident happens 1 minute 10 seconds into the video, and if you pause the footage you’ll see that the gap is so small that as well as the driver passing Martin with minimal room to spare, the nearside wheels of the vehicle are almost touching the kerb.
There’s more to come as less than a minute later, a BMW driver overtakes Martin, this time giving plenty of room, but on a blind right-hand bend – and you can see how the brake lights flash as the motorist has to slow because of approaching vehicles.
The incidents happened last Friday and Martin said that he had sent the footage to the police but has yet to hear back from them.
> 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@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
15 thoughts on “Near Miss of the Day 638: Two incidents in less than a minute including an extremely close undertake (video includes swearing)”
Unlikely to hear back from
Unlikely to hear back from Hants; they’re one of the forces that don’t provide updates.
I think Hants use the same
I think Hants use the same system/portal as TVP. It’s pretty clunky and seems designed to put you off reporting. Whilst I’ve only made a couple of submissions to TVP the response seems inconsistent.
Over in Northamptonshire, whilst feedback is minimal, at least their operation SNAP portal is straight forward to navigate.
Swearing so absolutely
Swearing so absolutely offends little piggy, the video will be immediately stamped ‘no action’.
First one was hairy, second
First one was hairy, second one meh. The undertake was a bit odd because I think the driver anticipated the cyclist was going to take a more central position but didn’t give enough room when it didn’t happen.
Nigel Garrage wrote:
You mean they reacted to what they expected him to do rather than easing off to see what he actually did?
TBH I get that a lot in the middle of town – one particular junction I have to use every morning (Park Row turning right onto Lower Park Row, middle of Bristol).
Correct yes, driver should
Correct yes, driver should have been more patient rather than risking the misjudgement that occurred
Both passes dangerous, the
Both passes dangerous, the first one obviously so because they were a hairs width from hitting the cyclist.
The second because despite passing wide of the cyclist – if another vehicle were to come speeding round the corner, then there is every chance one or both vehicles may swerve to avoid a head on collision with the other vehicle and hit the cyclist instead.
Did the volvo driver scrape
Did the volvo driver scrape off any speed? Amazing that they did not hit the cyclist or the kerb. Very poor in a 30.
I try and be a little more to the left now if it is 30 or less – any higher I think they would rear end me.
(Just after 60 to 40 sign – nfa !)
That first one. Wow. Cyclist
That first one. Wow. Cyclist was so lucky he was still moving as when he has to stop, he left foot down leans which probably would have meant a heavy hit from the mirror. Nothing wrong with the cyclists postition either as the road bends so any traffic coming up will naturally be closer to the central lines as they make the turn as demoed by the first blue car as he approaches AND the Focus at the same time as the dangerous pass. Hopefully that driver gets done.
Second one was a danger to oncoming traffic but as the highways designers have not marked the road for no overtaking, I suspect the Police won’t see it that way either.
You have reminded me of when
You have reminded me of when someone overtook just before I was turning right.
Too far to the right – close undertake
Too far to the left close over take
Probably best to get in a car !
AlsoSomniloquism wrote:
That’s because it’s too narrow to be marked as two lanes at all. It would not be appropriate to put double white lines down a road of that width. It is wide enough for two normal cars to pass, but less than the 5.5m minimum width for a road to have centre lines.
Thanks for the knowledge on
Thanks for the knowledge on road widths for warnings, I didn’t notice it had gone that narrow at first.
that first one is scary
that first one is scary because you wouldnt really anticipate a car attempting to do that (unless its happened to you before), and really all the Volvo driver needed to do was just slow their approach, to give the cyclist more time to clear the junction.
the second one, I dont think it would even have been noticed if not for thing that just happened, thats one of those, FFS give me a break, kind of rides. On its own it doesnt come across as that dangerous,its not a completely blind corner, even if the driver could have made better choices.
That’s a shocker.
That’s a shocker.
Sometimes you think you’ve made yourself wide enough to be safe, but someone does the unthinkable.
Quote:
Titchfield is near Fareham.
I used to live near there, and I’d regard it as one of the better places to go cycling – safe enough to take my wife with me. Further down the road that the cyclist turns right into, there’s a very narrow bridge so you don’t get any HGVs and it seems to deter a lot of cars too.