Near Miss of the Day 677: “My closest call yet,” says cyclist who slammed on brakes as motorist drove across his path

A cyclist who had to slam on his brakes when a motorist drove across his path has described the incident as “my closest call yet.”

The incident in Buckinghamshire happened as the motorist, apparently recently qualified, drove across a main road from one side street into another, with a driver to her right having stopped to let her through.

Lyndon, the road.cc reader who sent in this clip, said: “I think this was my closest call yet. I was headed home from work today, about 3.30pm after some light rain.

“I freewheeled heading up to the pedestrian crossing at about 30kph after coming down the long descent into Marlow.

“I had two lights, one flashing and one steady high beam for off road riding, as well as a bright top on.

“What I imagined happened was the driver looked to her right, then her left, and did not check again before driving across the road.

“I managed to skid to a stop on the greasy road, turning my front wheel to avoid hitting the car.

“She looked quite shaken, looked quickly at me then drove off.”

The motorist was also displaying a green probationary P-plate on the rear of her vehicle, which drivers in Great Britain can display to show that they have recently passed her driving test.

Unlike restricted ‘R’ plates in Northern Ireland, which must be used for a year after a driver has passed their test, there is no requirement in the rest of the UK for ‘P’ plates to be used, and if they choose to do so, they can keep them on for as long as they wish.

Lyndon said: “When I saw the ‘P’ on the back of her car I figured no need to report this one, as I hope she got enough of a fright and will look more carefully in the future.”

He added: “For anyone who’s curious, Schwalbe One Addix 28mm tubeless tyres, 52psi.”

> 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