Near Miss of the Day 768: Driver squeezes between two cyclists – but only receives warning letter as rider didn’t “swerve”

This close passing driver was issued with an advisory letter after narrowly avoiding both the cyclist he was attempting to overtake and another rider coming the opposite way.

However, road.cc reader Tim, who reported the footage to the Met, was told by the police that as the close pass didn’t cause him to slow, stop or swerve, and because the view of the other cyclist wasn’t available, the motorist received an advisory letter rather than a Notice of Intended Prosecution.

After questioning the Met’s decision and asking for clarification on what constitutes a close pass, the cyclist received the following reply: “There is no separate single offence for a ‘Close Pass’. This is proceeded with as a careless driving offence (driving without due care or driving without reasonable consideration for other road users).

“We wouldn’t be able to proceed with a close pass event on an unknown third party, as we do not have the victim’s viewpoint if it was presented to Court.

“Every piece of footage is reviewed and judged on its own merits, as you can appreciate. The careless driving offences are quite broad in their definition, so it is quite difficult to answer your question. I’ve always told people to send it in – as there might be something we see to support an offence. But the most simple requirement would be to cause someone to slow, stop or swerve.”

> 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