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Near Miss of the Day 779: A new camera angle...but same response from the police

Our regular series featuring close passes from around the country — today it's Gloucestershire.....

road.cc reader Richard is back with another Near Miss of the Day submission (and a new camera angle) after his last one prompted a fair bit of discussion. Or more accurately, Gloucestershire Police's conclusion that the "driving isn't poor enough for me to prosecute" prompted a fair bit of discussion.

The new rider-facing angle gives a real sense of foreboding to the van driver approaching from behind. Not the worst close pass we've seen by any stretch, but interesting how different camera angles can affect the way a piece of driving looks.

> Near Miss of the Day 763: "Driving isn't poor enough" according to police

Richard told us: "Here is my latest submission to Gloucestershire constabulary. One thing I can say for them is that they do give feedback very quickly as you can see from the date.

"I thought your readers may be interested in my new position for the rear-facing camera. It is now on the handlebars as you can see. It was suggested by another road.cc reader but I can't remember who it was now. I was hoping it would give a better impression of the proximity of the vehicle but obviously not enough to convince the officer concerned."

The Gloucestershire Police response? You've probably guessed...

"I have watched the video and the van driver is not close enough to you for me to consider prosecuting the driver."

> 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

Dan joined road.cc in 2020, and spent most of his first year (hopefully) keeping you entertained on the live blog. At the start of 2022 he took on the role of news editor. Before joining road.cc, Dan wrote about various sports, including football and boxing for the Daily Express, and covered the weird and wonderful world of non-league football for The Non-League Paper. Part of the generation inspired by the 2012 Olympics, Dan has been 'enjoying' life on two wheels ever since and spends his weekends making bonk-induced trips to the petrol stations of the south of England.

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