Operation SNAP has been the police service which received submissions of a few of our more high-profile recent Near Miss of the Day videos, including NMotD 783 and 784 which both saw drivers reject awareness courses, only to end up being fined £2,460 and £1,152 at court respectively.
Today’s however, is a ‘no further action’ case, with some interesting feedback to the cyclist involved.
The road.cc reader wasn’t as concerned with the passing distance in the video above, but more “the complete abandonment of any caution by the driver”.
“The oncoming car had to slow right down to avoid a collision, and had they been closer or going faster, the the overtaking car would be quite likely to hit me whilst taking avoiding action.
“Even worse a crash between them would’ve seen me getting collected by the wreckage. Many driver go around this bend way over the 30mph speed limit.”
Having submitted the footage to Operation SNAP, here’s the reply:
Thank you for your submission. For us to be able to make a decision correctly we need to be able to view the footage which identifies a clear and obvious offence.
On the front piece of footage we are unable to gauge how close the vehicle is to you as you have turned your head towards it at the point of the alleged offence occurring.
Please be advised that this makes it incredibly difficult for us to make an informed decision as it changes the angle of the footage, which in turn, makes it difficult for us to correctly judge the passing distance.
From viewing the rear footage it is clear that the driver of the subject vehicle is almost completely on the opposite of the carriageway when passing you. No further action.
> 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
44 thoughts on “Near Miss of the Day 793: No action for driver overtaking into oncoming traffic (+ interesting Operation SNAP feedback)”
Cops have a point about the
Cops have a point about the car being squarely in the other lane, so it’s not a “close pass” by any stretch. Whether it’s a safe manoeuvre in the circumstances, is another matter.
Yep. Police decided to review
Yep. Police decided to review under close pass rather then the rest of the video of white lines and oncoming traffic. Even the op mentioned it wasn’t the closeness of the vehicle to him which was the concern. I’m assuming there is a statement facility when submitting these. Was it read?
This is why my statements
This is why my statements always list the (alleged) offences. Not that I expect it makes any difference at all.
Yes, I pretty much stated as
Yes, I pretty much stated as such in my submission. I even said that the driver did initially give me plenty of room, but that there is absolutely no way the driver could have known if the road ahead was clear or not, therefore overtaking on the solid lines at this point was not acceptable, and certainly not safe. The oncoming car having to slow to avoid a collision confirmed that. They chose to ignore that bit and focus purely on the closeness of the pass.
Thankfully in this case I have been able to lodge an appeal and the video was reviewed by another assessor, and they disagreed with the initial assessment. The driver is now getting a letter.
The driver is now getting a
The driver is now getting a letter
Standard dodge for when they think the primary Fob-Off isn’t working. Letters are the same thing as nothing at all.
Were the double white lines
Were the double white lines added after the video was submitted? Or is there some special filter at the police station?
Makes you wonder, if it had
Makes you wonder, if it had been a cop car following behind, would they have pulled the guy over for crossing the double white lines? Was the cyclist doing under 10mph?
TBH, I’m none too bothered when motorists cross double whites to overtake me, I’d far rather that than that they squeeze past me whilst keeping within the lines, and I don’t much care for them sticking on my tail either (no eeyore jokes).
Makes you wonder, if it had
Makes you wonder, if it had been a cop car following behind, would they have pulled the guy over for crossing the double white lines?
No, not up here anyway. They spend their time ‘not noticing’ offences like illegal number plates etc, no doubt with their ANPR cameras turned off so they don’t see all the No MOT offenders. Red Polo SG14 OKV had to swerve in very close to me to avoid the oncoming Transit closing at a relative speed of 60+ mph. Usual total lack of response from OpSnapLancs
For what it’s worth, I was
For what it’s worth, I was sat at a crossroads just this Wednesday in my car. Just as my lights turned green, I went to move and much to my amazement a very large construction lorry went through the bisecting light on a very late red.
On the opposing set of lights, right at the front of the queue was a police car and they did absolutely nothing, despite it being a blatant and highly dangerous move in front of their eyes.
What made it worse is I had both 2 and 4 year old girls in the car with me – lucky I didn’t move off…
HollisJ wrote:
There’s more than one kind of cop, and car. There used to be a Traffic Division responsible for major roads and motorways specifically interested in driving standards. With the reduction in police funding and the introduction of Highways Agency Traffic Officers (HATOs) on the motorway network the majority of Chief Constables decided that Traffic Division was a luxury they could not afford, and replaced them with multi role police officers, i.e. without the specific training and competency in traffic matters.
Thus the average person in a police car has no more training than the DVLA driving license the same as the general public. So driving a marked police vehicle is no guarantee of any interest in road traffic policing or great knowledge of the road traffic acts…
Feel free to lobby your PCC on the priority of road danger reduction.
I have a lot of experience of
I have a lot of experience of this type of offence. As far as the police are concerned, cyclists are always travelling at less than 10 mph no matter that the video and GPS speedo show the cyclist speed at over 20 mph, so it is always legal to overtake them by crossing unbroken white lines. This dodge is invariably applied despite, as in this case, it was clearly unsafe to overtake because of the oncoming vehicle which the offending driver avoided by sharply swerving in. The problem is that the police are very, very thick and don’t have the attention span to read the full section of the Highway Code that deals with this. This is also why, in Lancashire at least, they can’t work out the complicated stuff about ASLs at traffic lights- I have described before how they think that (even though the driver has ignored those tiresome and difficult words about amber lights) if you can speed up enough to cross the ASL before the lights turn red you are legally entitled to keep going across the Stop Line.
Maybe not such close pass?
Maybe not such close pass? But it was certainly a dangerous overtake across double continuous lines and with an oncoming vehicle that had to slow down to avoid a collision. Why this doesn’t count as driving without due care and attention escapes me.
Utterly bizarre decision.
Utterly bizarre decision. Clearly overtaking in a dangerous place and therefore Careless driving.
It’s like the police decided to ignore any offence but close pass even though the overtaking was enough on its own.
I realise I’ll be in the
I realise I’ll be in the minority, but I don’t have a problem with drivers overtaking me by crossing a solid white line even if I am doing over 10mph – I’d generally rather that than they get frustrated behind me, and definitely rather than that they squeeze past. But that’s only if they can see it is safe to do so. In this case, that was a dangerous overtake whatever the type of line in the middle of the road (as with wjts’s picture).
I’m with you mate.
I’m with you mate.
No Problem with being avertaken on a double white line if the driver gives me enough room.
The deal is that if the driver meets an oncoming vehicle who is overtaking another cyclist in the opposite direction he goes for the head on collision and does not involve me in his accident.
But that’s never going to
But that’s never going to happen. The driver will swerve into you
Which is why overtaking on doubles is so dangerous.
If the driver had waited 5 seconds, there was a safe overtake.
Sorry, I was making a
Sorry, I was making a cycnical comment.
I know that as soon as a vehicle starts an overtake me on a blind bend my life depends on whether or not another vehicle comes around the bend in the opposite direction.
Whether it’s safe for a
Whether it’s safe for a driver to overtake a cyclist on a solid white line depends in part on relative speeds. If I’m doing 20mph in a 30mph zone, then a driver really shouldn’t overtake me, because it’s unlikely he can see it’s clear. However, I’m going 15 mph in a 60mph zone, then it’s more likely he can.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
I did a couple of rough calculations, assuming a small saloon car and an urban situation with a 30 mph speed limit.
Cyclist speed vs Overtaking time = time at risk
10mph – 1.2secs (highway code limit)
20mph – 4.0secs
25mph – 4.7secs (possible for a good cyclist)
29mph – 24secs (improbable)
The overtaking driver has to make a judgement based on the relative speeds of the two vehicles before he starts the manoeuvre.
Time at risk increases with the length of the vehicle, but we all know that.
The Highway code stopping distance at 30mph is 23metres (lots of questions about these numbers) . So if another vehicle comes into view around the bend and it is less than 46metres away the sitaution is not good.
The driver will swerve into
The driver will swerve into you Exactly – the police have no interest in protecting cyclists in these circumstances as they would rather have at least one fewer cyclist cluttering up the roads, causing traffic congestion, etc., so you have to protect yourself as I have to in Lancashire: stay well over to the right of your lane when there are unbroken white lines
Strange that they didn’t
Strange that they didn’t review the whole footage for offences. Can’t have been any swearing or other public order offences by the cyclist to make it of interest. The safety of other motorists is clearly of no interest – odd, they pay road tax, don’t they? Perhaps the oncoming car was electric?
Strange that they didn’t
Strange that they didn’t review the whole footage for offences
They do – they choose to go with the offence they’re most likely to be able to wriggle out of later with ‘insufficient evidence’ or whatever
Oddly, in my mind as a driver
In my mind as a driver, double white lines are a zero tolerance thing. I am surprised that the police would let that go.
I will overtake a cyclist on a double white line (there is a two mile section of road from Knowle to Chadwick End that has unbroken double whites for the length – 2 years ago there were breaks so obviously there are sections that are potential overtaking spots, it’s just too many motorists have no judgement so in came the lines – so there are places where it is safe to pass in the right circumstances).
The trouble is that once a motorist has decided that the white line is not sacrosanct, it seems they are unable to distinguish between a safe bit of road and a dangerous bit as previously the only information that stopped them making an ill-judged move was the double whites.
Oddly one of the most peculiar traits of drivers lacking confidence is that they don’t pass cyclists on straight bits of roads presumably because they aren’t sure something will be coming, yet as they approach a blind corner, they will then pass – it’s almost like they know they cannot see oncoming traffic so there can’t be any (especially when passing cyclists which obviously means oncoming traffic can be ignored generally anyway).
double white lines are a zero
double white lines are a zero tolerance thing. I am surprised that the police would let that go
You would be surprised most of the time cycling around Lancashire, then! You would think passing traffic lights at red, or vehicles uninsured with no MOT for years would be ‘zero tolerance’? Again, Lancashire Constabulary has surprises for you! They have been in training at this for many years and now find themselves able to ignore almost any traffic offence
I live in south Wales and my
I live in south Wales and my experience with Operation SNAP has been largely positive since the Highway Code changes and thay have informed me of action being taken for close passes from videos that I have submitted to them.
South Wales Police however rejected a few submissions because they claimed that they could not read the number plate of the offending vehicle in the video, which was completely incorrect, unless they were viewing the video on a potato.
Makes me wonder if they have a quota either official or unofficial that they work to on a daily basis so that they do not get accused of persecuting motorists, or for some other reason?
https://twitter.com
“Continued dialogue with @metpoliceuk about the Hoyer close pass gets madder by the day. I really didn’t care that much at the time, now every email from the police gets more absurd than the last. Now just making it up as they go along?”
we only prosecute double
we only prosecute double white lines on vehicles other than cycles and horses. Overtakes are allowed on double white lines on these two modes of transport
Now you know, as you doubtless did before so it’s a confirmation, why the Met. is in ‘Special Measures’ and why Lancashire Constabulary should be. I’m working on it. One of the features is that police officers are often very, very stupid.
PS Don’t redact the names of the officers concerned- they mightily deserve the exposure of their failings. Secrecy will prevent any change in these failing institutions.
I’m not that twitter person,
I’m not that twitter person, it just came up in today’s feed.
I’m not that twitter person
I’m not that twitter person
Sorry, I thought you had redacted it!
No, hence the quotes around
No, hence the quotes around the twitter text.
It would be great if essex gave any feeback though but they just get worse and worse.
It gets madder by the second.
It gets madder by the second. Even without the double white line surely forcing oncoming traffic to brake falls below the standard of a reasonable driver?
Its like the are doubling down on their error. Frankly I’d prefer them just to say they can’t be arsed.
Looks like another Fifth
Looks like another Fifth Columnist is around, unless (as alleged below) it’s the same Fifth Columnist with a suspect retread. This ‘cyclist intentionally veered out into the road’ rubbish is frequently proposed by very thick people such as Lancashire Constabulary because they can’t appreciate that a headcam is not the same as a dashcam. It’s not a very difficult concept. How are people this dim able to walk and breathe at the same time?
It was very clear from Friday
It was very clear from Friday’s Live feed that the troll was back.
Yep. The Police specifically
Yep. The Police specifically praising him in a similar vein to how random PBU claimed every motorist used to praise him did ring bells But now blaming a cyclist for deliberately moving across, even though that is not even though the close pass is not even the reason AND his claims on the Bus one is just damming evidence. I’ve always stated it doesn’t take long for the inate trollness to pop out. Just so sad that he just keeps on coming back. I suspect another user to demand all their posts be removed is going to be happening soon hopefully if the site mods are on the ball.
RJL cyclist at 5:57 in this
RJL cyclist at 5:57 in this week’s episode.
I’m sure that was the reason for the clip !
I noticed someone had picked
I noticed someone had picked up that in the comments. When watching it I did see the cyclist come around the creeping car and wondered if the issue would be them pulling out rather the the car (saw something as dangerous a month or so ago on another channel).
Hi folks, I am the submitter
Hi folks, I am the submitter of this video, and thankfully have some good news to add. I live very close to where this occurred so know this stretch of road extremely well having driven and ridden it countless times. Consequently I know how often drivers will attempt to overtake, and also know how fast some drivers take the bend. The number of near misses between cyclists/drivers and indeed between two drivers is frankly ridiculous.
The camera angle may not fully convey just how unsighted this bend is. There is a large hedge to the right, and you have to be almost completely around it until you can see whether an overtake is safe or not. The gradient means that all but the fastest of cyclists will be doing less than 15mph, which of course ‘invites’ overtakes from impatient drivers. The vast majority of drivers cope well enough in this situation, but there are still a few that don’t.
I have had disappointing decisions from OpSnap in the past, including one that you may remember was previously posted here involving a yellow van. On that occasion I ended up learning a couple of good lessons thanks to some well-reasoned and much appreciated critiquing from the fellow forum members.
This time however I was very surprised. As per my quotes in the article above I was more concerned about the implications of a collision between the cars, or the overtaking driver avoiding a collision and hitting me instead. Both scenarios were avoided this time by pure luck rather than any element of skill or judgement from all involved.
I actually messaged the OpSnap team via their website to ask if there was any sort of appeal process and was surprised to get a call back from the person that had reviewed my submission. They proceeded to explain that they had watched it again and still felt the pass wasn’t dangerous enough to warrant further action (me: really?!!!), but given my request for an appeal they had referred it to one of their colleagues; another assessor and 1 of 4 in the office covering South Wales. The other reviewer disagreed so they have changed the result to now sending the driver a warning letter. A driver training course would probably be my preferred action, but a letter does at least demonstrate to the driver that this sort of incident is not acceptable. Hopefully that will be enough to improve their behaviour in future.
Well done. Did the first
Well done. Did the first reviewer state why he only looked at the cyclist and not the rest of the road conditions?
Not really, he just stated
Not really, he just stated that he wouldn’t have given a different opinion if he’d reviewed it again. I guess that’s his way of saying he didn’t make a mistake. He did go on to explain why some cases don’t go any further despite clear offences being seen. They have to be certain that there is no room for error or doubt, and they can only proceed with a prosecution when it’s a ‘cast iron’ case. One that a solicitor or barrister couldn’t pick apart too easily. He also laboured the point about how busy they are currently, having to review so many submissions with limited staff, and that with different reviewers you may sometimes get different opinions. Make of that what you will.
Some reviewers with basic
Some reviewers with basic highway code knowledge AND the ability to read statements would be all that is needed.
Although as with Magistrates, Juries, VAR and anything else that needs human rulings, there is always different interpretations so the “who reviewed” will always be pot luck.
Thanks for the positive
Thanks for the positive update and well done for following it up.
Huge round of applause for
Huge round of applause for your perseverance. Well done!
The driver fully crossed
The driver fully crossed double solid white lines. This is what the RAC says
Can I overtake if there’s double white lines? It is illegal to overtake if there are road signs or markings prohibiting it. These road markings appear as variations on double white lines; where the line nearest to you is broken, where the line nearest to you is solid, or where both lines are solid
Why no action for that offence?
Why no action for that
Why no action for that offence?
Because The Filth even write down their opinion that you can always cross DWLs to pass a horse or a cyclist no matter what their speed is and whatever the oncoming traffic is doing- see below from the super-efficient Met, and as I know personally from Lancashire Constabulary