Near Miss of the Day 796: Punishment pass driver put forward to court

After a couple of days off Near Miss of the Day is back today with episode 796...we're getting awfully close to 800 of these, aren't we?

Today's comes from a road.cc reader in Cornwall who was commuting to work when they were passed by a few motorists, including the driver of a Saab. A close pass, but as the reader tells us: "The type that is so frequent that I don't bother submitting them to the police."

That's not where our story ends, however. Having caught up with the vehicles on a fast descent, the cyclist approaches the same Saab driver who is now indicating right but apparently making no effort to get into the right lane.

> Near Miss of the Day 795: Close pass driver tells cyclist: "I found it difficult to get past"

"I carefully (and legally!) filtered past it — not everyone's choice, but I feel it is safer to stay clipped in and keep rolling if possible. After exiting the roundabout, the Saab then performs a punishment pass on me that felt a lot closer than the footage shows, despite having plenty of room to perform a legal pass.

"It is then held up by the slower vehicles...again! I often wonder if drivers like this don't notice my camera with the flashing red light...or if they do and make the pass anyway!

"I was unsure that Devon & Cornwall Police would take action on this one, as the Saab didn't cross a solid white line and there wasn't oncoming traffic, but I submitted it anyway. You don't normally get any feedback on specific action taken, but the police staff that dealt with the submission had to call me as I had forgotten to check a box on the online form.

"When I asked if the driver would receive a driver education course for this, he said he deemed it too serious and it would be put forward to go to court. My experience with Devon & Cornwall Police Operation Snap team is a lot better than other NMotD submitters with other constabularies."

> 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