Near Miss of the Day 820: cyclist comes very close to head-on collision during reckless driver's speeding overtake

Update, 9/9/2022: due to an ongoing investigation, this video has been removed until further notice. 

Today's Near Miss of the Day shows a reckless and terrifying overtake from a driver that nearly resulted in a head-on collision with the cyclist travelling in the other direction. 

road.cc reader Simon said that he was forced to take evasive action to avoid the driver of a white Volkswagen SUV, who was overtaking multiple vehicles at speed on the road in Lancashire, near to the town of Southport in neighbouring Merseyside. 

He told road.cc: "My near miss from last weekend was very close to a head-on collision with a car that decided to overtake a stream of traffic despite me being in the oncoming lane.

"There was a gap between the cars that I genuinely thought he was going to pull into until he stayed out and whizzed past me at high speed.

"I only missed him by swerving sharply to the left. As it was he passed with less than 30cm clearance.

"For context (and I know I shouldn't have to do this): I was wearing bright cycling kit with an orange helmet and had a white flashing front light." 

Simon added that he has reported the incident to Lancashire Police, who listed a number of possible outcomes but said they would not be disclosing it. 

He said: "I have reported this to Lancashire police who have emailed me that they are pursuing it further and have listed a range of options from a guidance letter up to points & fine. They have told me that they will not inform me of the ultimate result."
 

> 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