This Near Miss of the Day footage shows the moment an Oxfordshire cyclist was forced to emergency brake on wet roads to avoid a collision with a driver overtaking a bus, only for the motorist to then continue driving forwards, up onto the pavement and making contact with the surprised rider while pushing past.
road.cc reader Tom has since made a complaint to the professional standards department of Thames Valley Police about the handling of the case after his initial report resulted in the driver being “officially warned for careless driving”.
During that process the driver denied receiving any paperwork, something TVP acknowledged they had experienced postal problems with in the past, and ultimately received a phone call warning from an officer instead and was offered a place on a course.
The incident happened on 14 January 2023 as Tom cycled to work in Oxford through Abingdon and was reported online the same day…
“The initial pulling round the bus was careless, the driving at me, was in my view totally deliberate and reckless in the extreme,” he explained. “I pulled an emergency stop on wet roads at 30km/h.
“I managed to stop about 60cm from the front bumper of the car. So far I think that was careless driving. However, what happened next is, in my view, a deliberate act by the driver. He mounted the pavement and sped off, colliding with me in the process.
“The response from Thames Valley Police is copied below. As you can see, the driver admitted to it, but no further action was taken. I was unhappy with this and so a course was offered to the driver which they have taken at their own expense. No criminal action taken.
“As you can imagine I am not happy with that outcome. The initial outcome is, in my view, a total let off for the driver. Even a course is a let off. He drove a car at me, hit me, mounted the pavement on the off side of the road in relation to him and drove off and has escaped any form of criminal sanction whatsoever.”
The incident was so bad, Tom said, that he called 999 at the scene and reported a collision but was told to report it online as it was a traffic incident. Having submitted the footage online, Tom then called TVP within two weeks, fearing that the 14-day deadline for a notice of intended prosecution may pass unanswered.
“They said that as a collision occurred, the 14-day rule did not apply,” he explained. “The reply from TVP is on the 23/3/23, two months after the incident.”
Tom was told by TVP:
Regarding the Range Rover incident, sorry for the delay, I spoke to the driver yesterday, who denies receiving any paper work from us, which we know there has been a problem with the post, so I emailed him a copy, it was then I noticed that the location on your google map location on the report was in Campion Close not Radley Road, also not sure if you are aware your camera is six years behind, discussed with a decision maker and we have officially warned the driver for careless driving.
I did also point out on the phone to him, about looking out for cyclists, he did apologise and says he will learn from his mistakes.
Tom continued: “I have made a complaint to the professional standards department of TVP about the handling of this case. That complaint was made on the 31/3/2023.
“They are totally overwhelmed and I have absolutely zero expectations of a meaningful response. I received a holding letter from them in the last week telling me it is still pending.”
road.cc contacted Thames Valley Police for comment and the force confirmed as the complaint is ongoing “we wouldn’t comment on any aspect as it would be inappropriate to do so”.
-1024x680.jpg "“Clear anti-cyclist bias”: Lawsuit filed against Toronto police after cop doored cyclist… before ticketing rider over incident")
68 thoughts on “Near Miss of the Day 868: Warning for driver who mounted pavement and drove into cyclist after rider’s emergency stop to avoid collision”
Contact a Solicitor about
Contact a Solicitor about claiming damages from the driver.
There are no damages as such.
There are no damages as such. A scuff on the handlebar of a 7 year old bike.
Write to his insurance and
Write to his insurance and claim for new handlebar tape, it will cost him a fortune in future premiums 😉
The “driver” should have
The “driver” should have reported this collision to their insurers.
The chances of them doing so are significantly small, so make the claim and his insurance will absolutely rise.
With the support of your video, maybe future insurance will be very, very expensive.
Are you a member of BC or
Are you a member of BC or Cycling UK?
You have video evidence of a collision taking place. You have suffered some damage. You have spent time reporting this. Costs and damages the driver should recompense.
Psychological etc.
Psychological etc.
Civil Action for damages is an important plank in the battle to hold dangerous / antisocial drivers personally responsible for their actions, since the prosecution authorities are supine and won’t do it.
So I’d encourage you to follow through if you can.
I see that TVP inaction
I see that TVP inaction/incompetence is still happening. I wouldn’t be expecting anything meaningful from the professional standards team, I hope they prove me wrong.
This is the sort of thing
This is the sort of thing community service and a long temp ban is for.
But instead that’s given to killers and the rest get a strongly worded letter, a telling off, or sent on a course to mingle with celebrities, footballers and politicians.
Dont be silly, politicians
Dont be silly, politicians havent got time for such frivoulous things. They get a civil servant to pull a few strings for them instead.
No shortage of politicians
No shortage of politicians with driving bans (probably nbot enough):
Robert Jenrick, Tom Tugendhat, Jamie Wallis, Nicholas Soames, Angus McNeil.
That’s just the last 2 years I think and one Google Search, and for Soames it is at least his third driving ban.
And you can add in the Nottinghamshire Police and Crime Commissioner Caroline Henry, who is also a politician.
So the law allows people to
So the law allows people to drive into other road users and drive off.
What a knob.
“They said that as a
“They said that as a collision occurred, the 14-day rule did not apply,”
I’m imaging that as he’d rung 999 the operator may well have thought it was a collision with injury where the 14-day rule indeed would not apply*.
If he then went online and reported it as a motoring incident rather than a collision with injury then the 14-day rule would apply.
*As someone who has been injured in a collision from a motorist then I reported it as a collision with injury and it takes time as they have to speak with all parties before making a decision.
Not just a Range Rover, but a
Not just a Range Rover, but a specifically customised jobbie. No wonder they thought they were King of the Road (and pavement).
How close was he to the runner as well?
The majority of people in
The majority of people in vanity Land Rovers behave like utter twats on the road. The only breed that is worse than Audi drivers.
It is more than obvious that
It is more than obvious that the Range guy drove like an ahole, but I disagree with the rider blocking his way out. First of all it was dangerous for him, reminding me the Last Action Hero chicken game (I AM A COMEDY SIDEKICK!!) and then created additional danger for the pedestrian who got a dangerous pass on the sidewalk.
I don’t ride with a camera, but if I had one I just would smile to him and point my camera. I think he would get the point. It is unfortunately true that the police would may give less attention to this incident if the rider simply had avoided the driver, but pouring oil on fire just to ensure that legal action or that the driver will “learn his lesson” seems to create more troubles than the ones it is supposed to solve.
While doing his best
While doing his best impersionation of CyclingMikey (go Back!) may not have been the best call, I make it around 5 seconds between the rider and car coming to a stop (and an emergency stop at thet) before the driver decides to go forward again and causing then leaving the scene of a collision. I don’t think the rider had any opportunity to do anything else
I would definitely go towards
I would definitely go towards the sidewalk and none of this drama would have happened. In any such danger, the sidewalk seems the safest option. The fact that he shouts before even having stopped, shows that going towards the centre of road is because he intended to block him, not because he was out of options.
cyclisto wrote:
PAVEMENT
Secret_squirrel wrote:
WING FOOTWAY
Let’s be crystal clear, the
Let’s be crystal clear, the danger for the pedestrian on the footpath was created by the driver, not the cyclist.
Also, where was the cyclist supposed to go whilst doing an emergency stop from 30km/h? Onto the wrong side of the road, in front of the bus? Or (illegally) onto the footpath, possibly colliding with the runner?
AidanR wrote:
I couldn’t agree more with this, without such a shitty driver in first place, no danger would have occured.
I would just go to the left and I believe this would have been just a super tight close pass, with no collision, as both managed to stop in time. But even if things were tighter a 0,5m wide 100kg vehicle is better than a 2m wide 2000kg vehicle on the sidewalk. With his reaction to go directly on the vehicle if they couldn’t stop in time, the rider would be in accident statistics.
But I think it is clear that the rider tried to block him, not just braked and this is where his instict took him.
AidanR wrote:
Did you make up that speed? I can’t see a speed in the video and it looks way slower than 30km/h.
No, its from strava. 36.5 to
No, its from strava. 36.5 to be exact.
It’s in the description of
It’s in the description of the incident.
Thanks cyclisto. It’s my
Thanks cyclisto. It’s my video. You raise a good point and I can see where you are coming from. Hopefully I can clarify a few points. You are not the first to make them nd I am sure others may have throught the same.
First, I pull an emergency stop from almost the moment the car starts pulling round. You can see the judderring on the video when the braking starts. I do not deliberately get so close. I have not provoked him at all other than to say ‘what are you doing?’.
Second, it was a full on emergency stop and my back wheel was locked. Listen hard and you can hear the squeeling. Control was limited at that point. The idea that I could bunny hop onto pavement is fanciful. If you have that level of control and speed fo thinking I salute you. My mind was mostly occupied with stopping. There is also a runner on the pavement. i am not sure if I had clocked them to be honest. I honestly cannot recall what I was thinking, Maybe I was thinking if I go right he can go round my nearside. I don’t know. Honestly I just wanted to stop. I was well within my lane. It was absolutely not my intention to block the driver, simply to stop before hitting the car.
Third, I stop about 60cm from the bumper of the car. I cannot actually manouvre my bike out of the way without either me dismounting, or the car going back. I appreciate it sounds a bit ‘Regents Park’ but it was not meant to, we are, as yo might say toe to toe and I do not have a reverse gear.
Finally it is about 3 seconds from me coming to a stop before he drives at me. i am not going to comment any further but thoguht it might be useful to have those additional clarifications
Finally thanks to Dan and the team for putting this up. I do regularly find myself aghast at the quality of driving and the lack of police response. The poor driving needs to be publicised.
the lack of police response
the lack of police response
The fact that offenders can rely on this is the major reason why offences against cyclists are so common.
roadeo_123 wrote:
Thank you and well done Sir!
Well done to you for keeping
Well done to you for keeping your cool and presence of mind to look (and find) a witness. I am not sure I would have been able to do the same after that.
It sounds like you have done what I am sure a lot of people on here have done – reviewed your footage more than a few times, thinking “what could I have done better?” I would like to point out that the drivist of the wankpanzer, given their obvious mindset in the video, is most definitely NOT doing the same thing. They left that experience cursing you and firmly believing they were entirely justified (despite the platitudes they subsequently fed the police)
Well done to you. Don’t stop reporting and highlighting this kind of thing, even if the police do nothing.
Thanks for your input, it is
Thanks for your input, it is good to receive feedback from the actual rider. My fault then, I hadn’t understood that it was such a distress braking, so that you were in skid conditions and your bike was not fully controllable.
I am preaching about peace on roads for me also to hear when cycling. I have been angry in situations with confrontation with drivers and I think it didn’t make them better drivers just angrier, and in the long run it creates tensions with drivers .
PAVEMENT guys, sorry not a native speaker so excuse my mistakes and incosistencies (and road.cc text form not accepting Mozilla spelling check), pavement for me means the road surface and its various layers. I believe sidewalk is understood by all countries speakers more clearly that is a footpath at the side of the road so I use it often.
roadeo_123 clearly you didn’t
roadeo_123 clearly you didn’t actually need to stop. You could have bunny hopped onto the bonnet of the car, bunny hopped onto the roof of the car, then forward flipped off the back of the car and continued your journey while maintaining your original speed.
Cocovelo wrote:
You mean like this: Peter Sagan Bunny hop
Agreed. At 0.04 I would have
Agreed. At 0.04 I would have eased up and at 0:06 when it became obvious the car was going to barge through, I would have moved left and braked. Neither of which he did. Conversely, with camera in place he moved right to block the car and do a ‘cycle mikey’.
The car driver’s a c^&t but I wouldn’t have confronted him.
You do realise there is a
You do realise there is a raised speed bump, it is wet an there are puddles near the left of the road. He appeared to brake when you mentioned you would have braked (1.5 seconds reaction time is the norm, wet road meant longer to stop so three seconds). I doubt a cyclist would be thinking about manoevering the bike so I suspect going to the right slightly was just the way it went.
I do love how people seem to think cyclists are superhuman at braking in certain conditions and can plan where they will stop.
I can see at 0:04 he’s got
I can see at 0:04 he’s got plenty of space to ease up before the speed hump.
I ride 200+ miles a week, I’m not super human but I think I’d have avoided that situation.
Read his own account (it’s
Read his own account (it’s here, in ther comments section) – just because we think that we may have been able to manoeuver better it doesn’t mean that everyone can, especially in the instance of the moment.
tootsie323 wrote:
Not to mention that our start point is a video where we KNOW something happened, so are actively looking for it.
“Careless driving” doesn’t
“Careless driving” doesn’t seem like it should ever be applied to something the driver does on purpose. If the actions are deliberate it should automatically be dangerous driving and punished accordingly.
Patrick9-32 wrote:
Yes, yes, yes, but the comprehensive review of road law will be considering this very point in depth, I’m sure.
Its not just a Range Rover
Its not just a Range Rover Evoque, but a Revere one for extra twattishness.
Why is the license plate
Why is the license plate obscured? Wouldn’t it be doing a public service to protect other cyclists by having the number out there so they could be especially alert for this particular Range Rover?
Diabolical driving and police
Diabolical driving and police response.
I’m sure a Spectator journalist will be along soon to complain about vigilante cyclists shopping innocent motorists for a moment’s inattention.
Good grief!
Good grief!
Are people genuinely blaming the cyclists actions for this irretrievably incompetent driving by the buffoon in their wankpanzer in the comments section?
Where exactly do you think the cyclist should have gone while performing an emergency stop in far less than ideal standards. Towards the kerb, an immovable object while slamming the brakes on?
You’ve got to be joking, right?
Some people need to take their heads out of their asses before spouting thoughtless comments.
The automobile will always be king while a large percentage of cyclists allow motorists to rodger them at every opportunity.
Having watched the clip several times I’m not sure what else the cyclist could have done. Pity he didn’t have a heavy d-lock handy as the twat at the wheel performed his abysmal manouvere.
Maybe the reaction of the
Maybe the reaction of the cyclist ‘go back’ angered the driver, but FFS if that’s all it took to instigate Assault with a Deadly Weapon they shouldn’t just be off the road but in jail ?
The police are too busy to
The police are too busy to handle your complaints because they’re escorting tens of thousands of migrants to their hotels. Deal with it.
Roulereo wrote:
Yep it be them immigunts to blame, for sure. Not a decade of unnecessary austerity and police cuts, nor policies and attitudes that deprioritise cycling and treat cyclists as second class citizens, it’s all them immigunts’ fault. Do take your hatred and spite and toddle off elsewhere, there’s a good chap. You’ll receive a warm welcome in the comments sections of the Telegraph or the Daily Mail, where desperate shoehorning of anti-immigrant hatred and blaming them for everything is de rigeur.
Only Guardian readers like
Only Guardian readers like you allowed here eh?
Roulereo wrote:
You went full retard, man. Never go full retard.
They’ve not gone anywhere.
They’ve not gone anywhere. They’ve been there the whole time.
Still, right to question things in one sense. Whether we have more police than ever or not enough, what they’re not doing is a ton of roads policing.
The numbers of traffic police
The numbers of traffic police officers in England & Wale as I am able to ascertain are as follows:
May 1997 – 12,500
May 2007 – 7,500
Today – 2,500
Says it all really?
Shaun TheDiver wrote:
You went full retard, man. Never go full retard.— Roulereo
Please don’t use the R word – it’s offensive. (Edit, and yes, I know it’s a quote)
I wasn’t offended.. are you
I wasn’t offended.. are you the word police?
grOg wrote:
No, but I work with people with learning disabilities and I know how offensive that word is. You wouldn’t (I hope) use the N or P words. Please don’t use rhe R word.
Usual tenuous grasp of any
Usual tenuous grasp of any legislation.
Perhaps you could point to some legislation where the test of be offended is if gr0g is offended or not…
Aeroplanes often necessarily
Aeroplanes often necessarily go full retard.
Hywel wrote:
The word “retard” isn’t offensive by itself, it’s the perjorative use of it that’s the problem. It used to be used in a medical sense to describe various developmental issues, but it then began to be used as a slur against people who may be stupid, but don’t have any particular medical issue – that’s offensive to people with mental disabilities.
Of course, the earlier use of it was complicated by it being a line used in Tropic Thunder which is satirical and relies heavily on social commentary. RDJ notably plays an australian actor that uses blackface to portray a black american actor, thus calling attention to the racism endemic in Hollywood.
Wow. Do you really believe
Wow. Do you really believe that?
I wonder if there is an
I wonder if there is an immigrant equivalent to “Godwin’s Law”.. it seems it is brought up as the reason for every problem rather than, I don’t know, a Government that has been in power for 13 years?
Where are you reading it is
Where are you reading it is the police and not someone like Serco ?
Time for Road CC to get their
Time for Road CC to get their banning stick out.
We don’t want or need Racists on this site.
Go back under your bridge.
Go back under your bridge.
This is literally not
This is literally not happening, but don’t let facts keep you from your racism, gammon.
Oh dear. It seems that as you
Oh dear. It seems that as you forced your way past me, my handlebars accidentally scraped down the side of you status symbol.
Absolutely right to complain
Absolutely right to complain to police about their lack of action on this.
Similar to my own incident (without actual collision) which the Met police did take action on:
https://youtu.be/_qO2FIe5poE
Ok, I’m going to be unpopular
Ok, I’m going to be unpopular for this but here goes anyway.
1. The cyclist appears not to have applied any braking until around the point of getting to the hump. That’s quite late given when the car started to overtake the bus and the driver will have noticed that.
2. The cyclist moved to the right during the incident. It may be due to the late braking meaning they were slightly out of control (see above for why that might have been unnecessary) or they were seeking a safer roadspace in front of the bus rather than near the kerb or pavement. We’ll leave judgement on this one.
3. The cyclist demanded the driver move back. Why not just move to the side and let the car go? Situation solved. But no. A point had to be made.
What the driver did next was inexcusable but in his mind, the cyclist has engineered a confrontation to make a point: late braking, moving to an unexpected road position blocking the car’s way back to the correct side of the road and then demanding an unreasonable manoeuvre.
There’s too many of both of these types of drivers and cyclists out there. Mistakes are made by both drivers and cyclists. It is all our jobs to limit their effects and make it a non-event every time.
BigDoodyBoy wrote:
I can hear the brakes engaging well before he reaches the hump. As the rider states, he was braking from 30kmh in the wet, his stopping time and distance in the circumstances are perfectly reasonable. As for pulling to the right, there’s a car driving straight towards him on the wrong side of the road, unless he’s got pro-level bunnyhop skills he can’t get on the pavement so I assume he was taking the only line available where he could safely escape if the driver failed to stop.
If someone is driving dangerously and illegally (as here) it is perfectly acceptable to challenge them; if this sort of bad driving and bad manners goes unchallenged it becomes regarded as acceptable and will happen over and over again until someone gets hurt. Due to police incompetence the driver only got a warning but hopefully that at least has made them think twice about doing the same thing again.
To me it boils down to : did
To me it boils down to : did the driver make a mistake or were they bullying their way through. The more we give way to bullying the more entitled these drivers become and eventually it leads to tragedy.
In my opinion the cyclist acted correctly. If it was a mistake the driver would surely accept the short delay, if it was bullying then they need to know it’s not right. No point reporting these to the police they will do absolutely nothing.
Or you could have read the
Or you could have read the story and the cyclist’s comments and saved writing all that.
1. Listen with headphones if
1. Listen with headphones if needed. The brakes are applied as soon as the driver starts to pull out.
2. If i was in the middle of the lane, and a car was heading directly at me I would have gone for the more space for bail out.
3. Cyclist asked “what you doing?” Then did mention “go back”. However as the driver seemed to only give him 3 seconds from coming to a complete stop to moving out his way before he gunned forward, we do not know if the cyclist was going to move for the bully or not.
As the driver also didn’t seem bothered about the runner on the pavement or the red mini coming up behind the cyclist either, it does seem that the incident had nothing to do with the cyclist at all, but just a rather well off individual who isn’t bothered about road laws being applied to them at all.