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Near Miss of the Day 900: Police offer “suitable advice” to driver who squeezed between cyclist and oncoming campervan in dangerous close pass

Despite the local police being “very helpful”, the cyclist says he has “heard nothing since” about the motorist’s punishment

For our landmark 900th edition of Near Miss of the Day (where does the time go?), we’ve rather suitably been sent an undeniable classic of the horrifying close pass genre, featuring a motorist impatiently – and narrowly – overtaking a cyclist at speed right into the path of a long line of oncoming traffic, just about squeezing between the rider and a campervan in the process.

And the punishment for such a reckless, dangerous manoeuvre? Well, according to Police Scotland, the driver in question was offered some “suitable advice”.

road.cc reader Philip was cycling home from work on the A830 at Kinlocheil, Fort William, on 12 August last year (he notes that the date on the camera is wrong), when he was overtaken at close proximity and in the same lane by a motorist apparently oblivious to an oncoming campervan.

Philip reported the shocking close pass immediately to Police Scotland – however, when he contacted road.cc earlier this week, he said he was still “waiting for the police to follow up” and update him with their response.

> Near Miss of the Day 896: Cyclist estimates motorcyclist overtook at 120mph, but police insist "there is not enough evidence" and rider passed "clear of the cyclist on a wide piece of road"

“The local (Police Scotland in the Highlands) police were very helpful and took a full report,” he tells road.cc.

At the end of October, Police Scotland contacted Philip to inform that once the driver, a Lothian resident, was identified, “he will be charged and reported to the Procurator Fiscal”. However, the cyclist says he has heard “nothing since”.

“They quickly found that the red car was registered to a driver in Lothian, and passed the report on to their Lothian colleagues to deal with,” he says. “Since then... nothing.”

However, despite the radio silence, when contacted by road.cc this week, a spokesperson for Police Scotland said: “Around 6pm on Saturday, 12 August, 2023, we received a report of a car driving close to a cyclist on the A830 at Kinlocheil, Fort William.

“Enquiries have been completed and suitable advice was offered to the driver.”

> Near Miss of the Day 897: Police concede that "prosecution would have been more suitable" after close-passing van driver who could've "killed cyclist" let off with a warning letter

This example of extremely impatient driving isn’t the only close pass featured recently on Near Miss of the Day that saw the driver escape with “advice” or a warning letter.

Last month, Surrey Police expressed regret that “more robust action was not taken” and admitted that “a prosecution would have been more suitable” after a van driver received a warning letter for committing a close pass on a cyclist so close that the rider said they “could have been killed”.

Surrey Police also apologised to the cyclist for the leniency of their response.

> 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

After obtaining a PhD, lecturing, and hosting a history podcast at Queen’s University Belfast, Ryan joined road.cc in December 2021 and since then has kept the site’s readers and listeners informed and enthralled (well at least occasionally) on news, the live blog, and the road.cc Podcast. After boarding a wrong bus at the world championships and ruining a good pair of jeans at the cyclocross, he now serves as road.cc’s senior news writer. Before his foray into cycling journalism, he wallowed in the equally pitiless world of academia, where he wrote a book about Victorian politics and droned on about cycling and bikes to classes of bored students (while taking every chance he could get to talk about cycling in print or on the radio). He can be found riding his bike very slowly around the narrow, scenic country lanes of Co. Down.

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18 comments

Avatar
Benthic | 7 months ago
5 likes

'Suitable advice' can already be found in the Highway Code.

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giff77 | 7 months ago
6 likes

While Polis Scotland can come across as being inept and clueless regarding road crime I think they're stuck between a rock and a hard place due to the constraints placed on the by the Fiscal. One diligent officer apologised profusely to me when I reported the attached that she couldn't progress it because of these constraints.

Toyota Yaris
https://youtu.be/AnQs7Sd_afU

She came back to me with the outcome and that the driver was in tears when told that if something had have gone wrong they were facing a 'death by dangerous driving'   I thought this was flannel until I happened to be talking to a wirk colleague who happened to be a retired peeler. He asked who the officer was and reassured me that she didn't suffer fools and made sure they knew this and I was in good hands. 

Ultimately the SNP's Justice Minister is to be blamed as a number of years back they had the Fiscal draw up new guidelines in order to keep the courts clear for 'real' crime. This was something that drove my work colleague nuts as they would be constantly bumped when presenting reports for the Fiscal to progress. Reality is they could form a drivers court with Sheriffs who would specialise in driving offences but we all know that's not going to happen. 

The roads in Scotland will continue to be challenging until the police and Fiscal start dealing with incidents robustly, introduce the much delayed portal and initiate driving awareness courses. 

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MattKelland | 7 months ago
0 likes

Where's 899?

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Rendel Harris replied to MattKelland | 7 months ago
1 like
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MattKelland replied to Rendel Harris | 7 months ago
1 like

Thanks! For some reason it's not showing up here:
https://road.cc/show/tags/nmotd/145572

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Rendel Harris replied to MattKelland | 7 months ago
0 likes

Welcome - probably didn't show as they tagged it "not near miss of the day"?

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eburtthebike | 7 months ago
8 likes

“suitable advice”

Unless that advice was to hand in their licence for at least a month, it wasn't suitable.

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mattw | 7 months ago
3 likes

Police Scotland = Useless.

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mitsky | 7 months ago
14 likes

It is not just the proximity of the close pass but the driver's speed that is appallng here.

If there had been contact the injuries would likely have not been minor.

A temporary driving ban at minimum would have been usefull.

My guess is the driver will think almost nothing of driving similarly in the future.
Any injury/death at the driver's hands and the police should hang their heads in shame.

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mctrials23 replied to mitsky | 7 months ago
2 likes

As i've said before, the police should be sued for a lot of money when someone they have knowingly ignored has gone on to commit a serious crime. When someone overtakes a cyclist this close and at this speed and the police ignore it and that person kills someone, the police should be hauled over the coals. Its the only thing that will change their attitude to these things. 

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brooksby | 7 months ago
8 likes

What's also worrying is how far the driver swerves over to the left - with the car banking over - once they've passed the cyclist.  Almost as if they wrenched the steering wheel over when they looked up from their phone…

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KDee replied to brooksby | 7 months ago
6 likes

Looks like the driver is totally out of control 

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the infamous grouse | 7 months ago
8 likes

report it as a hate crime.

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lesterama | 7 months ago
12 likes

Slam dunk prosecution missed cos they cannae be bothered. Makes me so angry.

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Oldfatgit | 7 months ago
18 likes

Having had first hand experience with the Lothian section of Police Scotland, it wouldn't surprise me if the "suitable advice" was 'don't get caught on video next time'.

That is, if the driver can remember it happening in the first place.

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wtjs replied to Oldfatgit | 7 months ago
5 likes

Having had first hand experience with the Lothian section of Police Scotland, it wouldn't surprise me if the "suitable advice" was 'don't get caught on video next time'

It's almost as if Lancashire Constabulary is in the room.

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giff77 replied to wtjs | 7 months ago
6 likes

wtjs wrote:

Having had first hand experience with the Lothian section of Police Scotland, it wouldn't surprise me if the "suitable advice" was 'don't get caught on video next time'

It's almost as if Lancashire Constabulary is in the room.

I heard from a particular source that Polis Scotland were mentors for Lancashire's finest. 

Avatar
IanGlasgow replied to giff77 | 7 months ago
3 likes

giff77 wrote:

wtjs wrote:

Having had first hand experience with the Lothian section of Police Scotland, it wouldn't surprise me if the "suitable advice" was 'don't get caught on video next time'

It's almost as if Lancashire Constabulary is in the room.

I heard from a particular source that Polis Scotland were mentors for Lancashire's finest. 

Lancashire Police are twinned with Lanarkshire Police.

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