A cyclist has shared footage of the moment a bus driver overtook them and another rider, almost colliding with an oncoming driver and swerving back in front of the cyclists, “almost crushing” them.
The incident happened in Potters Bar back in March, the road.cc reader involved explaining how “they almost collided with an oncoming driver in their own lane, and swerved back into our lane at the last minute, almost crushing us”.
It happens at about one minute into the video below, the oncoming driver forced to emergency stop to avoid a collision.
When the cyclist contacted Transport for London they were told the buses in Potters Bar were run by a private bus company on behalf of TfL. Confusingly, having contacted that named bus company it was then established, in a second communication with TfL, that the operator previously named was no longer that same bus company.
After establishing this with TfL, road.cc has now contacted the correct operator and is awaiting comment.
The cyclist also reported it to the police but received no response. They say they’ve been left “shocked not only by the incident, but also the utter lack of response” from police, TfL and the bus operator.
> 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
26 thoughts on “Near Miss of the Day 925: Bus driver almost causes collision overtaking cyclists”
That should be an instant ban
That should be an instant ban but sounds like it will be completely ignored. The more I ride, the more I realise that the only reason we don’t have constant crashes and deaths on our roads is that most people pay just about enough attention to compensate for others shite driving and perhaps more important, people are just lucky.
Whenever I see an article about a driver doing something stupid and hurting or killing a cyclist I can usually think of dozens of times that could have happened to me but didn’t because of luck or my own defensive cycling. On my last ride there were probably 20-30 cars that overtook on blind corners or hills. Complete chance they didn’t come across someone coming the other way.
“… there were probably 20
“… there were probably 20-30 drivers that overtook…”
Pfft, that’s nothing! Come to
Pfft, that’s nothing! Come to Chester, I’m sure the twats have a competition to see which driver will be the first to kill a cyclist. They are knowingly close passing cyclists. This I know as when I catch them up, they close down and refuse to communicate, not even an attempt at SMIDSY!
The only way something is
The only way something is likely to happen is if the car driver reports it.
Oldfatgit wrote:
Ain’t that the truth! And I can see it now, “Cyclists riding two-abreast nearly caused a serious accident when they[i] forced[/i] a bus into head-on confrontation with my car.”
Oldfatgit wrote:
In Gloucestershire this would result in some form of action being taken according to the article linked below and from personal experience. They are not interested in the close pass but inconveniencing another driver is taken seriously.
https://road.cc/content/news/close-pass-isnt-offence-says-police-officer-310433
You will need to read the comments as well as the article.
I can’t comment on how other forces would deal with it.
Absolutely NOT. As Kent
Absolutely NOT. As Kent police told me, they dont treat incidents from drivers as seriously as incident reports from vulnerable road users e.g. cyclists. I reported a few cycling related incidents to Kent police and had some positive follow up on a few. I reported a lot of driving related incidents to Kent police and received no feed back. I put in a complaint and one of their officers spoke to me and basically said they don’t treat driver report incidents seriously unless there is injury/damage.
My limited experience with
My limited experience with Surrey police is similar. One report of a very close pass on my bike got a response within 24 hours saying they would “take further action” – though that was a few months ago and I’ve not heard any more about what that action might have been. A second report – from my car dashcam showing some insane driving by a taxi driver on the M25 2 weeks ago – has not had ANY response whatsoever.
A tale as old as time: a
A tale as old as time: a motorist who is so focussed on getting in front of the cyclists that they pay no attention to any oncoming traffic.
(But anyway, a bus is bigger than an SUV so the SUV must give way; that’s how it works, isn’t it?)
But but two abreast…
But but two abreast…
But the sun wasn’t in their eyes … it was behind them, and the car was a stealthy light grey colour so probably invisible…
This seems like a ridiculous thing to do especially given there were side-roads on the other side also, and the traffic was light. Presumably the only reason the driver didn’t squeeze by grazing the cyclists was due to them having “taken the lane”? Did the driver “panic” about “getting stuck behind cyclists” because about 400 yards up the road there was a mini-roundabout?
Very poor observation and poor planning.
I think more cyclists need to
I think more cyclists need to get cameras and report all incidents to the police. I know it appears to be futile in this case but overall if drivers start to believe that we’ve all got cameras then we should start to see a deterrent effect. I’ve reported 3 incidents in the last 2 months to Nottinghamshire police and they have taken action on them all. Even if it’s just a letter that will give them pause for thought and hopefully they’ll moan about it to their mates and family and maybe they will think twice before making a stupid manoeuvre.
Speccymagoo wrote:
Exactly this.
All drivers slow down when they know there are speed cameras, if there is a high probablity that cyclists have cameras, they will behave a lot better around them.
Yep. I am convinced that fear
Yep. I am convinced that fear of losing their license and fines are the only thing that will stop bad driving or at least limit it. People are selfish assholes in most aspects of their lives and its amplified when they are driving. They simply don’t care about cyclists lives as much as they care about their own wealth, their ability to drive or even 20s that they would be waiting to pass safely.
Thats why the law should come down on bad driving like a tonne of bricks. Its literally admitting that you think other peoples lives are worth less than a few seconds of your time.
The stats from our local
The stats from our local speed cameras tell a different story. The one on the A12 by Dedham, a 70mph road, the maximum national speed limit, on average 1500 motorists get tickets from it every year.
That’s 1500 motorists unable to even work out that driving faster than 70mph on any public highways is against the law.
I agree we (cyclists and
I agree we (cyclists and drivers) should get cameras…
I don’t know about other police forces (ie Nottinghamshire) but the Met police are now seriously overwhelmed/under-resourced due to the volume of reports they recieve.
I used to get a good 70%+ success rate on action being taken by the Met police on my reports.
Now I’d be lucky to get 10%.
I guess they are prioritising the ones that are most likely to succeed if challenged in court.
Not forgetting CyclingMikey’s recent statements about how the majority of reports of dangerous driving are submitted by OTHER drivers, not cyclists.
Indeed..when I was cycling to
Indeed..when I was cycling to work twice a week pre covid I would send a report maybe once or twice a month to Kent police, and would get feedback on action taken for maybe 25%-30%. When I changed jobs a few years back and started driving as part of the job, I was sending reports most days. No feedback on any , which means no action taken .
Speccymagoo wrote:
Totally agree about cameras and run one and report drivers myself, but in my opinion letters are worse than useless. They are basically saying yes you’ve committed an offence but we’re going to let you get away with it. I very much doubt the majority of people who receive letters think anything except “bloody cyclist, grassing me up when I did nothing wrong, look even the police won’t prosecute.” I’ve had numerous absolutely clear-cut offences caught on video that cannot be debated (as for example close passes might be) such as driving straight through a red light that has been red for thirty seconds or more, overtaking other motor vehicles within the zigzags of the zebra crossing when people are on the crossing, driving over the stop line into cyclist boxes etc for which the police have seen fit only to send a letter. The only thing that will bother the vast majority of drivers and make them think twice about their behaviour is fines and points, in my opinion.
I have had a mini-campaign
I have had a mini-campaign recently to dissuade (via the police) some serial offenders from parking on zig-zag lines. It has now had the desired effect, but the number of “positive action taken” reports it took to get there suggests that a lot of warning letters were sent before they issued any fines. Alternatively I suppose the fines could just have been economical compared to paid parking and it only stopped when a prosecution was threatened.
The problem is this sort of
The problem is this sort of terrible driving is so frequently encountered, that it quickly becomes impossible for the police to keep up with the submissions.
It really requires a new government organisation to take on these sort of ‘minor’ traffic offences (minor in quotes, as it doesn’t feel at all minor if you’re on the receiving end of such driving). A change in the law so that fines can be handed out more easily (akin to a parking fine) and the level of fines set high enough so the cost of enforcement is easily recouped.
Unfortunately, in my experience, the police don’t treat this sort of crime with the seriousness it deserves.
I’ve run a camera for the
I’ve run a camera for the past decade, easily got into double figures of prosecutions, and would be on track for 100 if I hadn’t stopped reporting.
Because it’s not a priority for the police, they do very little about it anymore, most reports get NFA, they havent even run a tickbox operation within the last few years, and I’ve never met or heard of anyone whose driving behaviour changed as the result of a nip.
And nothing was changing on the roads
So i realised I was achieving the square root of diddly squat.
I still run a camera, and a pass pixi, and I still get close passed alot, but when the inevitable happens there’ll at least be some evidence to track the driver down from
I’ve submitted two events to
I’ve submitted two events to Thames Valley Police in the past year. Both dealt with well, in my view.
First one, I received a letter stating that the driver had accepted a driver education course.
Second one, I had a telephone call from the officer that had attended court, and the driver had failed to attend so was ‘awarded’ 5pts and £750 in absence. They thanked me at all stages for the footage and testimony – I didn’t feel like I was wasting their time.
Third one is in the system, will be interesting if my good experience continues.
Interesting to know Notts
Interesting to know Notts Police have moved on. When I reported an incident to them (admitedly it was 10 years ago) despite having a fairly good view of the passengers face and a clear image of the car and plate. They gave me an excuse about how it was a hire car and they couldn’t be sure who was driving. Surely person A hires a car to drive on a certain date and names drivers and if anyone else is driving it they are responsible :-/ https://youtu.be/M7J_Xhx2ZnU
I stopped carrying cameras for a bit (couldn’t see the point of festering on things if no action was ever taken) but I’ve started using some again. Last night on a country road a truck pulled up beside me and told me to use the cycle path (what path?). He actually reacted to that by slotting in behind me and waiting a good length of time untill it was safe to pass. The pass is a bit aggressive for anyone in the village we were entering but I had room. Maybe he saw the camera and decided to behave a bit better? Excuse the randomly picked soundtrack to mask the backgroun muffle. https://youtu.be/-f3lR2Y0UD8
HLaB wrote:
Are you sure it wasn’t someone you know being a wag? How on earth did they come up with “get on the cycle path” there?!
Definitely not someone I knew
Definitely not someone I knew, he paused long enough for me to have recognised him if it was someone I knew :-/
That first incident is
That first incident is shocking. Pretty sure they would try harder now. The second incident is just wierd.
The oncoming car wasnt
The oncoming car wasnt wearing hi-viz or a helmet, obviously their fault.