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news
Near Miss of the Day 654: Punishment pass by aggressive lorry driver after tailgating cyclist through roadworks (includes swearing)
Our Near Miss of the Day feature today highlights an aggressive lorry driver who taligated a cyclist ahead of them, sounding their horn and gesturing at the rider to get out of the way as they went through roadworks in Essex, and then making a punishment so close that the rider describes it as “the worst incident I think I have ever experienced.”
The clip was filmed by road.cc reader Tony, who told us: “I’ve submitted several videos to yourselves over the years but none have come as close this incident!
“This happened last Tuesday, 26 October in Thurrock, Essex. I was at the start of my commute to work cycling along a stretch of road currently undergoing some roadworks that also sees the shared use path closed off with the speed limit being lowered from 50 to 30mph.
“I’m amongst the roadworks, cones both sides of me when the driver behind starts sounding their horn at me, I look over my shoulder and see the driver gesturing at me to get out of their way.
“I continue on, unfortunately knowing what is about to come, and sure enough, as soon as the road open up a bit the driver performs a punishment pass – passing so close that I actually thought I might end up under their rear wheels as the vehicle had to pull across to make it through the approaching pinch point.
“This was the worst incident I think I have ever experienced, made worse by the rain and wet roads,” Tony said.
“I reported the incident to Essex Police who have updated saying the driver has been given the choice of a conditional offer [ie points and fine] or driver awareness course,” he added.
> 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
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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40 comments
Or is this chap really yourself and this the denoument of an extremely long fishing expedition? In which case, bravo!
You're an idiot, like a lorry driver can hear you shouting and swearing, the lorry driver is a bell end the same as you!!!
Classic Nigel. Attempt to distract the thread from the obvious poor driving.
Transparent as always.
and then everybody clapped?
Anyone actually believe him? Nah didn't think so. I mean whose head can do a 180 degree turn to make eye contact with a driver right behind them on a narrow lane. I wonder if this was before or after he was almost taken out by a group of cyclists. And surely our boo, being very considerate to drivers all the time should have actually known the van was coming and just pulled over straight away.
Oh ye of little faith.
Giving the benefit of the doubt that your example actually happened, I have taken a similarly courteous approach to you in the past - in similar circumstances in a narrow coned section of roadworks, I have taken the lane, been beeped, held primary and signalled a "5,4,3,2,1" countdown with the fingers on one hand because I could see the roadworks were about to end and the driver had very little time to wait before I could safely move over. Still got a punishment pass. In this case, I very much doubt the driver could hear any of the words used in those weather conditions - so much more likely the "retaliation" is not because of the cyclist's "attitude", but simply because the cyclist (quite sensibly) took the lane. That of course is leaving aside that none of us should have been beeped in the first place.
Which fingers did you use for '2' and '1'?
There We Are Then.
Please expound Nigel, the tailgating, horn sounding and close pass did not appear very courteous to me, I'm sure you'll be able to explain the finer points of the drivers courtesy.
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