Near Miss of the Day 673: “Way too close to ignore” – impatient driver brushes past cyclist

We’re off to south London in our Near Miss of the Day series today, with a video showing the moment an impatient van driver trying to beat a motorist on his right to get away from a set of traffic lights brushed against a cyclist waiting at the junction with his wing mirror.

The incident happened in Tulse Hill where Norwood Road crosses the A205 South Circular Road with the cyclist, road.cc reader Dennis, catching up with the driver a couple of hundred yards down the road to let him know how close he had been and eliciting an apology.

Meanwhile, motorists behind who were clearly also in a rush to get somewhere beeped their horns.

You can also see in the still picture above how another cyclist who most likely had been riding behind Dennis and may well have seen the close pass has stopped, presumably to offer assistance should the situation escalate – such support from fellow riders being common in situations like this on the capital’s roads, where everyone will have experienced being put in danger by drivers.

“So this guy tried to beat the other car from position on the left,” Dennis told us. “So he decided to rush up and passed me with a few inches to spare almost hitting my right handlebar.

“It was sooo close that I felt his side mirror brushing my ears and top shoulder.

“Like I said, I’m normally used to close passes but this was way too close to ignore,” 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