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news
Near Miss of the Day 689: “You pr*ck!” – Driver makes very close pass on cyclist at speed
Our final Near Miss of the Day of the year shows a motorist making a very close pass at speed on a cyclist who is heading uphill – moreover, it’s a road marked with double white lines.
Rule 129 of the Highway Code says:
Double white lines where the line nearest you is solid. This means you MUST NOT cross or straddle it unless it is safe and you need to enter adjoining premises or a side road. You may cross the line if necessary, provided the road is clear, to pass a stationary vehicle, or overtake a pedal cycle, horse or road maintenance vehicle, if they are travelling at 10 mph (16 km/h) or less.
In this case, even if the cyclist is going at that speed, with the road ahead curving of to the left, there’s no way for the motorist to know whether it is indeed clear, and therefore safe to overtake.
Then there’s the fact that the overtake of the cyclist was done at speed, as well as being far too close – close enough that you can see the rider wobble.
However, Kieran, the road.cc reader who sent this one through to us said that when he submitted the footage to Gloucestershire Police last week, he was told that it wouldn’t be referred for prosecution “as they say it wasn’t a dangerous or close pass!”
> 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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31 comments
When I saw the police response I am sorry to say I was not surprised, I have had similar feedback from my submssions some of which I have posted on NMOTD. Obviously driving like this should not be acceptable on our roads the question is what can we do about it. Wtjs has been fighting Lancashire on his own for what seems like years and has so far got no where as far as I can tell. Not for the want of trying and I can't see how s/he could have done any more. If we accept that a lone individual will find it difficult to make progress, what are the alternatives.
I think road.cc should be playing a more active role by asking police and pccs for comments on these videos. I also think that Cycling UK should be more active in this area, they have been great in their fight for protective infrastructure but if cycling is to be widely adopted we need to be able to safely share the roads any where. I doubt British Cycling are interested.
The first thing that needs to be established is whether this particular officer is correct and this driving does not meet the threshold for a conviction or, if it would meet the threshold, whether training needs to be improved. If the relevant authorities are not questioned we will never know and will not be able to produce a strategy for change.
Or we can just carry on viewing these videos and moaning to each other.
wtjs has been fighting Lancashire on his own for what seems like years and has so far got nowhere as far as I can tell
Not strictly true, although no-one has yet received points- only the joke online driving course. Sgt 2459 Lavin of OpSnap Lancs wrote to me on 22nd December (dates are the date of offence):
Land Rover Freelander S24 LHD 24.6.20 Driver retraining course attended November 2020
Honda Civic VX07 AWO 24.6.20 Driver retraining course attended October 2020
Ford Transit KP59 EPJ 24.6.20 File prepared for court no update as large backlog in court system due to COVID.
Volvo YY65 ZFA 27.6.20 Driver retraining course attended October 2020
VW Golf YH10 MFF 27.6.20 Driver retraining course attended December 2020
What he has avoided writing about is what happened to a crop of pretty bad red light offences of Summer 2021. They don't like being caught out at blatant lies in print, so I suspect nothing whatsoever happened about them. When they won't act about easy red-light offences, it means (which I already know to be true) that nothing will be done about close-passing like this by (the driver of!) Vauxhall Mokka WV16 JDK
If the police deemed it to be neither close or dangerous I would want to know what distance they calculated the BMW to be from the cyclist and the speed. British Cycling would do more for cyclist safety if they assisted with persuing police for satisfactory responses, than posters with 'think Bike!' Oh, that wasn't them either...
BMW, no surprises there then. I'm not saying that all BMW drivers are pricks. But, if you watch all the NMOTD on here, most of the car culprits are usually BMW or Audi. Neither am I saying that Audi drivers are pricks either, just to clear that up. But those makes seem to attract a fair amount of pricks.
Here's a fun idea! Let's tie a Gloucesteshire cop to a post and make several close passes with a car at speed then ask him if he still feels it "wasn't dangerous or close".
Happy to observe while someone drives an HGV past at 50mph and <50cm to ensure that it is close enough (and request a repeat if I feel it isn't effective).
he was told that it wouldn’t be referred for prosecution “as they say it wasn’t a dangerous or close pass"
Looks like Gloucestershire Police are based in the same Pit of Hell as Lancashire Constabulary. Don't you despise the b******s?- I do!
Indeed. IME Glos Police will not take action against drivers for this, despite them having put posters all over the county reminding drivers to give cyclists room.
Their usual response is that there's no offence of "close-passing", so unless it's very serious there's no route for them.
Their usual response is that there's no offence of "close-passing", so unless it's very serious there's no route for them
Again- identical to Lancashire. And yet, the worthy Inspector Kevin Smith of Sheffield NW Neighbourhood Policing Team, with the occasional assistance of super-star Dame Sarah Storey, definitely manages to successfully prosecute close-passing (real prosecution with real points and fines). I hadn't heard that the law differs across England and Wales, so I am forced to conclude that Lancashire Constabulary, Gloucestershire Police, Northumbria Police (it was them who decreed that cyclists shouldn't go out at busy periods), Traffic South Wales (or something like that- they decided cyclists shouldn't go out at night) etc. etc. consist of cyclist-hostile idle b******s who deserve to spend eternity in Hell!
People must read our posts and think we are obsessed with lancashire police. People need to realise just what a bunch of lazy incompetent imbeciles they are. I will repeat what I have said on here before, if a Lancashire police officer needed assistance from a member of the public I would walk on by. And I used to be a police community volunteer!
So blatant: the car driver clearly stays inside the double whites at all times (obviously doesn't know his/her Highway Code, at the speed the rider's going it would be legal to cross them (though not safe given the bend)). The average hatchback, as this seems to be, is about 180cms wide. The most generous interpretation of the screenshot below is that the driver has left half the width of their car between their nearside and the verge, or 90cms. The sveltest of cyclists will be around 40cms wide, ergo the car must have passed at a distance of 50cms or less, ergo it was a close pass and, given the speed, a dangerous one. The authorities appear to believe that "Blind Justice" means ignoring the evidence of their own eyes.
A bit bigger: Width 1984 mm (looks like a MK2 pre-facelift BMW 1 series) but your point is valid.
Where I would disagree is about it being safe to cross the double white, by the time the car gets close to the cyclist he has a view round the bend, don't forget the video is taken close to the left edge of the lane, the driver is close to the right edge. IMO the driver should have slowed, seen it was safe to cross the whites (or not) then floored it and gone over the lines.
The upshot is the driver has no excuse and if the police fobbed me off I'd be having a chat with the Division Chief Inspector.
A clearly dangerous close pass that wasn't, according to the police, dangerous or close.
It seems to be a bit of a not only postcode lottery, but viewing officer lottery. If you're lucky, you get a regular cyclist in an area where the police take dangerous driving seriously, or you get a petrolhead in an area where they only prosecute if there's a death/serious injury.
Another case, like BBC bias, where the cycling organisations need to get together and pressure the police and the PCCs to adopt a logical, sensible system for analysing and prosecuting dangerous close passes. We've seen hundreds on here which by any rational analysis were dangerous, but with no action from the police, so the drivers don't know they've done wrong and they do it again until someone dies; then they are prosecuted, a bit late for their victim.
Hopefully the new Highway Code gives clear guidance on what would constitute a close pass. In this case at speed over 30mph this should be greater than 1.5m. No excuses, if the viewing officer comes out with nonsense like that then it should immediately be referred to the PCC.
I share your hope but I am pretty sceptical 😐
The PCC are just a politician, they are more interested in funding and image.
I think if enough complaints went to the IPCC then something might happen.
https://www.policeconduct.gov.uk/complaints-reviews-and-appeals/make-com...
Rather than Enforcement, I prefer Avoidance of risk, and bureaucracy. So I have fitted a visual aid for those drivers who cannot tell what 1.5m separation looks like. Thus they are no longer able to misjudge the correct separation for a safe pass up to 30 mph when I ride in the secondary position.
This saves time and effort to report, upload, chase, and chase again. More importantly it is actually safer.
Obviously there are several limitations such as group rides and people asking why you have a pipe sticking out, but overall quite acceptable. A 1.7m long pipe 15mm width is a few pence to buy, and white is visible to approaching road users. On more than 30mph roads, taking the centre of the lane makes it clear that the other lane is required for an overtake. So that works well, too.
I still use a rear camera, since I already bought it but expect much less need to report etc. than before. In the event of a close pass, the video and sound of the pipe being struck are evidence of a crime...
I'm desperately hoping against hope that this is satire?
Yes, you would have to be pretty stupid to actually do it, because it would present BMW/ Audi drivers a risk free way of playing knock-em-off games in real life and a way of placing more dead-cyclist stickers on the wing, while still receiving sympathy from the police for the upset they have suffered
Not with the cost of paintwork repair on such 'premium' brands...
Since the pipe is secured below the seat post, there is no angular force that can be easily exerted on 80kg of bike and rider. Further, it is only secured against moving air pressure by adhesive tape so the tape would break before a significant force could be transferred.
Since this is an obvious scenario, it was tested before use on the public highways.
Not sure if it was the same poster, but this has been said in the last 2 or 3 months.
I knew a chap who actually used a length of aluminium angle attached to his rack, sprung at the bike end and with a flag at the sharp end. He assured us it was very effective and that if cars got too close their paintwork suffered.
I guess you could do something with a length of piano wire clamped at the bike end through a cork (so it can pull free if snagged). It ought not add so much aerodynamic drag. I guess motorists would complain, after the piano wire left its mark down their paintwork, that they didn't see the piano wire, but they say the same about cyclists.
I chose 15mm white plastic pipe because it is visible and odd so that it gets noticed. The drag is probably just a few watts so acceptable. Obviously I don't ride TT or competitively.
I can't control how much road detritus collects on my bike during a ride, nor how abrasive that might be to vehicle paint.
My intention is to provide information and avoid collision so that no abrasion is involved.
So far, that has been effective, just as you suggest. Ride safe.
#VisionZero
As usual, you are correct.
Its an experiment, specifically on visual perception and spatial awareness.
It used to be possible to buy a fold out reflector, like an orange lollipop to do this job, but more drag and too short, so a white plastic pipe is sufficient. Spray on reflection, optional.
Jesus, my dad made me ride with one of those orange lollipops on my bike when I was 12. I'm still recovering from the trauma!
Happy to hear that you are still with us, though. Clearly your Dad believed you were safer with it, and as a cycling challenge it sounds like you overcame it...
Do you ever forget it's there when filtering down the L.H.S. of traffic queues?
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