Near Miss of the Day 728: “A bit of a happy ending on this one with a positive outcome”

“A bit of a happy ending on this one with a positive outcome” is how road.cc reader Lyndon described the incident shown in today’s Near Miss of the Day video, with the clip showing an oncoming van driver squeezing past him in Windsor when there was no room to do so safely, then when their paths cross later on, making a wider overtake on the cyclist, who had stopped following the initial incident to point out his poor driving to him.

“Usually if I try and make a driver aware of a close pass it results in me being sworn at, flipped off or just ignored,” Lyndon told us.

“I already had a few close calls on this ride and was at the end of my tether, so I turned back knowing the driver wouldn't get far in the 20mph zone.

“This (professional?) delivery driver squeezed in a gap he shouldn't have, and initially didn’t seem to care. I stayed calm, letting him know his pass was too close, he apologised.

“We went our separate ways, when in about 20 minutes he passed me on a quiet road, giving a wider berth than before (not great, but better). It just goes to show that some drivers perhaps make a genuine mistake, and are willing to change their habits to be more considerate,” 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