A bit of an unusual one on our Near Miss of the Day feature today – the source is the Twitter feed of the Sheffield North West Neighbourhood Policing Team, showing the moment an approaching driver passed a group of cyclists too closely, and at what officers described as “excessive speed.”
The driver received a fine of £417 and had their licence endorsed with five penalty points, and police added that “If anyone thinks this is an acceptable manner of driving, let this be your warning.”
COURT RESULT: CARELESS DRIVING. The driver of this vehicle decided to pass a group of cyclists at excessive speed and far too closely. Fined £417 in total, licence endorsed with 5 points. If anyone thinks this is an acceptable manner of driving, let this be your warning. pic.twitter.com/zInKYa84cc
— Sheffield North West NPT (@SheffNW_NPT) April 21, 2022
Police said that the incident happened before they began accepting footage on the Nextbase portal, which enables members of the public to upload footage of driving for investigation, and that a repeat offence could see the driver’s vehicle seized.
The driver was also issued a S59 warning as soon as we were notified of the offence. If he is seen to drive in a careless and antisocial manner in the year since it was issued his vehicle will be seized.
— Sheffield North West NPT (@SheffNW_NPT) April 21, 2022
Despite police emphasising in the original tweet that the driver was entirely at fault, some people in the comments suggested that the cyclists should have stopped to let the motorist pass, pointing out the poorly parked car on the left hand side of the road – but once again, officers underlined that the issue here was the standard of driving, and not the behaviour of the cyclists.
Exactly. I expect some what aboutery with any of these posts, but people need to know what the police and courts think about this type of driving which the result shows
— Sheffield North West NPT (@SheffNW_NPT) April 21, 2022
Last year, we featured a Near Miss of the Day video filmed while cycling by Inspector Kevin Smith, who leads the Sheffield North West Neighbourhood Policing team, and which is one of the most frightening incidents we have highlighted in this series.
And earlier last year, when she was still active travel commissioner for the Sheffield City Region, Dame Sarah Storey – Great Britain’s most successful ever Paralympian – joined the Inspector Smith and his colleagues on a close pass operation that saw no fewer than one in five drivers get pulled over.
> 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
39 thoughts on “Near Miss of the Day 752: “If anyone thinks this is an acceptable manner of driving, let this be your warning,” say police”
I assume this was Inspector
I assume this was Inspector Kev leading this prosecution !!
Perhaps they can be a standard for the rest of the country.
It needs to be, because there
It needs to be, because there will be other police forces who will think that was acceptable driving, and would not pursue it as South Yorkshire have.
Good guess.
Good guess.
I can’t take all the credit though I was just sent the footage, realised it was very close to the NIP date and sent officers out to personally serve the S59 warning and the NIP.
Chap responsible clearly thought he had done nothing wrong and took it to court.
The courts agreed with me and not the driver.
By putting the videos out there I hope there is a bit of a database of what constitutes an offence to encourage other forces to have confidence in prosecuting videos like this.
I have issued hundreds of TORs and very few elect to go to court. When they do, and the court agrees with my assessment that is worth sharing as validation especially where there is video evidence.
Thanks for the repy.
Thanks for the repy.
Can you transfer to Essex ?!
Surrey’s nicer – move here.
Surrey’s nicer – move here please!
Great job sir, thanks for
Great job sir, thanks for looking out for us. I hope that in the fullness of time you get the promotions you clearly deserve so you’re in a position to make your exemplary attitude in these matters national policy.
“The car is parked on the
“The car is parked on the left side of the road so the cyclist should have stopped and given way to the car. The car had right of way and the cyclist is at fault. If anyone thinks this is an acceptable method of policing, let this be your warning.”
How do you deal with idiots such as this ?
I find ignoring them works
I find ignoring them works well.
They often end up ranting similar things when they get a chat at the road side. You can explain the Highway Code to them all you like, but you can’t understand it for them. Compulsory retesting of drivers should be .. . compulsory.
hirsute wrote:
Unfortunately those people can’t grasp the context of separate lanes of traffic…. and someone else went on to complain “But if they swapped spaces, there would still be enough room, but ppl would be attacking the car driver for making the bikes move to the other side of the lane, and saying that the car should yield, don’t be a hypocrite.”
Trying to explain to them that in that situation that the car would have to yield (to use their parlance) because in order to pass the parked car they have to move into the opposite lane of the road to pass the car.
Thank you from every
Thank you from every vulnerable road user, keep up the good work.
Er, I dunno, crappy that the
Close call
Good work. Another scumbag
Good work. Another scumbag will hopefully soon be off the roads.
Without the camera footage. Nothing would’ve been done.
Road cyclists.
That’s why you always wear a camera. Front and back!
The Twitter thread is very
The Twitter thread is very odd – despite photos clearly showing the driver crossing the central line, some people insist the driver was in their lane.
And the cyclists should have given way !
This is the post-truth world.
This is the post-truth world. That is their opinion and they are entitled to it. Stop trying to cancel them by saying their views aren’t valid simply because the verifiable facts don’t support them.
But the lane was too narrow,
But the lane was too narrow, I needed to cross the white line to give myself enough space at that speed.
I would have liked to see more video of the track of the car because I am guessing that it was a punishment swerve – get back in the gutter.
Oddly, I’m generally happy being close to the centre line with oncoming cars (as long as they are their side) – far more than having a car the same distance with a cycle lane.
IanMSpencer wrote:
They’ve just come through a narrowing at what looks like a railway bridge the other side of the junction – looks like they just held the line from that, instead of moving back into their own lane – more likely a lack of attention than anything deliberate, I think. And excessive speed through the pinch point.
Well I wouldnt be happy with
Well I wouldnt be happy with it at that speed, but at least oncoming you can prepare yourself & choose your line to take, the ones from behind tend to be more of a shock even if you hear it and know what’s coming.
But I’d almost by default never submit these oncoming style ones simply because I’ve never imagined the police would ever do anything properly with them.
Awavey wrote:
18 months ago I submitted one of a driver overtaking another round the wrong side of a central island into the face of oncoming traffic (me) – he got a warning letter.
Wow, for once a decent result
Wow, for once a decent result!
Oh no a driver went by on the
Oh no a driver went by on the other side of the road doing the speed limit and startled someone , burn them.
seems cyclists want to own the road not share it as they constantly preach
Craig Prosser wrote:
Better hand your licence back
Better hand your licence back to the DVLA ASAP.
Surreyrider wrote:
And get his eyes tested afterwards – what a melt.
I hope you don’t drive.
I hope you don’t drive.
How do you know what speed the driver as doing and what the limit is for the road?
Hint: you drive to the condtions, not the speed limit.
Standard of trolling is not what it used to be.
God it’s getting predictable,
God it’s getting predictable, as one scrolls down and a new single-figure poster comes into view one just knows it’s 90% certain it’s a pro-car troll. On the rare occasions I look at car websites or forums there aren’t loads of cyclists trolling with pro-bike views, why is that? Probably because they’re out having fun on their bikes, I suppose.
Go on Pistonheads, there’s a
Go on Pistonheads, there’s a thread on there….
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=23&t=1980866
Some of the comments…..
Majority of the comments were
Majority of the comments were very good.
Starts p66
“As before then – if 2/3 of a lane isn’t enough for you I don’t know how you get anywhere on a bicycle.
t.
There was loads of room, all that was required was for the driver to be minimally competent and not be a t
That’s why the driver has 5 points and a fine.”
Problem is that there is no
Problem is that there is no consistency to the action taken by police for dangerous driving around cyclists. Over the past 4 years of sending in video footage the action taken has swung wildly from everything I sent being given a NIP, then to no further action, then back to NIP and now only warning letters. Apparently it’s down to the discretion of the officer viewing the footage as to what action to take, so even if the footage falls within the standard the CPS would prosecute, you won’t necessarily get a worthwhile result.
Quote:
Erm – the cyclists passed that parked car while still on their side of the white lines. The oncoming car, which wasn’t passing anything at all, managed not to stay on its own side of the white lines.
(sorry if anyone else has said that, I just needed to get it off my chest before I started reading BTL).
I think it was deliberate
I think it was deliberate provication by the passing car. Sped up and went towards the cyclist to “teach them a lesson”, for not waiting for them (even though they didn’t need to as there was space to pass). Thankfully, I think Sheffield NorthWest NPT also beleived this to be deliberate, judging by the fine and points.
And: was any action taken
And: was any action taken against the illegally parked blue car on the left?
brooksby wrote:
Certainly in London the police don’t deal with illegal parking in video submissions, they just say tell the local council, who then won’t deal with it as they say it has to be witnessed by an enforcement officer in situ.
The police in London don’t
The police in London don’t deal with anything at all in my experience.
5 weeks ago, a friend and I were close passed three times by the same car before being forced to stop by the driver who then got out of his car to shout at us before finally attacking us with a hammer.
I reported the assualy on the same day to the Met but have heard nothing since. Have followed it up a couple of times through original issuer of the crime number and through Twitter but still no dice.
Have now submitted a formal complaint through the Met.
I’m not entirely sure what the Met does these days. I only ever see vans and cars driving quickly with blue lights. The only time I ever see a real live officer is when they’ve stopped a car and are speaking to the driver – who is (much more often than not) not white.
Huw Watkins wrote:
Same as they’ve always done: protect the property, power and privilege of the wealthy. Sending nine vanloads of ecilops to evict five squatters from Deripaska’s mansion last month was as pure an example as you’ll ever see of their true purpose.
Anything else the police does is PR.
Quote:
Trying (and failing) to stop their colleagues raping women?
Sheffield Northwest NPT seem
Sheffield Northwest NPT seem to be very pro-active with cyclists safety. So good to see. But yes, the incosistencies with Police forces in the country is shocking.
Usual people mouthing off on
Usual people mouthing off on social media who seem to think that this is still up for discussion despite the fact that the tweet is reporting the result of a court verdict.
Contrast this response from
Contrast this response from Sheffield NW NPT with Lancashire Constabulary’s no response to Transit BX61 FKO with heavy trailer illegally crossing the DWLs because of a parked car ahead- I had no time to react as he was travelling so fast. You’ve guessed it: No Response
That is awful.
That is awful.
Did they have a plate on the trailer and was it the right reg?