Near Miss of the Day 754: MGIF driver closes passes on school run – only to be followed by cyclist for next minute

Today’s Near Miss features one of the most pointless overtakes we’ve seen in a while, as the motorist in question spent the next minute mere metres in front of the cyclist he so desperately needed to pass on a tight, busy school street.

I had a case dropped by the CPS after a 7 month wait. J22PNC. Closed passed by cms on school road, regularly used as a rat run. Some thoughts... @MikeyCycling @markandcharlie @CPSUK @BetterBeckenham @BromleyLS pic.twitter.com/26XAVFl8GR

— Dylillama (@Dylillama) April 12, 2022

Dylan, the road.cc reader who posted the video to Twitter, says the police issued a Notice of Intended Prosecution to the motorist, but the case was dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service which claimed that there was “no evidence that the driver had driven his vehicle far below what would be expected of a competent and careful driver”.

The cyclist notes in the video that the motorist’s car was centimetres from his handlebars, that a van was approaching from the opposite direction and, in any case, the character of the road, featuring a number of bends and traffic-calming measures due to the presence of a school, rendered the extremely close pass particularly unnecessary.

“If that is that standard of driving/enforcement we can expect around our schools then God help us,” Dylan wrote.

“This particular road is a nightmare, and the daily examples of dangerous behaviour around this crossing are shocking. But there is no enforcement of any kind. It is a matter of time before there is an accident on Churchfields Road because of impatient drivers and rat running at school times.

“The letter from the CPS assumed I would be disappointed, and I was. But I don't want to go to court, I don't want the stress and time of having to report bad driving. But when there is no police presence on the road, it is the only option.

“When the CPS will not follow through on third party reporting, the law becomes useless. Maybe I'm wrong and there is nothing wrong with that driving.”

> 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