Near Miss of the Day 781: Police claim they can’t prosecute close pass driver – because cyclist’s footage only came from one camera

Police told a cyclist who submitted footage of a very close pass in which not only did the driver give a long blast of the horn, but the car’s passenger also put their arm out of the vehicle’s window, possibly in an attempt to strike the rider, that they could not refer the footage for prosecution – because it was only taken from one camera.

It’s the first time we’ve heard of a force taking such an approach, and given we have now featured nearly 800 videos in our Near Miss of the Day series, and received countless other submissions, it’s one that’s left us a bit flummoxed to say the least.

The footage was shot by road.cc reader Kionne, who told us: “Not sure why the extended blast on the horn was required, I was not obstructing traffic, the road was wide enough to easily pass me, my position was good and my pace was good. You can see that all the motorists before were able to pass me without issue.

“As for the passenger, it was unclear whether he was trying to hit or push me but thankfully he missed.

“I reported it to South Staffordshire Police who sent out a warning letter, they told me there was insufficient evidence to prosecute the pass or possible attempted push as I only had footage from one camera.

“They went on to say I need to have at least two, possibly three cameras before they will even consider prosecution.

“In an attempt to appease me they said they see much worse than this and still do not prosecute,” 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