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news
Near miss of the day 38: HGV pulls out on cyclist who then has to accelerate to make himself visible
Today’s near miss only becomes scarier with each subsequent viewing. An HGV driver pulling out on a cyclist would be bad enough, but the looming shadow once the driver has completed that manoeuvre is arguably even more frightening.
Dan B said the incident occurred in Clapton on October 5 at around 6.20am.
“My focus was on the silver car ahead ready to pull out. I saw the lorry and I assumed he was going to stop since he was attempting a 90 degree turn which would need to be done slowly. He didn't, so I had to keep going otherwise I'd have met with the side of the lorry.
“I then found myself right in front of the cab as he completed his turn into my lane, so I had to accelerate to get out in front into the driver's view. It was only when I managed to get myself about ten feet in front of the cab he became aware of me. He had a very shocked look on his face.”
He adds: “You can see the shadow of the cab as the lorry is turning behind me. The camera doesn't quite do it justice but it was very close. The lorry didn't pause or slow at all during its turn.”
Dan B emailed the video to the company. They acknowledged receipt and asked for the exact location, informing Dan they would get back to him with their response.
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.
Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.
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16 comments
I'm not going to defend bad driving and I'm here because I am a cyclist but...
Many cyclists (and especially it would seem those with cameras) seem to think that everyone else should look out for them rather than recognising that others might just not see them or not expect them to be moving so fast. Look after yourself, give way if you need to not just when you should, and you will often avoid these situations and live longer.
That was a bit sketchy.
The rider is pushing along at a fast pace, at night, he would be better prepared for this type of poor driving if he moderated his speed at tad. We should always pull up and castigate poor driving however.
The truck should of waited a moment before moving across.
I agree, I would rather get home and be able to complain about the idiot driver than be laying in an ambulance.
That's a classic of two objects on a converging course whose bearing relative to each other is constant - the driver keeps moving and the cyclist remains obscured by the A pillar of the cab and it all nearly goes very wrong, because the driver kept moving and didn't look properly.
Why was the video stopped before undertaking the bus?
How did you know he wasn't turning left?
I don't. The video was stopped and thusly inconclusive. Whether turning left or going straight on, the rider was moving at a faster rate than the bus. So I demand to know why the video was stopped at this point. I am also interested in other videos that the rider has that show possible poor riding.
Thsi sort of thing should be stopped, and stopped NOW!
I don't understand the constant talk of undertaking when the lane to the right is queuing traffic.
Undertaking is when in free flowing traffic you pass a slower moving vehicle on the left.
It is not proceeding in lane one when lane two is stopped.
Or are busses using bus lanes always guilty of undertaking? What about when the right hand lane is for turning right and has a separate red light, should the cars in lane two wait when their light us green because to do otherwise would be undertaking?
The rule against not undertaking is because cars may move to the left without checking, clearly that is not going to happen here as the bus has just moved out if the left lane because it is going straight on.
Passing queuing traffic is not overtaking/undertaking.
Bikes can filter on the left and the right hand side of traffic and don't actually undertake.
Anyway in this case because he was cycling in the lane with an arrow pointing left we have to presume he was going left.
Why was the video stopped before he got home and got in the shower?
Because it was fucking irrelevant? Pardon my French, but wtf has any subsequent action, whether assumed by you or not, to do with the truck pulling out? Are you the truck driver?
We have a winner. It's got fuck all (French pardoned) to do with it, but admit it, the replies are funny.
Are you picking up truck drivers?
The point about the shadow is a little much, angle of lights behind etc can massively distort this. As is the norm, dick move is by the lorry but there is the option to stop when you see him pulling out. Being alive beats being in the right...
Cyclist did nothing wrong. Just like the rider in the vid, I'd have reasonably assumed the lorry was going to stop. Reaction & stopping time was very limited.
And as for this "being alive beats being in the right" nonsense that gets used all the time to make cyclists responsible for bad driving, how about "looking where you're fucking going beats driving like a dick".
Don't confuse me with the victim blaming types. There was a time I'd probably have carried on shaking my head at the lorry and I may do again, and I'm 100% with you on the actions of the driver.
The "nonesense" though I have first hand experience of. I once positioned myself in primary in the roundabout lane for straight on and left (paint arrows and everything) and was aware of a driver in the turn right lane that I was 95% sure was going to try and go straight on. I held my lane, he hit me, I was right and positioned right. However, 1 tonne car versus me and it hurt. To be fair to the driver he did check on me after checking his left wing.
This may explain why when I am passing a side street and seeing a driver not looking like they're paying attention to the junction, I may err on the side of covering the brakes...
He's just using the shadow to try to convey how close the cab was.
I suggest when he realised what was happening, had he stopped, he would have stopped right where the truck's cab was going, hence having to take the decision to continue and hope for the best.
Only way he could have done any better would have been to bunny-hop onto the kerb, but he shouldn't have to ride illegally to avoid the danger he's been put in by a truck driver who hasn't bothered to look.