Near Miss of the Day 435: Close pass followed by right hook

Regular readers of our Near Miss of the Day feature will know that we sometimes post submissions received from overseas - and that's what we have today, with a video highlighting a close pass and a left hook that one rider received in the space of just 10 minutes.

It was sent in by Phil, who lives in Thornton, New South Wales. He told us: "It is nigh on impossible to get the police to take any action - the onus of proof is on the cyclist, and video footage isn’t enough.

"BicycleNSW has guidelines from police as to what evidence is required, and even providing that (which means revisiting the location with a tape measure and identifying how close it was from distinctive road markings, if any and providing photos as supporting evidence) they are still reluctant to do anything.

"The standard of proof is so high it precludes getting anything done. Unless there is actual contact there is little prospect of action against the driver. The UK is far more progressive than we are in this regard.

"The road rules were altered when the minimum passing distance rule was introduced, to provide exceptions to certain rules so that drivers could give cyclists adequate room," Phil added. "This includes being allowed to cross double lines, painted traffic islands etc."

> 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