Near Miss of the Day 835: Company promises to "reinforce" safety message with 600 drivers after cyclist close pass

When the road.cc reader who submitted today's Near Miss of the Day was close passed at speed by a driver on a stretch of road with double solid white lines they did not have to look very hard to find some contact details.

See the driver was behind the wheel of their company's vehicle, a Vauxhall Corsa covered with Verisure's branding...

 Sending the video to the smart alarms home security company the road.cc reader pointed out the irony of their website stating "you believe everyone has the right to feel safe and secure". 

"I did not feel very 'safe and secure' as your driver passed me, without their offside wheels even crossing the central reservation, I don't think they were keeping themselves 'safe and secure' travelling at that speed, into a blind corner," the reader told Verisure.

> Near Miss of the Day 834: Punishment pass on cyclist lands driver in court

The reader also passed on the relevant Highway Code advice to leave at least 1.5 metres when overtaking cyclists at speeds of up to 30mph, and give them more space when overtaking at higher speeds.

What's more the overtake occurred approaching a blind bend on a stretch of road with solid white lines communicating to drivers to not cross or straddle it unless it is safe and you need to enter adjoining premises or a side road.

As per Rule 129 of the Highway Code (backed up by the 1988 Road Traffic Act): "You may cross the line if necessary, provided the road is clear, to pass a stationary vehicle, or overtake a pedal cycle, horse or road maintenance vehicle, if they are travelling at 10 mph (16 km/h) or less."

"We are taking this situation very seriously"

In response to the email Verisure thanked the reader for the footage and said the company had identified the driver and "conducted a disciplinary meeting", after which it was decided to "give him a warning reminding him the rules when he is driving".

"I'm sorry if your experience with Verisure was bad. We are taking this situation very seriously and we will reinforce the message to our 600 drivers. Also, we are piloting a new tool who will help us to monitor better the bad behaviour of our drivers."

> 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