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news
Near Miss of the Day 847: Careless caravan close call causes cyclists concern
It's been a while since we shared a Near Miss of the Day, but not for a lack of submissions, bear with us while we work through your videos...
Today's comes from a reader in the New Forest who suffered a close call with a driver towing a caravan on Boxing Day.
"As we were approaching the town of Lyndhurst on the Lyndhurst Road this Land Rover towing a caravan came flying by at 50 mph," road.cc reader Laurie told us.
"Gave us quite a fright and almost sent my friend into the gutter. Needless to say, we turned back to the New Forest gravel paths as quickly as possible! Reported to Hampshire Police. Fingers crossed they do something."
Those with good memories might remember a shocking incident we reported back in the summer which prompted an investigation from Dorset Police after footage emerged showing a collision involving a motorist towing a caravan and a cyclist near Bournemouth Airport.
The collision came at the end of the video, moments after one of the other cyclists in the group's rear-facing camera had recorded the driver apparently sounding their horn as they overtook the group, who were travelling at close to 40km/h.
As the group filtered to the front of the queue at the traffic lights, and past the motorist, one rider could be heard saying "I got him on video", while someone else is heard saying: "F****** idiot".
Then, as the group rolled away from the stop, the driver continued forward closely behind the penultimate rider, hitting their back wheel. Dorset Police confirmed the cyclist suffered minor injuries but did not require hospital treatment.
In the footage, after colliding with the cyclist, the caravan-towing motorist was seen driving over the rider's bike and out of shot. It is not clear if the motorist stopped at the scene of the incident.
> 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
Dan is the road.cc news editor and joined in 2020 having previously written about nearly every other sport under the sun for the Express, and the weird and wonderful world of non-league football for The Non-League Paper. Dan has been at road.cc for four years and mainly writes news and tech articles as well as the occasional feature. He has hopefully kept you entertained on the live blog too.
Never fast enough to take things on the bike too seriously, when he's not working you'll find him exploring the south of England by two wheels at a leisurely weekend pace, or enjoying his favourite Scottish roads when visiting family. Sometimes he'll even load up the bags and ride up the whole way, he's a bit strange like that.
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Hi everyone,
I am the rider who recorded this footage. Just to clear anything up based on what some others were saying in the comments.
This was a very fast road (national speed limit) with very blinding sunlight ahead. We were directed onto this road following our *ahem* trusty Garmins while out trying to stay in country lanes. The reason we were not more dominant on the lane is due to the fact we were on a slight incline so we were trying to be courteous to let the queue of traffic behind us past, and prior to this particular footage of the caravan which was incredibly dangerous, people were still overtaking a little too close for comfort. Given the blinding sunlight and the speed at which cars could travel on this road, and our speed, and the lack of means of safely passing, I think the feeling was one of not wanting to be hit by someone who had 'had enough' of us and decided to punish us and then claim they couldn't see us. You know how irrational some people get when behind the wheel.
Not to mention that we were trying to allow cars as much space as possible given the traffic.
The great irony is after we got to the nearest exit and went back into the quiet forest roads we did get directed back to this road again further up and found it gridlocked for miles into the village of Lyndhurst and found ourselves cycling past all the people who had overtaken us 😅 The caravan got away though. Otherwise they would have gotten a good yelling at.
Ride safe! And never ride without a camera!
Ride safe! And never ride without a camera!
Don't allow yourself false hope! Even with a camera, if the police are hostile to cyclists they will just ignore the incident. This bloke was in a vehicle which nearly hit me when I was already on a mini-roundabout by cutting across to the right of the roundabout paint. There was then a tirade of abuse by the nutter boyfriend of the driver on the classic 'blame the victim' theme popularised by the police. Then they drive off the wrong way across the roundabout again. Police instantly NFA'd it before they could have even spoken to the driver- normally they don't respond at all!
http://pride.cc/incident/ve17wzv_insignia_nearheadonroadrage/
Well done for staying upright and surviving the experience. I find the level of victim-blaming on here to be appalling. Particularly, frankly, Hirsute's suggestion that you should get a radar so that you can anticipate the reckless driving of others and dive into the hedge at a moment's notice if needed. They are usually much more sensible.
I hope that other road users and the posters on here are more considerate of you in future.
I'd hardly call Hirsute's comments victim blaming. They're not excusing the driver or saying the cyclist caused the incident.
Even the highway code has now been updated to encourage cyclists to take the lane in certain circumstances.
Sure. When someone is close passed, you lot are all "should have been riding further out, should have had a light in daytime, should have had radar and dived in the hedge(!)" But when someone suggests that wearing a helmet could have helped mitigate a brain injury, all hell breaks loose.
Complete farce.
I don't have radar but using a bar-end mirror can be helpful in getting a glimpse of what is behind you when turning to look might not be wise. This has often taken the surprise out of a vehicle passing closely followed by an unexpected trailer. Electric vehicles can often be near-silent so useful here as well.
Hardly a farce. It's unhelpful to suggest a cycling helmet could mitigate a brain injury in a collision with a vehicle, because they're not designed for that. I'd rather ride defensively and assertively to try and prevent a collision, than hope a plastic lid will save me from injury.
I have adapted my riding and become far more defensive having seen many of these NMotD videos and reading the comments. Am I victim blaming myself?! Nope, just being realistic that there are crap drivers out there and if there are things I can do to mitigate their idiocy, then I'll do it.
As levestane says, a mirror can help take the surprise out of a close pass. I find the combination of a radar, mirror and defensive road position means I almost never get a pass I wasn't expecting.
I think you might be putting your helmet on wrong. It's not supposed to be strapped so far south.
You've got a bee in your bonnet about helmets haven't you?
Sharing tips and strategies to help avoid getting hit by poor drivers is helpful to other cyclists whereas droning on about how helmets save lives is merely a tactic to move blame from the driver onto the cyclist. Helmets do have their uses, but they're not designed nor sold to be able to cope with vehicle collisions - they're of most use to protect against skull fractures in low speed impacts (e.g. mountain biking) but not especially useful in preventing damage to the brain.
I've got a bee in my bonnet about the rediculous double standards in here. Suggest that someone buys a radar so that they can dive into a hedge for their own safety, and it's situation normal. Suggest that someone wears a bit of polystyrene that might* protect their noggin, and everyone loses their minds!
*Note the use of might here, it's an important word in this sentence.
I'm a fan of the Cateye BM-45 handlebar mirror myself - perfect for drop handlebars. Once positioned correctly (you can easily perform minor adjustments whilst riding if you take care), it's just a quick glance down to see what's behind you and if it's a good time to pull out into another lane or overtake or some such.
The issue some of us on here have with bike helmets is that they are continually brought up as some kind of miraculous solution to road danger when (as St Chris puts it) they're not even in the top ten of things that keep cyclists safe. It's a common theme that non-cyclists will shout abuse at cyclists for not wearing a bike helmet and call them idiots, when it's all just marketing bullshit and a way to deflect from actually making the roads safer for cyclists.
It's gotten so bad that the courts will assign blame to a cyclist for getting driven into, just because they weren't wearing a helmet which is of course ridiculous - a helmet does not prevent crashes and there's disputable evidence to suggest that they may make crashes more likely (either from drivers giving helmetted cyclists less room or from cyclists taking more risks as they think their helmet provides sufficient protection).
But the comments on here are assigning blame to the cyclist for getting nearly driven into because they weren't far enough out from the kerb, didn't have a rear light on in daytime, didn't have a mirror, didn't have radar. You're increasing the standard required by cyclists to be considered 'safe' by doing that. It's disgusting.
There is one cause of that very, very dangerous close pass. The amoeba behind the steering wheel.
From just a quick scan over the comments, they don't seem to be apportioning blame, but offering advice (in my opinion at least). There's certainly a good point to be made about not requiring cyclists to be expert in roadcraft just to be able to not get hit and I completely agree about the issue being the driver.
I think it's useful to discuss lane positioning though and I vary my position a lot based on local knowledge (e.g. corners that get cut). I find that I'm more likely to cycle in the gutter if I'm travelling slower than other traffic and I want them to overtake (e.g. dual carriageway), but will become more assertive at roundabouts, junctions etc.
If we don't watch nmotd and consider what could have been done differently then that's missed opportunity. It was mungecrundle who said (based on motorcycling training) - if you are moving there is nearly always something you could have done, if you are stationary there might have been something you could have done.
Roadcraft is for all users including peds. Once you walk on country lanes, you soon realise that the rule of keeping on the right is not the best place in every situation and it can be safer to move to the left for say a right hand bend.
I certainly drive differently from my younger days and take a lot more care on country bends to slow on the basis that there will be an idiot coming too fast the otherway.
Lane positioning is important because of the group of 'unaware incompetents' (or similar) as one of the Ians put. The idea there are a group of drivers who don't observe and are just not aware of their lack of skills. You don't want to open up a gap they think that they can get through
* even then no guarantee (course or points for this one below)
Clearly some see this as victim blaming but to me it's taking control of situations to mitigate the risk to all. It is also the response to those who say phone use is ok or speeding - they don't take account of the rest of the road users who are reducing the overall risk and mitgating their behaviour.
*
Good point about cutting corners.
This cycle lane on the Warwick Road near Hatton seems to have been installed with the explicit purpose of protecting cyclists on a long left hand bend with restricted visibility.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/WHmh6NTF7j2N9PR5A
I was thinking of this corner on Coronation Rd in Bristol: https://goo.gl/maps/3oKevqWTJm7MyX5RA
The angle of the corner almost entices motorists to take a racing line through it, so I highly recommend getting into primary before it.
As I already wrote it was "somewhat tongue in cheek"
As HP writes
"Sharing tips and strategies to help avoid getting hit by poor drivers is helpful to other cyclists whereas droning on about how helmets save lives is merely a tactic to move blame from the driver onto the cyclist."
Defensive roadcraft is going to be far more useful than a helmet because you will avoid the scenario where a helmet might mitigate the problem.
If it's a radar you're mounting what about defensive weaponry too (grab some before it gets sent east)? That could remove the hazard from people, rather than forcing people to avoid the hazard.
TBH hitting someone from behind when in a motor vehicle sounds like something that ought to lead straight to suspension of licence at least, simply for the protection of all road users.
I hope you wear a helmet when you dive into that hedge.
You understand it is not a literal hedge.
Ok so in all seriousness, what you said was that it gives you time to "adjust your position".
What did you mean by that? If someone came hammering up behind you to squeeze through a space that isn't there, what should you do?
As far as I can tell, you have three options.
1. Move to the left to get out of their way; not a lot of space in this instance as you can see - unless you jump into the verge/barrier.
2. Move to the right and get hit by said vehicle.
3. Stay where you are, in which case, What's the point of the radar/mirror?
So how exactly does this wonderful data, be it from a mirror or a radar, help a cyclist?
When riding into low sun, there's the fear a driver might not see you. It's therefore valid to think riding very close to the edge of the road will be safer, as it's less likely you'll be hit.
However, you are much more likely to be seen if you are riding in the centre of the lane. Riding near the side means you're not where drivers are looking (squinting?) and can get lost in shadows or badly contrasted against the background clutter of the (non-literal) hedgerow.
I take the view that most drivers don't want to actually hit me, that is a low risk. But there's quite a high risk that they are not paying attention or looking properly and might not see me.
A radar & mirror enables me to ride in a very prominent position to make myself as visible as possible - but crucially, the risk of getting hit is no worse than riding at the very left edge, as I can watch approaching vehicles in the mirror to make sure they're slowing.
If they are not slowing, I will move my position further out to the right then back again (the human eye can discern a lateral movement more easily than a looming one). I then have the option to move to that very left edge position if I think they're really not going to slow down and yes, even take a dive over the barrier in the worst case.
The radar is a nice-to-have that means I don't need to constantly glance in the mirror to keep an eye on what's coming up behind. It sometimes even warns me of a vehicle that is not yet visible in the mirror, as it's approaching around a bend - this typically happens when there's a nice flat chevron sign or a wall, fortuitously placed for the radar signal to bounce off.
In what way does a radar and mirror enable you to do this? You weren't able to ride in a prominent position without a radar and/or mirror? How does a radar and/or mirror help?
I would not feel safe riding in such a promient position without full knowledge of what traffic is approaching from behind. That is what the radar/mirror combo enables.
With that knowledge, I can take an active role in managing my visibility and position amongst the traffic around me. It also takes any surprise out of the equation, which as you say yourself, can be dangerous.
Can you elaborate on what you mean by this please? Do you weave about to present a bigger target or something?
He did answer this initially.
So, when a car is approaching quickly from behind, the recommendation is to move out (further into their path) and then back in again? I.e weave about a bit? You can't be serious.
Because then they're more likely to notice you and maybe move out a bit? Sure - why not?
At a range of 140m there is enough time
I got a bloke to abort his overtake doing 40 in a 30 because I had time to turn round and gesture a stop signal.
Haha, good one. Make it appear* that you're a completely incompetent road user that can't even cycle in a straight line, and you think that incompetent drivers are less likely to close-pass you? Pull the other one.
*Although based on some of the comments on this thread it may not merely be an appearance of incompetence.
This one would be a good one for the Real HWC thread. Rule 413 if while cycling you think you are about to be close-passed, weave about the road a bit as though drunk - the driver is then able to claim you were incompetent and completely excuse their own reckless driving.
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