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news
Near Miss of the Day 890: Scaffolding truck driver makes very close pass on cyclist
Is there anything worse as a cyclist than being squeezed in the inside of a lorry with railings to your left, so you have no way of getting out of what could very much be a life-threatening situation?
No. It is honestly the most frightening situation you could be in.
And it’s exactly the one that road.cc reader Daniel found himself in one morning while cycling on Crouch Hill in London.
“Scaffolders are rushing to work,” he told us. “In my opinion, the most dangerous lorries on the road.
“Squeezed between the truck and the guardrail, there was no room for escape, there was no room for mistake.
“It was a difficult situation for me. A less experienced cyclist could have been in big trouble,” he added.
“I was frightened. Reported to the police. Email sent to the company with no response so far,” 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
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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36 comments
The offence occurred 3 weeks and 2 days ago. We're told it was reported to the police, but we're not told of any response by the police. This is number 890 in this series, and things are not improving and may be getting worse, with more frequent close-passing, often by streams of cars one after the other. It's almost never worth communicating with the company- there is almost never a response (as in this case) and if there is it's the routine 'we take this very seriously and we're taking action but we're not going to tell you what it was'. That means 'we had a good laugh about it with the driver but we've written down that we had a serious talk with him and we know the police aren't going to do anything anyway'. Does anybody here seriously believe that this driver has any intention of driving differently in the future if we find, as I expect, that the police took no significant action?
There is another factor which even I have only just discovered- you have seen this only too often, but the case is wending it's weary way through the Information Rights courts with the objective of finding out what the Lancashire Constabulary actually did after they emailed that they were 'taking action'. It is my conviction that they did nothing at all. The point is that the courts are insisting on describing this as an 'alleged offence' despite having the video and the police 'action letter' which describes the bus driver as 'below the acceptable standard'. The conclusion is that any of these offences which don't end up in a 'proper court' are forever 'alleged offences' which enable the police to claim that some KSI-ing driver has a 'clean past record'
A little bit of wee came out and that was just watching the video!
..
Why is it you need 1.5mts if anyone passes you but when a bike passes other traffic or is weaving between vehicles you only seem to give others a few CMS , and no space all all is needed when forcing children to jump into the road to get out of the way of a bike doing 30 mph on the pavement as I saw last week . It would seem I want my cake and eat it applies here
Cool story bro, thanks for sharing.
Something happened to me last week - I can't remember what but it definitely did because I told my wife. But she can't remember either. It might have involved cake.
I hope not! Not being able to remember may be a side effect though? Terrible havoc it caused in the society 90s...
First bit - physics
Second bit - bullsh*t
I can't find the clip on Youtube (I think Cycling Mikey did it) that shows the difference putting your hand on table then hitting the table near your hand with a hammer, then swapping: hammer on table and hitting table with hand.
Perfectly explains this situation.
I mean, have some common sense. Why do pedestrians walk between cars with sometimes a 10cm in static traffic to cross the road but get quite narky when cars nearly hit them going at 30mph as they blow through a red light?
Why is it far more serious when cars don't obey red lights vs cyclists?
When someone blows past me at 50mph they will seriously hurt me if they hit me. When I blow past static or slow moving traffic a few MPH faster than they are moving and I hit them the injury will again, be entirely on me but it also is unlikely to be serious.
This is just bizarre car logic that the twats that nearly hit you use to justify their actions. They want you to behave like a car when it suits them and behave like a bike when it suits them. They use completely false equivolence to compare the two.
I completely agree that some people on bikes are an absolute menace but those people are in the tiny minority. I saw a deliveroo rider absolutely flying through a pedestrianised area of town the other day and I'm certain he was riding like a cunt on purpose. He came within about 6 inches of a woman about to cross the road and I would wager he was doing at least 20MPH. He flew onto the pavement and into the pedestrianised area and if she had moved at the wrong time he would have hit her and done her a lot of damage.
He was cycling like a complete twat and should have his bike taken and he should be fined. There is a hierarchy on the roads for a reason and its based on vulnerability. Thats the reason bikes need to be more careful around pedestrians and cars need to be more careful around bikes and pedestrians.
No point replying to an attention seeking troll.
Squirrel!
If he doesn't lose his license from that overtake the mind boggles. That was so close to killing someone.
Yet another absolutely pointless, dangerous cycle 'lane' unfit for purpose. Where are cyclists supposed ride once that crossing reached, and afterwards? How the hell does that sort of dangerous nonsense encourage bike use?
I know that hill very well. I used to commute it for years. I had plenty of similar close misses. Some I reported but nothing came of it. If you notice there is a very narrow cycle lane which disappears at the top. It was crucial to remain in primary position all the way - which took stamina and guts as the incline was very steep. Anyway, I ended up avoiding Crouch hill and taking an alternative, longer route after being hit twice and chased, spat at, hooted at a million times, shouted at and numerous unpleasant other incidents.
Trademark infringement
Unable to identify the driver
Cyclist intimidated driver by shouting
Looking for trouble
Road tax
You missed out:
cyclists need number plates
My initial reaction is thank god Daniel is in one piece, not ripped to shreds between the railings and the truck.
I'm glad that it has been reported to the police and the company, and frankly, that driver needs to lose his licence. If that means he loses his job, tough.
Please keep us updated.
Of course as we all know, the driver will not lose his licence and very probably won't face any action from either the police or his company.
Now that I've said this...
I don't know why it is but scaffolding lorry drivers are (in my experience) undoubtedly the worst and most dangerous commercial vehicle drivers in London, I would reckon about 30% of my scary encounters with large vehicles each year are with them. The one illustrated above is a real shocker, surely even the most one-eyed police assessor would have to take further action.
By the way, can we lay off the usual "should've been in primary" criticisms on this one, for those who don't know it Crouch Hill has an average grade of 4.4% ramping up to almost 10% maximum, so for the average commuter who might be climbing at 10 km/h or less taking primary there at rush-hour really isn't a practical consideration, however much we have the right to do so.
Nah! No bike was seen in the video, so no close pass happened, innit? Moreover, m'lud, my client drove outside the bounds indicated by the cycle lane markings painted on the road.
Will be fascinated to see if London plod come up with the same excuse as Thames Valley Police
Well I hope they don't, that was a very nasty pass and I think the Met are now one of the better (if not the best) force for dealing with these sort of reports.
I would say that one difference here is the camera is helmet mounted and there is a point in the footage where the cyclist turns their head. This gives the viewer a much better perspective of the length of the lens and the real field of view than a fixed camera. So seeing a part of the bike in the footage would not add anything in this case.
the really crappy thing is if that lorry passed 2 secs earlier whilst Daniel was still in that bit of paint, thats probably exactly the excuse they police would then use.
I noticed also the scaffolder repeats the same style of move on the cyclist up ahead too
Scaffold drivers tend to be scaffolders first and drivers second.
No excuse for driving like a cocksocket though, as clearly the case in this video.
Drivers like that need to be removed from the roads ... however we all know that the likelihood of that is slim to almost non-existent; unless of course they do it to a police officer, and then every book going will be thrown.
There has been an incident in Ashford, Kent recently where a policeman was hit by a driver, it seems deliberately. I only know what has been reported in the local rag which isn't great but it seems the driver is to be charged with attempted murder and not the usual causing injury by careless / dangerous driving.
If motorists didn't want me taking primary they'd build me a cycle lane.
Clearly I'm not saying you can't take primary or shouldn't, I'm just saying that the circumstances of that particular road make it very difficult to do so without experiencing enormous aggression and probably increased close passing.
Scaffolding companies do seem to come up before the traffic commissioners more often than "proper" hauliers. Part of the reason is that they are on a restricted operator's license, which means they don't need a qualified transport manager. The main reason is probably that they don't see driving a lorry as their job.
Same goes for other semi-professional drivers, like all craftsmen using a vehicle to get to and from their jobs with their materials. In my experience they're the worst as regards the number of offenses per head (they're probably always late, either at the depot, the site or the dinner table/in front of the tv).
Professional driver's (driving their actual and only job) offenses annoy me more because they really should know better and be held to a higher standard by everyone responsible, but they're also rarer on the whole.
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