Near Miss of the Day 147: Combine harvester driver squeezes cyclists off road

Funny how when he comes to pass the car those big wheels can go on the grass, but they can't when passing cyclists.

This is why I ride with a mirror. It looks naff, but gives me more time to either take primary or pull over when approached by something this dangerous. 

That said, I don’t think anything can excuse the risk this farm employee took in passing the tandem so closely with such a big vehicle with exposed wheels. 

If you consider it in terms of industrial safety, no safety manager would sign off a risk assessment for that manoeuvre. If the combine was being used for work purposes, this ought to be documented as a 'near miss' and some action taken by the employer to investigate the conduct of the employee and review the company's operating procedures and training material.

At weekends, most people in the countrside are out and about for fairly leisurely purporses, so I take primarly position and let them pass when it's safest for me. The exception I apply is for agricultural vehicles where tractor drivers are in the middle of their working day. As soon as I safely can do so, I pull over.

That said, it is always a two-way deal. I still expect tractor drivers to give me room, to slow right down, not to be talking on their mobiles or toking on a spliff. Originating from a rural part of Wales, I've witnessed all of the above.

+1 on comments about 'generally' allowing a vehicle to overtake, except in this instance as others have pointed out, there was no-where to safely do that, and the amazing thing to me is that the harvester was only going the same speed as the cyclists. This really was stupid and dangerous driving on the part of the harvester (driver), especially as he was then holding up the cyclists only a few seconds later.

Pendantry alert! It may be a harvester but it's no combined harvester. Possible forage harvester, the cutter bar is too narrow.

As a rule I am more than happy to cooperate in getting faster road users past safely and off up the road on country lanes. If nothing else for the next 1/2 mile or so they are an effective rolling chicane slowing vehicles coming towards me.

This video seems like a completely pointless overtake of a marginally slower road user especially as the inevitable happens in meeting a vehicle coming the other way at which point the combine is holding up the cyclist.

I would guess that the owner of the combine would not be happy at all to see such a valuable piece of equipment being put at risk of being damaged by being driven in that manner. Let alone potential cost to the business in not being able to harvest crops if it were out of commission.

Oh come on, there is literally nowhere on the footage supplied where it would be safe to pull in anyway!

And I know nobody can answer this, but what would be the odds on the harvester driver himself pulling over for a faster vehicle? Not great, I don't suppose...

Surely the main point was that the vehicle was barely travelling faster than the bikes, so the overtake was unnecessarily risky. I get stopping if there is a clear speed differential.

Our group do the same, but it's not always instant as those criticising the rider are suggesting...

i like to pull over for tractors, combines, muck spreaders (always pull over for muck spreaders!) always get a cheery wave, or a farmer'y tip of their imaginery hat. 

Wow, it seems they're all out for half term!

How do you know how long the combine had been following for?

Are you suggesting any vehicle should immediately jump off the road if they suspect a faster one is behind them - it'll be interesting on the M6 tonight!

There's nothing more likely to create enmity between the cycling community and countryside folk than two clowns on a tandem who can't spare a few seconds to pull over for combine harvester. So what if it's national cycling route?

Many of my local routes stick to narrow, country lanes frequented by large agricultural and forestry vehicles - for the 10 seconds it would take to pull alongside the verge with a foot down, let the vehicle pass and carry on without the stress. Not excusing the overtake, but sometimes making concessions to keep yourself safe is the better option.

A bad pass is exactly that.  There are some vehicles on narrower roads, especially in farming country, that I will indicate and pull over for.  A combine harvester would be one such vehicle