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news
Near Miss of the Day 303: Glancing blow but police won’t even speak to the driver
This near miss looks about as close as they come to us – indeed Phil, the cyclist involved, told us that the rear door handle actually clipped his hip. Sussex Police apparently didn’t think it was worth speaking to the driver though.
The incident happened a couple of weeks ago in Lindfield, West Sussex.
“The Mercedes rear door handle clipped my hip and I thought I was off,” said Phil. “This has certainly made me think twice about cycling on UK roads.
“I reported it to Sussex police's operation crackdown with the result of: ‘No action will be taken but the report will be kept and possibly reviewed if the driver is reported again.’
“So this driver does not even get educated on how his driving nearly killed a vulnerable road user? Hey ho, perhaps I should take up knitting.”
> What to do next if you’ve been involved in a road traffic collision
> 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.
Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.
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29 comments
The cyclist appears to be riding at least 20mph, and at such speed would need to command more than just 75cm from the gutter. He was not weaving, he was navigating a safe line. There were several 'Slow' markers in the road, which suggests the advised speed is less than 40mph. Therefore the speed difference between him and someone overtaking him should appear not much more than a fast running pace. It wasn't. That car was driving too fast, and should not even attempted an overtake. On the rare occasions I use my car, which is quite a large SUV because why else would I have a car except to transport lots of things I can't move by bike, I give cyclists I encounter the space and time I would appreciate if it was me in front. This has often gotten me very close tailgaters, horn beeps, one finger salutes/nescafe handshakes etc. because I did not make a dangerous pass of the cyclist in order to allow the impatient tw@t behind me to make faster progress.
And you know what..even with my OCD consideration for cyclists, pedestrians waiting to cross, learner drivers etc... the delays in my journey are never attributable to them, it will always be the volume of cars on the road that delays me. Cyclists are insignificant delays to any journey ..even the tw@t that overtakes everything and speeds everywhere ends up stuck in the same line of traffic as me.
"the roads around that location are too narrow to accomodate modern traffic" - Then 'modern traffic' shouldn't use it.
The cyclist was all over the place........you can get as technical and scientific as you like but just another cyclist too full of his own self importance..........the roads around that location are too narrow to accomodate modern traffic dictating a need for reasonableness and patience all round.......unfortunately just as many cyclists as motorists fail the reasonablness and patience test..........
Did I watch the same video ?? From 14 seconds to 17 seconds the cyclist is riding in a straight line in the middle of the lane on a straight piece of road. The Mercedes either couldn't be bothered to turn the wheel or thought some punishment was in order. Plenty of time to abort or turn the wheel if he wanted to. The opposite lane was easily wide enough to give enough space.
The Highway Code instructs drivers to keep clear while overtaking. 100% the driver's fault. Time to complain to the Police ...
I now ride with a red plastic rod sticking out to the right from my saddle bars. On the end is a sharp implement. Anyone coming too close will damage their car when they collide with me.
Very poor attempt.
If you had bothered to pay attention, you would have realised the cyclist's speed and hence the need for the driver to demonstrate a ' need for reasonableness and patience all round'.
A cyclist can use any part of the highway. A driver must move over to the other lane to pass and not endanger the cyclist.
It doesn't matter where he was positioned
Given that this was an assault with a deadly weapon, the police have got it very, very wrong. If the driver used a knife or a gun, they would have had squad cars and armed officers raiding his house, but it's only a car, and it was a merc, so obviously posh. They might have done something if it was a clapped out fiesta.
In the next overtake that car adopts the full width of the opposite carriageway, that's what the offending driver could have done.
Attempting an overtake when the road is bending around to the right so obscuring the drivers view of any oncoming traffic just adds to the dangerous and incompetent driving.
And a large "SLOW" in big white letters on the road, but perhaps they're just for cyclists who haven't read the HC.
As I see it, the cyclist moved into the path of the car, there was nothing ( other than jamming on the anchors, which would have almost certainly been worse ) the driver could have done there. They were committed to the pass, and were actually giving enough passing room. That’s just ‘one of those things’ unfortunately. A bad set of circumstances, and poor luck, rather than a poor pass per se. I think that’s how the plod might have seen it too.
Wrong website. You are looking for the daily mail
The cyclist did no such thing. It looks like a downhill section so the cyclist took the middle to allow for movement either side of at speed as unlike cars, the slightest pothole can take you out. He barely deviated from that central line in the lead up to that section. We are told a minimum of 1.5 m and recommended to give as much space as a small car when passing cyclists and that Beemer did neither.
Seems to me that the Police don’t know the HC and the laws in this case.
No, the rider was already in that path (otherwise known as " the lane"), by dint of being in front of them. The rider is travelling at a fair old lick. There is no way I'd entertain the idea of overtaking at this point - why would I? making normal progress, so wait until it's safe. two HWC rules at least are in breach
163 - give motorcyclists, cyclists and horse riders at least as much room as you would when overtaking a car (there's even a handy photo to remove all doubt of what that means)
166 - DO NOT overtake if there is any doubt, or where you cannot see far enough ahead to be sure it is safe. For example, when you are approaching a corner or bend
This was dangerous driving and put the life of the rider, and oncoming traffic, at significant risk
You state:
Utterly avoidable, with the rider in no way at fault. Except maybe for not paying road tax.
Which is why the recomended safe passing distance is a minimum 1.5m to allow for the cyclist to make make small deviations. This is horrendous driving demonstrating a complete lack of forward planning and no accomodation for error.
Worse still is that too many people, including those who have the unenviable job of knocking on people's doors to tell them a relative has been killed or seriously injured in a road traffic collision, think this poor standard is both normal and acceptable.
You need to contact admin to get your username changed to dreadful judge.
At the point the car overtook, the cyclist was in the middle of the lane. I'm not about to debate the rights or wrongs of cycling in the middle of the lane. But I would observe that it is guaranteed to raise the hackles of some motorists.
Road users who are unable to contain their emotions and respond viscerally to the point of endangering the life of others need to be reeducated. No matter you think the other guy is a total prick, you don't risk their life to prove your point.
So the fact that the police think there is nothing deserving their attention here is worrying.
A car that was coming from the same road as me (I was directly in front of it) tried to overtake me on a roundabout just outside Brighton. It was the middle of the day and bright sunshine. He left hooked me.
When end the police appeared his excuse of smidsy was accepted at face value. He didn’t even get a Follow up warning.
Thanks sussex police.
How can blindness to be an acceptable mitigation for dangerous driving?
Standard response to SMIDSY should be a mandatory eye test, with the licence suspended until satisfactory results are documented.
Northamptonshite Police Force are similar in their approach to close passes, lodged two with them and heard nothing back!
Maybe we should start listing those Police forces who actually give a sh!t about cyclists, cannot imagine it is a long list unfortunately.
It's sickening - a complete lottery as to how any given police force will respond. I'd love to see a Gina Miller type approach - ie someone sufficiently well-funder to sue the relevant Police force in a high court and demand a national standard. Where are the closely-passed-hedge-fund-mangers when you need one?
That's horrendous.
Probably a copper then. Or family of.
I think I'll transform my contracting company into a parking enforcement company. I'll then have DVLA access.
Formal complaint to the Police required.
I hate shit drivers like that who with no one coming the other way refuse to give proper room.
Totally agree, a failure to investigate a faulure to stop after a road collision with a vulnerable road user is uttelry unacceptable.
Had he scratched your car and left, I'm pretty sure they'd be in touch with him for failing to stop based on having footage.
Is a hit a near miss
Well held Phil and in a strange sort of a way I hope the driver does do something again that'll bring this back up and they throw the book at them.
Isn't this #303? #302 was the van yesterday wasn't it?
I ride nearer the kerb than the OP, maybe I need to take primary more.
This has to be worth a complaint to the police, they should at least pay the driver a visit and tell him how bad his driving is. The place for the over take looked a bit sus to me too.
Twitter tends to make companies sit up and notice, might do the same for the police.
You're not wrong. There was a tagging typo in the 'real' 302, which has also been corrected.
Cheers.
Honestly, you’d get a better response if we had cyclists listed as an endangered species and put Greenpeace in charge of policing. If the police aren’t interested in doing their job, time they found a new one.
Fine riding and camera work there Phil.
Anyone want to tell us how riding in primary would have prevented that?