Near Miss of the Day 332: Oncoming driver *skims* cyclist without slowing

Today’s near miss is about as close as they come. Driving on a narrow country road, the motorist appears to make no effort to slow down or in any other way make allowances for a large group of cyclists who were coming the other way on a Sunday club run.

The incident occurred on Messuage Lane in East Cheshire in November last year.

Jeanette, the cyclist who was skimmed by the car, said: “We were a group of nine cyclists riding two abreast and I was in the last pair, on the outside, with just one rider (with the camera) behind me.

“There was perfect visibility and the driver was going very fast, but he did not slow at all or move to left as he approached.

“The cyclists in from shouted ‘car down’ and we attempted to single-out, but I did not have time due to his excessive speed – although you can see from video that I was in the process of moving to left (thank God).

“He missed me by less than 0.5cm.”

Jeanette sent the video and a statement to Cheshire Police. “An officer told me it was the closest near miss he had seen and they would prosecute.

“Unfortunately, due to an admin error, the notice to the registered owner asking who was driving did not get sent within 28 days. (It was sent to me instead and I assumed I’d just been copied in).

“When I asked police how the case was progressing they realised their mistake, but by then it was too late apparently. How ridiculous. 

“Anyway, the police officer was very upset and apologetic. He kept in touch with me and apologised and told me how I could make an official complaint against the police but I chose not to.

“He did visit the registered owner with the video to show him and have a word, but was told he was in Australia for a month.

“He left messages asking him to contact police on his return but he never did, so he got away scot-free despite almost killing me.”

> 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.