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Near Miss of the Day 376: Frightening footage shows driver overtaking cyclist with coach coming the other way

Our regular series featuring close passes from around the country and beyond - today it's Ireland...

This is without doubt one of – if not the – most frightening videos we’ve featured in our Near Miss of the Day series, as a motorist overtakes a cyclist then pulls in, brushing the rider at 40mph as they do so, because a coach is coming the other way.

In fact, from the footage, it seems a reasonable assumption that it was solely the coach driver, who had flashed their headlights in warning to the Honda driver, slamming in the brakes that averted a multi-vehicle collision (and one in which, of course, the cyclist would have been the most vulnerable person).

It happened in Ireland and was flagged up to us on Twitter by @Righttobikeit, who said: “I have no idea how I stayed upright on the bike today. The most frightening incident I’ve had to date.

> 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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20 comments

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scu98rkr | 4 years ago
0 likes

He Clips him with the wing mirror, you can see it move.

As others say this isnt a close pass it is a collosion. 

Surely the police can will do something in this case ????

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Hirsute | 4 years ago
0 likes

I'd like to know what their phone records show for this timestamp.

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ktache replied to Hirsute | 4 years ago
0 likes

I don't even think that, often there is a complete inability to see anything but the cyclist, and to think of anything but the slight impediment to their oh so important and urgent journey.  I believe it's the reason for this incredibly dangerous stuff, the overtaking on a blind bend, the left hook and the MGIF when approaching an already red light or a huge queue of traffic.

There is also a complete incapability of judging the speed of a cyclist at anything above walking pace, because that was the speed they did during the last time they remember riding a bike when they were a toddler.

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ktache | 4 years ago
2 likes

Shocking, horrific, hopefully to be taken much further.

I feel I have to point out that the rider was in Primary when the motorist started their awful manouvere.  Riding assertively and to the bikeability reccomendations does not stop this sort of thing, no matter how many people would like to say it does.

 

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bikeman01 | 4 years ago
1 like

Worst one I've seen in a long time.

Also looks like that coach stopped, maybe the sharp braking caused a passenger to fall? That coach will have cameras, you need to contact them to support you.

That driver MUST be prosecuted.

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MonkeyPuzzle | 4 years ago
0 likes

Even more daft in light of having driven in Ireland. The traffic is generally light with plenty of opportunities to overtake apart from on the windiest of lanes where it would be the furthest thing from a sane person's mind anyway.

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fixit | 4 years ago
1 like

fucking idiot!!

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Judge dreadful | 4 years ago
3 likes

Was that an actual touch? If it was, the driver technically left the scene of a collision. Get that submitted to the law.

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thax1 | 4 years ago
4 likes

Been to Cork and Kerry a couple of times in the last two years on holiday. Always had good intentions of hiring a road bike locally and putting in some miles. Then always bottled it based on the standard of local driving and the proliferation of massive coaches ferrying American tourists around down tiny lanes. Real shame.

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grumpyoldcyclist | 4 years ago
3 likes

I hope that has been reported, stupid, thoughtless, dangerous, selfish driving. Should have their licence removed for a long time, if they aren't already banned.

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Hirsute | 4 years ago
5 likes

Should be in jail for that.

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danhopgood | 4 years ago
4 likes

Blimey, for me that's the nastiest of a very long list of close pass videos.  Coach driver coming the other way braking hard to a stop was the only thing to  save a collision I don't want to think about.  I got properly knocked off by a car and the video doesn't look anywhere near as tight as that.  

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OldRidgeback replied to danhopgood | 4 years ago
5 likes

It's a terrible example driving by the person in the Toyota. How did the driver not see the oncoming coach and not see there wasn't enough space for an overtake? It's lucky the coach driver was on the ball, otherwise it could've been pretty nasty and the rider would've come off worst overall.

The cops really need to knock on the door of the Toyota driver. That person shouldn't be behind the wheel, for everyone's sake.

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bikeman01 replied to OldRidgeback | 4 years ago
0 likes

It's a Honda Insight not a Toyota

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Kendalred | 4 years ago
4 likes

Holy shit. 

Having looked at Righttobikeit's twitter feed, I've just made the decision to never cycle in Cork!

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Russell Orgazoid | 4 years ago
3 likes

Please tell me that this was reported and the police followed it up.

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HoarseMann | 4 years ago
2 likes

it doesn't get any closer than that. did a good job staying upright.

reading the twitter thread, it appears the car is currently for sale...

https://www.carsireland.ie/2439327

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Philh68 | 4 years ago
6 likes

That’s nothing short of miraculous, staying  upright after that contact. I’m gobsmacked  by the carelessness and callous indifference of the driver, and so glad that @righttobikeit is still around to tell the tale.  May the miracles continue and the driver receive punishment commensurate to the offence. 

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Toffee | 4 years ago
7 likes

Hoooly s***.

That is madness. Why on Earth does the driver think they can overtake there? It's not like the bus is invisible.

Honestly, the way the car then accelerates away afterwards tells me that they know they got that very, very wrong.

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Philh68 replied to Toffee | 4 years ago
10 likes

They do it because they’re thinking only of themselves, not of the cyclist.  And when they get it wrong they think only of their own safety, not the cyclist. The only one invisible in the entire thought process is the cyclist.

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