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Near Miss of the Day 445: "Lytham on a Saturday lunchtime, bloody death trap"

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

Today's video in our Near Miss of the Day series shows a motorist overtaking a pair of cyclists on a seafront road, with the front rider getting squeezed between the overtaking vehicle and a parked car - leading the rider who filmed the incident to observe, “Lytham on a Saturday lunchtime, bloody death trap.”

It was filmed by road.cc reader Steve, who says on the video: “65 miles into a 100 and managed to catch a wheel then this happened … too close?

“A conversation was had, apparently it was our fault for riding in the road!”

> 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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7 comments

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Zebulebu | 3 years ago
2 likes

By coincidence, I rode through Lytham on Saturday as well, opposite direction, going towards Blackpool (couple of hours later). Ridden that road a few times - I'd be taking primary all the way along it tbh. It's usually a deathtrap mix of duffers who should have relinquished their license years ago and posh twats in Chelsea Tractors full of screaming brats and other distractions. Still - could have been worse it could have been Blackpool - where a close pass is the least of your worries 😂

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HarrogateSpa | 3 years ago
1 like

The real crime here is the music.

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brooksby | 3 years ago
1 like

That first one is the sort of thing you encounter a lot.  I suspect that there are motorists out there who think that moving out to go around a parked vehicle counts as 'changing lanes' and that they expect you to stop, look around, indicate, and move out.  God forbid that you just move out and carry on as is your right, since you are in front and have priority.

(Its that, or else they think we can teleport, or ride over the top or something...).

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eburtthebike | 3 years ago
3 likes

Clearly both of those incidents are your own fault; you ignored the warnings of the police about riding on the road with all those dangerous drivers.

Quite where you are supposed to ride, I'm not sure; perhaps the police could elucidate, but this might explain the exploding popularity of gravel tracks.

The first incident is particularly bad; did you report it?  Let's face it, if the police have nothing better to do than warn perfectly legal cyclists about riding on the road they've got lots of time to investigate actual crime.

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andyp363 | 3 years ago
1 like

Yeah not a great bit of driving should be anticipating more around you 

Think it also shows the need to plan a bit more in advance as well, no time between the glance and maneuver by which point the car was already extremely close (we don't know if the person behind is signaling though)  look back a bit earlier find a gap and take the lane.

Driver should have read the road a LOT better but wouldn't trust them to at all 

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LetsBePartOfThe... replied to andyp363 | 3 years ago
2 likes

I would go further and say.... I would just take primary the whole length of that road. There isn't anywhere in the video clip where I'd be comfortable with a vehicle overtaking me within the lane, so I'd prefer to give a clear unambiguous message that the lane is occupied. I'm not going to be moving inwards and outwards to give opportunities just to show helpfulness. Only way for vehicles to overtake is by use of the oncoming lane once it is clear and safe. 
Motorist was a total idiot without question. Overtook 2 cyclists at the approach to a pinch point between parked cars and oncoming traffic... did motorist not read ahead that the cyclists would necessarily veer outwards just like a car would do ( would they have overtaken a car there ) The overtake should not have been commenced. Once it had been commenced it should have been aborted. The casualness of the manoeuvre suggests total disdain for the life of another human. 
If I had been passed that close ( hopefully primary would have prevented it in first place ) I make no apology that I would have thumped an emergency warning on/through their window, followed by a call to the police. 

 

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pmb1 replied to andyp363 | 3 years ago
0 likes

andyp363 wrote:

Yeah not a great bit of driving should be anticipating more around you 

Think it also shows the need to plan a bit more in advance as well, no time between the glance and maneuver by which point the car was already extremely close (we don't know if the person behind is signaling though)  look back a bit earlier find a gap and take the lane.

Driver should have read the road a LOT better but wouldn't trust them to at all 

We do know that the car wasnt signalling its intention to overtake the parked cars, let alone two other moving vehicles.

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