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Near Miss of the Day 602: Two close passes in 30 seconds

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

UPDATED: Hampshire Constabulary have confirmed that while its Operation snap portal is being updated (see below), cycists can still report incidents to it online. A spokesperson for the force told road.cc: “Due to an upgrade to our processes which is under development, the website has been temporarily out of action to allow these works to be conducted. In the meantime incidents can still be reported on the Hampshire Constabulary website."

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A cyclist who had two close passes in the space of 30 seconds has been unable to upload the footage to Hampshire Constabulary, with its Operation Snap portal not currently accepting submissions.

Tom, the road.cc reader who captured the footage said: “I was cycling into Botley in Hampshire. I'd positioned myself about a metre out from the kerb, which can discourage dangerous overtakes, but not this time.

“I noticed the HGV behind me accelerate and pull out, there was a car coming the other way so I braked and pulled into the gutter. If I'd maintained my original speed and position I'm pretty sure the HGV would have hit either me or the oncoming car.

“I was still a little shaken up from that, when the white car behind squeezed passed me. I didn't have a chance to react to that.

“I tried reporting these via the Hants SNAP portal, but it's no longer accepting submissions,” Tom added. “I've contacted Hampshire PCC to ask why the portal is unavailable, but I haven't had a response yet.”

We’ve contacted Hampshire Constabulary to ask them why the upload service is currently unavailable and when it might be restored, and will update this article with their reply once we receive it.

> 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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23 comments

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wtjs | 2 years ago
0 likes

Watch out for any Hampshire copy of Lancashire's recent dodge: you can download stuff, but they don't even pretend to look at it and allocate an incident log number until 14 days after the incident- handily 'too late to process'. Don't think that reporting an incident the same day, or the following day, will protect you from this dodge- it won't!

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Bungle_52 | 2 years ago
2 likes

I'd just like to say thank you to road.cc for following ths up. It's disappointing that an individual gets no response when an online magazine does but that's the reality we have to live with and it's good to know that someone is finally trying to give us a voice.

Thank you Simon MacMichael.

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HoarseMann | 2 years ago
2 likes

Really hoping their 'upgraded process' looks a bit like this...

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Pompey Cyclist | 2 years ago
4 likes

Doesn't matter that you can't upload it.  Hants police won't fucking do anything anyway!

This is the force that told me not to report something unless I'm hit AND injured.  And even then I should consider how injured I am before calling them to report something. They said this twice as well.  Two different cops said this to me.

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rcbroughton replied to Pompey Cyclist | 2 years ago
2 likes

Pompey Cyclist wrote:

Doesn't matter that you can't upload it.  Hants police won't fucking do anything anyway!

This is the force that told me not to report something unless I'm hit AND injured.  And even then I should consider how injured I am before calling them to report something. They said this twice as well.  Two different cops said this to me.

I had similar dismissive response from Hants team (including letters from the PCC and the chief constable) a couple of years ago, and the majority of stuff I report does just seem to go into a black hole,  but I recently got emails from them that a driver I reported last Nov is in court this September and another I reported in Jan is up in court in a could of weeks. 

The Nov one was no  tax,  mot, insurance but the Jan one was a straightforward close pass.  Very interested to see the outcome.

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Bungle_52 replied to rcbroughton | 2 years ago
2 likes

So am I and thank you for persevering on behalf of all cyclists. I know how much work it is and how demoralising it can be.

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rcbroughton replied to Bungle_52 | 2 years ago
2 likes

So the close pass I reported on HantsSnap in January was prosecuted in court a couple of weeks ago.  The registered keeper refused to provide details on who was driving, so he got 6 points and a total penalty of £830.

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wtjs replied to rcbroughton | 2 years ago
0 likes

registered keeper refused to provide details on who was driving, so he got 6 points and a total penalty of £830.

Great result!

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Hirsute replied to rcbroughton | 2 years ago
1 like

Oh, so he didn't claim GDPR then ?

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rcbroughton | 2 years ago
2 likes

Just report using Hampshire's standard reporting tool.  HantsSNAP has been down for over a month and we're getting no info on why.

https://www.hampshire.police.uk/ro/report/rti/rti-b/report-a-road-traffic-incident/

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wtjs | 2 years ago
0 likes

2 close passes by the same vehicle within 2 minutes:

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wtjs replied to wtjs | 2 years ago
0 likes

Just up the hill

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AlsoSomniloquism replied to wtjs | 2 years ago
0 likes

Out of interest, where did you manage to overtake him in the two minutes between pictures? Was there traffic lights just before the second pic you caught up on? (judging by queuing traffic on other side of the road).  Did the black car overtake better in both or were you only ahead of the van after the delay?

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wtjs replied to AlsoSomniloquism | 2 years ago
0 likes

The black C-Max was just in front of the offending VW Caddy YE61 ZSY all the way up the long hill, and was useful in my report as 'this is how it should be done'. I overtook at the lights just before the second incident, and both the C-Max and the Caddy must have come through on red. I dodged through cones just beyond the massive hole in the road to allow people to pass me and the C-Max did so perfectly. The Caddy wasn't interested in that sort of nonsense.

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AlsoSomniloquism replied to wtjs | 2 years ago
0 likes

Interesting info. I was asking on the C-Max (didn't know make) as the other traffic seemed to narrow the road which meant less options of wider passes and appeared to be in same general area on the road ahead as the caddy is next to you. 

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AlsoSomniloquism | 2 years ago
1 like

As I've mentioned before, I watch the video then read the supporting comments. Title was Car and Van close pass so I watched to the end waiting for the van one. I didn't class the first lorry pass as close for the cyclist or noticed the manouvre / speed change (I probably took it as road gradient change on intial viewing) but yes the oncoming car did lead to it being questionable. No argument on the white car though.

As an aside, we have MGIF but I thing we need MSIL for Must Stay In Lane for the ones who have no excuse for not moving out rather then laziness when there isn't any on coming traffic (or traffic in other lane in dual carriageways).

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Awavey replied to AlsoSomniloquism | 2 years ago
2 likes

was that 1.5metres though with the truck ? plus the cyclist felt they had to shift left in their description, and had an aero draft effect, which led to a  wobble. Im sure the BMWs overtake was then the result of that classic reaction to having seen the vehicle ahead perform such a bad overtake.

plus the truck sure didnt look like it slowed to 30mph

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AlsoSomniloquism replied to Awavey | 2 years ago
0 likes

As mentioned, I was going on the first impressions the video and probably jaded on the room left nowadays as mostly over the line compared to location of cyclist but I'm also aware camera lens can affect distance. 

Truck speed cannot be judged though but he had matched pace with the cyclist at the start of the clip and accelerated to get past. Cyclist might be a fast one but I was guessing about 20mph before the rise / braking stated in description.  

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Tom_77 replied to Awavey | 2 years ago
2 likes

Awavey wrote:

was that 1.5metres though with the truck ?

A large vehicle should be giving a cyclist 2 metres when overtaking. The lane is 3 metres wide, so the truck should have been completely over the centre line.

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Sriracha | 2 years ago
10 likes

Most shocking was the BMW 1 Series - they gave you a clear lane's width! Sure, on a bend at a junction, but still, a BMW 1 Series, so cut them some slack. I'm still in shock.

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Tom_77 replied to Sriracha | 2 years ago
0 likes

Sriracha wrote:

Most shocking was the BMW 1 Series - they gave you a clear lane's width! Sure, on a bend at a junction, but still, a BMW 1 Series, so cut them some slack. I'm still in shock.

I have another example of a BMW 1 Series leaving a large amount of room when overtaking - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOChDlS4p7I

Didn't get the number plate unfortunately.

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Hirsute replied to Tom_77 | 2 years ago
1 like

I assume this is intended as irony.

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Captain Badger replied to Tom_77 | 2 years ago
0 likes

Tom_77 wrote:

Sriracha wrote:

Most shocking was the BMW 1 Series - they gave you a clear lane's width! Sure, on a bend at a junction, but still, a BMW 1 Series, so cut them some slack. I'm still in shock.

I have another example of a BMW 1 Series leaving a large amount of room when overtaking - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOChDlS4p7I

Didn't get the number plate unfortunately.

Jeez. Good work by the driver behind leaving bags of space though

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