Near Miss of the Day 701: Speeding bus driver “very lucky” to avoid prosecution for close pass (includes swearing)

The speeding bus driver featured in today’s Near Miss of the Day video escaped punishment for this reckless overtake in a 30mph zone – due to an outbreak of Covid at Greater Manchester Police.

In the video, the Vision Bus driver narrowly passes the cyclist on a moderately steep hill as cars approach in the opposite direction. According to road.cc reader Grahame, who sent us the footage, a speed indicator at the brow of the hill showed that the driver was travelling at 36mph in a 30mph zone.

Grahame reported the incident to Greater Manchester Police as part of its ‘Operation Considerate’. However, the report was not processed in time for a Notice of Intended Prosecution to be issued within the 14-day limit.

Greater Manchester Police told the cyclist that the report wasn't processed because “the whole office came down with Covid-19” – scuppering any chance of the driver being prosecuted and securing a “very lucky” reprieve for Vision and its driver, according to Grahame.

Vision did not respond to road.cc’s request for comment.

> 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