Near Miss of the Day 784: Another close pass driver refuses awareness course... only to get £1,152 fine and four points in court

More importantly, and an issue with the way the highway code is written, is that it promotes the wrong attitude, It should not be how little space can I give another road user but how much space can I give them.

On the road in this incident, any overtaking vehicle should be aiming to be on the other side of the white line down the middle of the road because there's no (correct) reason not to be there on that  road whilst overtaking. 

Rule 163 of the new version of the highway code still has the same picture as the old version demonstrating how to overtake a cyclist and that's in the other lane  (Http://t.ly/7imV) (the left hand side wheels of the car are on the white line in the picture but stressing that is quibbling). In words it's just "Give vulnerable road users at least as much space as you would a car" which is ambiguous and partly why the minimum distances were added.

Cycling Scotland has come up with an alternative wording, which is

"Always give at least 1.5 metres of space when driving at speeds of up to 30mph – this will usually mean crossing into the other lane."

And a Scottish Police advisory video says,  "We'd expect you to go all the way over the centre line markings"

https://youtu.be/C7ma6psvZm8?t=57

I was particularly pleased a few years ago - when riding from London to Middlesbrough - to turn into a road called Brown Cow Road in Selby and for there to be a brown cow in the field next to it.  The cow marked this by laying down a massive pat.

Better that than 90 miles NE, in Lickey End...

If I was the solicitor I'd be thinking "might as well make some money off this bell-end and charge by the hour!"

You just fill out a means form. Not crazy difficult

It turns out they are self-employed (or that's how I interpret 77 year old businessman), so they probably would need to get their accountant involved.

So he spent £2,500 on a solicitor according to the Sun, and spent time fanning about measuring roads and getting irate about being fined all because he couldn't wait 10 seconds for the conditions to be safe to pass.

He didn't even need to wait, just use his brain and move over to leave enough room when overtaking.

bikes wrote:

He didn't even need to wait, just use his brain and move over to leave enough room when overtaking.

Exactly - as evidenced by both the driver in front and behind him.

moonfruit wrote:

This particular one from them cost the driver nine points and a hefty fine.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwKbbEPdQ9A

Should have been banned and made to resit the driving test as they clearly aren't compentent to drive.

There are strict rules on evidence submission and I don't think the police will accept a YouTube clip as evidence, I could be wrong but that is my understanding. It's still poor that they haven't looked at it though.

Billy1mate wrote:

There are strict rules on evidence submission and I don't think the police will accept a YouTube clip as evidence, I could be wrong but that is my understanding. It's still poor that they haven't looked at it though.

As far as I understand it (I've only submitted videos to the Met who take direct uploads) some forces request - or have done so before Operation Snap - that you upload your video to a private YouTube post, unavailable to the public, and send them a link to it.

I've had some success in Hants. I recently put a note asking them to contact me if they *cannot* take action so that I know I can publish the video, and twice they replied saying they can't say exactly what happened but it was *one of* either a warning/course/fixed penalty/court, so they weren't binned. One time I was close-passed and got verbal abuse, and an officer phoned me (on a Sunday) and took the details for a separate offence of public order, although obviously that was NFAd, I didn't seriously expect anything.

Chris Hayes wrote:

Wow...call that a close pass? I think I should get myself a camera and start getting  drivers fined on some of my rides!

Bear in mind this isnt a contest where the only the closest of the close passes gets fined.  Have a close look at the angles in the video.  It looks like the cyclist was close to being in primary and the Q8 which is a massive barge of a car at the best of times barely starts crossing the white line before he's alongside.

I'm just genuinely surprised that this pass attracted a fine....

Chris Hayes wrote:

I'm just genuinely surprised that this pass attracted a fine....

Bear in mind that it didn't initially, it was only because Mr.Bellend decided to contest it that he got fined, he could have taken his awareness course. It is at the outer limit of what I would expect to get action from the police (or at least my force, the Met), but it is at speed, unnecessary (as the other cars show it was possible to leave much more room) and well within a metre. Of course we've all seen much worse not sanctioned, but that's because the decision not to sanction them was wrong, not because the decision to sanction this one was.

I just had a Google at Pepipoo to see what sort of advice was being handed out, and I was pleasantly surprised at the evenhandedness of it, even with a backdrop of niggling.

For example: try this one.

http://forums.pepipoo.com/lofiversion/index.php/t140220.html

I post on both (mostly private parking) pepipoo and here, and indeed it's pretty even there.