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news
Near Miss of the Day 632: Driver overtaking cyclist forces oncoming motorist to brake and swerve
We have a rarity for you in our Near Miss of the Day series today – a video shot from a car’s dashcam, rather than a cyclist’s action camera. However, it perfectly illustrates, albeit from a different perspective than usual, a type of close pass we regularly see in footage submitted for the feature – when a motorist overtakes a cyclist despite oncoming traffic.
In this case, the driver, who was towing a trailer to boot (with what appears to be a steamroller on it), also illegally crossed over the double white lines in the centre of the road to overtake the bike rider.
The footage was captured by road.cc reader Gareth, who told us: “I wasn’t the cyclist in this incident but was forced to brake hard and swerve out of the way of a vehicle overtaking a cyclist on a double white line, on a blind corner and towing a trailer.
“Although they were leaving plenty of room for the cyclist to start with, they had cut in pretty sharply to avoid a head on collision with me. Exactly what I needed after a 12 hour night shift!
“This happened Thursday 2nd September at 0630 just outside of Broadbridge Heath in West Sussex.
“Unfortunately the low light combined with the headlights of oncoming vehicles mean the number plate wasn’t captured and there are no identifying logos etc on the vehicle.”
> 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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21 comments
Were they, though? I had to watch it three times to pick out which vehicle was making the overtake, so they can't have been that far over, and with the width of the trailer, I'm not sure there would have been a comfortable clearance even if they hadn't been cutting back in.
The vehicle looks to be at least straddling the lines to begin with and the trailer seems to be over the line stull as it passes the cyclist, though obviously the vehicle is steering hard left at the time.
It probably didnt feel like a nice overtake to put it mildly, but just look at all the traffic following behind, vans,cars,4x4s and a tanker. That road seems to be double solid white line for at least a mile. I bet every single one of the inevitable overtakes that followed were just as unpleasant.
I've mentioned it several times now, but UK Dash Cammers have awful overtakes of vehicles on blind bends filmed from the "right" side at least once a week, and a few times a month it is a vehicle overtaking a cyclist. Yesterdays one had a bin lorry almost plow into an oncoming car whilst "blindly" overtaking a small construction vehicle.
Actually not necessarily illegal - see Highway Code rule 129:
"Double white lines where the line nearest you is solid. This means you MUST NOT cross or straddle it unless it is safe and you need to enter adjoining premises or a side road. You may cross the line if necessary, provided the road is clear, to pass a stationary vehicle, or overtake a pedal cycle, horse or road maintenance vehicle, if they are travelling at 10 mph (16 km/h) or less."
Doubt the driver checked the cyclist's speed, though.
"provided the road is clear,"
Road was obviously not clear.
Clearly by virtue of the fact hat we have a camera view from the oncoming car, their road ahead was NOT clear, and at no point was it safe to overtake regardless of the cyclist's speed.
their road ahead was NOT clear, and at no point was it safe to overtake
There seems to be some dispute about this- Lancashire Constabulary is of the view that it's always safe to overtake a cyclist no matter what white lines the stupid county council has foolishly painted on the road and no matter what the speed of the cyclist. The driver is on the right side of a vehicle on the right side of the road just before a right hand bend, all while right across the DWL
I see your close pass...And i raise you an actual collision between me and a double decker bus...The fucker actually ran me off the road by suddenly entering the cycle lane and pushing me off the road. I can't link to the video yet as it's private (A precaution just in case WMP actually do something).
Agreed! Looks like a convincing Royal Flush, or whatever an invincible hand is called.
Apologies - I was countering the fact that crossing the solid white line = automatically illegal, 'coz it's not.
I agree it was a terrible overtake.
At the time the overtake was commenced the camera car and the overtaking car were not in sight of each other, so at that point the road was clear.
However double white lines indicate there is not sufficient length of clear sight to complete an overtake in the space known to be clear.
The exception for passing stationary objects and cyclists below 10mph exists because the length required to pass these is so much shorter (and also likely because the delays to DRIVERS are deemed uncceptable)
Overtake is poor, but there would be trouble achieving a conviction as the defence used would be, I thought the cyclists was doing less than 10mph, and the road appeared to be clear at the time.
I'd also be concerned about prosecuting double white lines offences rather than careless driving for the close pass as the response from drivers may be to pass cyclists without crosing the lines. Which would potentially be worse.
Except it didn't. It didn't appear at all, because their view was obstructed. If you can't see that the road is clear, you should assume that it's not.
yes, thats what I said about the entire reason for there being double white lines in the first place. they indicate locations where you can't see far enough to be sure of a safe overtake. The fact remains that by the time the overtaking car appears on the film it was already on the other side of the white lines, so when they pulled out they could not see anytihng coming, and the argument, clearly there was something coming because we have camera footage falls down.
The problem is the double white line exemption for overtaiking slow cyclists as per the code. But really that should not be used by towing vehciles as they are longer and slower and so cannot pass in the same redcued distances that cars can.
This overtake is not safe, but just pointing at DWL and camera car is not the whole story. I don't say the driver has a valid defence, only the one they will use. Unfortuntely I believe it would be accepted by at least 50% of jurors, and judging by past decisions enough magistrates to be far from certain of a conviction.
The argument isn't that they could clearly see that something was coming, though. It's that they couldn't determine that the road was clear. And that argument still stands. Either they could see the approaching vehicle, so could see that the road wasn't clear, or they couldn't see it, so couldn't see that the road was clear. In either case, they shouldn't be overtaking anything in those circumstances, regardless of its speed, whether they're towing, or anything else.
Legally, they don't have a leg to stand on - it was an illegal overtake, which was the original point of contention.
They might get away with it in a court, because courts are fallible, but that points to a problem with the court system, not with the law.
This I think is the reason why overtaking over double solid whites (or single whites, where the one nearest to you is solid) should be dealt with more severely (wishful thinking, I know). I doubt that road planners would place them on a stretch of road deemed 'safe' for overtaking without due reason. 9/10 times when I am overtaken on a road with solid white lines, it requires a burst of acceleration from the car and is usually only completed metres away from the apex of a blind corner. Worse still, a vehicle with noticeable poorer acceleration will attempt it, resulting in that horrible throttle whine. Sometimes they come to their senses and abort. Usually they plow on through and simply cut in way, way earlier than they should in the 'fuck it' mentality that we all know too well and is seen in this video.
I've taken to adopting primary on all these stretches and giving the driver behind a wave indicating stop or caution, which seems to work sometimes. If forced into the opposite lane (as they should do anyway) or warned of needing to do so, I find that drivers are reluctant to proceed at risk of not completing the maneuver in time. Which is the point of the solid white lines existing in the first place!!!!!
I find that too - but you do get the odd one that still ploughs on through. At least being in primary, you get space to move over to the left, as I did with this dozy overtaker this morning...
the defence used would be, I thought the cyclists was doing less than 10mph
Maybe it would, but intensely stupid defence claims should be rejected if the court is any good... I thought the bank wouldn't mind me taking that money, because they have plenty.
Iamge was so poor, it was hard to see what was going on.
It was mentioned in the text splurge that the low light and oncoming headlights screwed the image anyway (along with it being a cheap dashcam and potential youtube compression).
To be specific, that was refering to the plates. I did expect at least to spot a cyclist type figure on second view. (And to be extra pedantic, how does anyone know the driver's actions were illegal with respect to the double white lines?)
Maybe we could be told which dashcam to avoid.
Even if the cyclist was doing less then 10 mph, it is still ensure the road is clear to overtake whilst on continous white lines, so illegal.