Near Miss of the Day 642: No mirror, no signal, left-hook manoeuvre

“Mirror, signal, manoeuvre,” goes the mantra delivered by generations of driving instructors to learner drivers – but the first two seem to have been forgotten by the driver of this van who failed to spot a cyclist behind him then turned left across his path in the latest video in our Near Miss of the Day series (or “Dick of the Day” as the cyclist put it in the hashtag when tweeting the video).

The incident happened last week in Lewisham, south London, at the junction of Algernon Road and the A20 Loampit Vale, and besides tagging road.cc in the video, the rider – Michael – also tagged the Metropolitan Police in Lewisham, as well as the force’s cycle safety team.

Today's #dickoftheday courtesy of @Cleshar left turn, no check, no signal. Thank heavens for defensive riding and assuming the worst.@MPSLewisham @MetCycleCops @roadcc
Almost exactly at the scene of last week's big motorcycle accident. Loampit Hill / Algernon Rd pic.twitter.com/x2dvWkQa4c

— Michael Snasdell (@MichaelSnasdell) October 7, 2021

Rule 182 of the Highway Code tells drivers to “Use your mirrors and give a left-turn signal well before you turn left. Do not overtake just before you turn left and watch out for traffic coming up on your left before you make the turn, especially if driving a large vehicle.”

It also warns them specifically that “Cyclists, motorcyclists and other road users in particular may be hidden from your view,” accompanied by a picture of a cyclist on the nearside of the vehicle.

Luckily in this incident, Michael anticipated what was going to happen, so he hung back and managed to avoid getting left-hooked.

> 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