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news
Near Miss of the Day 706: Driver towing caravan pulls in too early
As you may be aware, motorists are allowed to tow a caravan or trailer up to a certain weight without the need for a special licence – and with towing them likely to be an occasional rather than regular practice, that means that it’s easy to forget the risks that can be caused to vulnerable road users, for instance by pulling in too quickly, which features in our Near Miss of the Day series.
The footage was shot on the B5246 in Lancashire heading towards Tarleton from Wiggins Lane by road.cc reader EHE Life Cycle who, in a message to the motorist, said: “Probably this is the only time you have ever towed a caravan!
“The clue is in the homemade (can’t really see) number plate. You've forgotten that the caravan makes your combined length longer and you appear to just overtake me with the car length forgetting that you are towing quite a large caravan.”
The footage was sent to the police but they did not respond – “probably they don’t monitor the inbox,” added EHE Life Cycle.
Lancashire Constabulary were in fact on the scene – you can see one of the force’s patrol cars being driven in the opposite direction towards the end of the clip – but even if they’d been there a few second beforehand, it’s questionable whether the officers in the vehicle would have seen just how close the driver had come to the cyclist.
> 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.
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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33 comments
What is the point of a 4 1/2 year old video, when close-passing offences continue unabated?
is this a classic video from the vault? that reg shows untaxed 31/12/2017 and no mot 19/01/2019 if a new video are the police going have a look at those offences or wont they go near the travelling community
I think the issue here is that no one needs any additional qualification to start towing a caravan or horsebox, they are just let loose on the roads with no training in the differences. Expected to intuite the difference between overtaking cyclists in a car and overtaking them ina car with a trailer.
the lw says
licences from before 1997 car and trailer up to a combined 8250kg
licence from 1997 onwards trailer up to 3500kg
No coincidence that horseboxes are avaulable to come in just under this limit., 4 berth caravans will be under 2t. So anyone cn buy one of these and just have a go on the roads. What could possibly go wrong?
And yet to drive a 15 seat minibus requires additional qualification (post 1997 licences) Do we really think driving a 15 seat minibus is harder than towing a horsebox?
The horses don't keep distracting you by asking if they're nearly there yet.
That's because 15 seat minibuses tend to have a lot more people in them than a horsebox. Bigger risk, hence stricter regulation.
because vulnerable road uses cleaned out along the way don't count?
This cyclist was extremely lucky to avoid being hit and this seems to be another example of seriously bad driving not being addressed by the police for reasons unexplained.
Just adding a comment, as the discussion below appears to be about time trial bars and unexpected pedestrians (of which there aren't even any in the video) rather than an appalling piece of driving. I'm not a regular poster, but do read this site frequently, and just wanted to observe that if the discussion is vaguely on topic (in this instance about a dangerously close pass/caravan/lack of follow up), then it's more interesting and adds rather than detracts to the main article/video. I haven't even read the entire thread below so apologies if later on there was more relevance.
Once when I was riding along Wiggins lane from Tarleton, I saw Bradley Wiggins cycling in the opposite direction. Wiggins on Wiggins lane.
Do I win £5?
Should have carried on into Mawdesley and seen if you could bump into him again on Bradley Lane... He only lived down the road in Eccy 😁
I expected wtjs to have the first comment. I'm not sure why a 4.5 year old video is relevant in this series.
Awaits wtjs ...
When do we think it is going to make an appearance to somehow blame the cyclist for the rubbish overtake by a driver on the fact that the cyclist was riding a TT Bike?
No doubt he will say that.... if the cyclist was riding on a normal road bike they would have been in better control of their bike and would have been able to slam the brakes on avoid the caravan being driven towards them....
Yes you do like your false equivalencies don't you?
So lets get this straight..... if a child runs out onto a road in front of a TT Bike and they are not able to take evasive action or brake.... its because of the design of is inherently dangerous?
I guess if a child runs out onto a road in front of a Road Bike and the rider isn't able to react or brake it's because the design of the road bike is inherently dangerous?
What about a car/van/lorry? If a rider of a TT Bike can't take evasive action or brake in time do you really think upwards of 1.5 tonnes of metal would be able to react or brake in the same length of time?
The Guardian gives an excellent example of the difference between being hit by a bike and a car:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/bike-blog/2022/jan/31/the-times-...
Also, perhaps our resident troll would like to provide us with details of the last time a TT bike hit a child, or indeed a ped of any kind. A Google search could find no such examples.
I own and regularly ride a TT Bike when I do triathlons. I know that TT Bikes have slightly reduced manoueverability than a normal road bike and that the rider has to move their hands to get to the brake levers if they are on the aero bars.
However, using your logic the design of most motor vehicles is inherently dangerous also because as a driver my right foot generally tends to be on or over the accellerator pedal..... not covering the brake pedal.
There might be a marginal difference in time in my reactions getting to the brakes on my TT bike compared with the reaction time for carrying out an emergency stop in my car. But not enough to make any meaningful difference
Presumably about the same as using bar ends on a hybrid or MTB? And I haven't yet read Our Nige calling for them to be banned?
Answer the rest of the questions the Nigel.... you know the ones about road bikes.
But i will make the question even more specific. If on your road bike a child runs out in front of you and you do not have sufficient time to react to brake or take evasive action to avoid hitting the child and you kill the child is it because your road bike is inherently dangerous?
Remember Nigel.... answer the exact question.
No wiffle waffle about how you are such a great cyclist that you would never be in a position like that.
No Nigel.... what you did was went wiffle waffle blah blah blah "I wouldn't be in that position" and you speculated on lots of various factors when I asked a direct question.
If you hit a pedestrian because you don't have time to react is that down to the construction of your bike?
You seem to want to have a very strict view on the conditions which apply to the rider of a TT Bike..... in that they are not able to get to their brakes or manoeuvre their bike...... but in reality if in exactly the same situation the rider of a road bike had sufficient time to react then in all likelihood the rider of a TT bike would also have time to react either by braking or manoeuvring.
But that doesn't suit your narrative does it?
Lets try this again..... and bear in mind the words of your fanboy "read what is asked....it's not that difficult"
If a Road cyclist and a TT cyclist were in an IDENTICAL SITUATION which resulted in neither rider being able to avoid a crash ..... would the reason for the crash be "just an accident" for the road biker but "due to the dangerous bike" for the TT rider?
And back to the other question that you have been posed by 3 different people.
Provide any evidence that a pedestrian has been killed by a cyclist riding a Time Trial Bike.
And just for clarity.......
If you as a driver of a car hit and kill a pedestrian who runs between two parked cars because you don't have time to brake (because you need to move your foot from the accelerator to the brake) and you cannot manoeuvre your car sufficently to avoid killing the pedestrian......do you also agree that you are negligent and should be charged with the offence of causing death by dangerous driving? Or would that just be an accident?
Or actually a much more pertinent question.
When you drive your car through your recently established red light and hit and kill a pedestrian who is crossing on a green man.... is it the fact that your car is inherently dangerous or is it that you shouldn't be driving your car?
The child would be blamed for not wearing hi viz.
Has that ever happened ever?
what about ism fallacy rearing it's head again
racist, anti trans and unable to formulate a coherent argument on seemingly any topic.
Indeed, I am waiting for Nigel to request a ban on cows.
Cows kill on average 3 people in the UK and seriously injure 40 people every year which will far exceed the number of pedestrians killed or seriously injured by riders on TT Bikes
Indeed - although as others have rightly pointed out you probably want to calculate deaths / cows or indeed a rate of deaths / (person-hours around cows). And it would be sensible to do that looking at numbers across the different kinds of roads (or fields) the cows will be driven on...
Hmm... should we address the danger of falling coconuts too - or does it make more sense to go for the low-hanging fruit?
danger of falling blackberries?
I think cows should have to wear hi viz. And those with horns, they need to have foam coverings. That'd help.
I know you're a sensitive little flower and you've been triggered by the big boy again, but the limitations or otherwise of a TT bike has nothing to do with the situation in the video. And whether or not a bike design limits the rider's ability to avoid conflict with another vehicle, the cause of the need to avoid is the problem.
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