Near Miss of the Day 73: Motorist passes cyclist so closely as to make contact (adult language ensues)

It’s not always easy to perceive how close a pass is on film. Not so on this occasion where a number of drivers pass safely to give us a benchmark before a beeping motorist passes with an audible thud.

The incident occurred during Richard’s commute home on November 9, travelling from Walsall towards Sutton Coldfield up the B4151 Sutton Road.

“The bike was lit up like a Christmas tree: two dipped beam front lights, two flashers and a flashing beacon on the helmet; four rear lights and a flashing helmet beacon facing rearwards; plus a large retroreflective panel on my back and wide retroreflectives on my ankles.

“With hindsight, my Christmas tree is less well-lit.

“The car went past so close he made actual contact – the wing mirror hitting me on my hand that was holding onto the handlebars – darn nearly fetched me off; another centimetre closer and I would have been taken out for sure.

“He almost certainly knew that I was there – there was a horn that sounded about two seconds beforehand.”

Richard reported the incident to West Midlands Police – pioneers of the close pass initiative that is now being adopted by many forces – but was told: “We’re taking no action; insufficient evidence and this wasn’t a collision.”

Richard said he was too frightened to ride his bike for a fortnight.

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.