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news
Near Miss of the Day 97: White van man hovers alongside cyclists on busy narrow road
Today’s near miss sees a white van driver endangering not just one, but two cyclists. As the driver moves to overtake, he instead drives alongside them on a narrow road, occasionally veering towards them to avoid oncoming traffic.
The footage was shot by Ed on Swanwick Lane near Southampton on the 5th of this month at around 8.40am.
In a van that nearly fills the lane, the driver makes several attempts to pass, but for the most part succeeds only in positioning himself either between the cyclists or alongside one or the other of them.
At one point the following cyclist, shot from Ed’s rear view camera, is unable pedal as he is so close to the kerb.
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.
Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.
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26 comments
Swanwick lane is an horrible road to cycle up. Due to the awful standard of driving.
If the cyclist had taken the primary position in this instance, people would be banging on about cyclists hogging the road, making it impossible for vehicles to pass. No winners here today...
So I contacted the company involved and this is their response:
Thank You for high lighting our drivers dangerous driving and can I add that we are sincerely apologetic of our driver actions.
We had previously been sent this video of the incident and have already dealt with the driver.
I can assure you he has learned his lesson and will most definitely not be driving in this manner again.
Having read the comments on your site Road.CC I sincerely hope you post my reply so your forum can be rest assured we take driving like this very serious.
E-mails are easy to ignore, mentioning them on Social Media makes ignoring more difficult and is often much more effective. https://twitter.com/Kingfisher_BXM.
I recently tweeted a video of a 'close pass' I was the recipient of in London, and tagged the Met Police's twitter account. They responded by asking me to submit it to their online "Report a road traffic incident" form and also asked me to take the video down (because it might be evidence). I did this, and they emailed me a few weeks later to say they were going to prosecute. I didn't hear any more so I assume the driver paid the fine/took the points and didn't want to go to court.
Bad driving certainly, but why did he go back up the inside of the van after it had passed him?
Maybe because it's two different ways to express the same thing.
He didnt.
The van pulled along side intending to overtake but after finding that the road was too narrow and there was too much oncoming traffic, couldnt complete said overtake.
Ergo the van didnt pass him. Or do you think that the riders should have gotten out of the way / better alive than right and so on?
I've got to be honest: although I think that the van driver was entirely at fault here, if I'd been in the cyclists' position I think I'd have just thrown in the towel and decided to "coincidentally" stop for a drink/snack/check my phone until the van was safely out of the way... YMMV.
(@jacecd - I'm glad you got a result on your complaint, anyway)
*Sigh* Once-upon-a-time I'd have been straight up the inside, rude gesture, and off up the road - (if he'd ever passed me at all.) Nowadays - don't have the horsepower/sense of immortality - so yes, better alive than right...
This is the company responsible - if a few of us email in then perhaps they'll take action against this "driver".
Kingfisher Seafood Brixham
http://www.kingfisherbrixham.co.uk
Well of course the driver shouldn't have overtaken but until someone works out how to stop drivers being idiots you need to protect yourself.
On his occasion that would mean making it difficult to make the dangerous manoeuvre.
I used to have to ride on Swanwick Lane to and from work, it’s a road which should be a nice country lane really but because of the massive volume of traffic using it as a rat run it’s horrible. That kind of driving is stand on i.
Everything on that road was at threat by that dreadful driver - cyclists, oncoming traffic and even the cones looked like they had a slight brush.
Has this clip gone to the cops and Kingfisher?
I would have been banging on the side of the van.
But I do go along with IanW1968. When passing the cones, I would have held that line in the middle of the lane.
But it was awful driving.
Couldn't they have ridden 2 abreast?
No.
The driver should not be using positioning to think, he should be using his eyes to see...
OOH, an edit button...at last!!
Wallace's revenge, judging by the flag draped over the passenger seat.
Outrageously bad driving, but... when WVman has proven himself to be a total dick, it can't hurt to slow down and avoid riding back up the side of him!
If there no space to safely overtake and somewhere to go after the overtake then the rider should have taken the road.
Fixed it for you.
Agreed, but the cyclists' positioning makes the van driver think there is room. This is a common problem. Since following Cycling UK advice to position myself out by one third of the lane I have experienced much safer overtaking from drivers.
I found this aswell. If a driver thinks they can get by without going over the white they will try so. If you force them to move further across they tend to accept moving to the other side of the carriageway for an overtake. It's not a fix all, but I've experienced less hassle
Granted, the cyclists road position is not good, but the blame for what happened cannot be placed on the cyclist. the driver put the cyclist in danger. You can't put the blame on the cyclist for not preventing the van from putting him in danger.
No-one is blaming the cyclists. The driver is a tool - period.
Well, that was a truly appalling piece of driving