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Near Miss of the Day 289: Driver immediately returns to road after left hook

Our regular feature of close passes from around the country ... today it's Greater Manchester...

Today’s near miss has fallen foul of Greater Manchester Police’s two-minute rule. The force says it requires two minutes of video either side of an incident and the cyclist didn’t have this.

The footage was paused beforehand to take a shot of a motorist advancing beyond an advanced stop line and was stopped afterwards when the motorist had driven away.

“You live and learn,” said Bob, who suffered the left hook at around 3pm yesterday in Altrincham.

As the motorist overtakes and turns in front of him, Bob can be seen turning left to avoid a crash.

He guesses it was, “probably someone going on the school run as there is a primary school at the top of the road.

Bob decided to follow. However, the driver didn’t stop and after taking a few turns, returned to the main road.

Earlier this week, we reported how the European Union data watchdog has concluded that the right to privacy outweighs the recording of journeys in case of a collision – something that could have profound implications for the use of helmet cams.

The European Data Protection Board, an independent body set up to police the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), is inviting comments on its draft guidelines, and its consultation is open until September 9, 2019.

> 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

> What to do next if you’ve been involved in a road traffic collision

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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14 comments

Avatar
KarlM77 | 5 years ago
0 likes

Hmm ... Email I received from GMP 4 days ago has the following; 

 

"Unfortunately, we are unable to access the YouTube link you sent us. Could you upload the video evidence into our DropBox account, please?

To send the video footage/photographs please use the below “Drop Box” file upload request link.

Please note footage must be clipped to at least 30 seconds before and 30 seconds after the incident."

 

Avatar
jasecd | 5 years ago
0 likes

So what happens if an incident occurs less than two minutes before you start riding?

 

 

Avatar
longassballs replied to jasecd | 5 years ago
3 likes
jasecd wrote:

So what happens if an incident occurs less than two minutes before you start riding?

You sound like my wife

Avatar
Pilot Pete replied to jasecd | 5 years ago
1 like

jasecd wrote:

So what happens if an incident occurs less than two minutes before you start riding?

What, like you trip up wheeling your bike out of the garage? 

PP

Avatar
Awavey replied to Pilot Pete | 5 years ago
0 likes

Pilot Pete wrote:

jasecd wrote:

So what happens if an incident occurs less than two minutes before you start riding?

What, like you trip up wheeling your bike out of the garage? 

PP

the way the roads are like to ride on and the setup round where I live its depressingly easy to have a close encounter or meet an overly aggressive driver within 2mins of leaving my house, part of that was what convinced me to get a camera in the first place. But I dont think the 2min rule is necessarily a hard and fast rule, the police in this instance could easily have just recorded it and sent a letter to the driver,  but its how far they want to pursue things like that isnt it, as always.

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Hirsute replied to jasecd | 5 years ago
0 likes

jasecd wrote:

So what happens if an incident occurs less than two minutes before you start riding?

I suppose you send an explanatory note.

I submitted something that occured within 30 seconds on a journey and resulted in a letter saying a NIP would be sent, however Essex don't require the 2 minutes but do disregard a number of incidents as they are not on the high side of careless.

Avatar
FluffyKittenofT... | 5 years ago
2 likes

Someone should start a kickstarter for a camera that automatically starts recording exactly two minutes before an incident occurs.  I'm sure they'd make a fortune.  Maybe they could pitch it on Dragon's Den?

Avatar
sockpuppet | 5 years ago
1 like

@hirsute The only way that’s a minor incident is if you look at it from the “well, I didn’t actually hit you” camp

It breaks a host of Highway Code rules.
It’s a few feet or a swerve/moment of surprise/wobble/misjudged speed away from a crash, likely a serious one.
It’s indicative of the ‘must get in front if the cyclist’ urge

Moreover, it displays a fundamental lack of respect of the other road user as a human, a vulnerable and squishy one at that.

That driving is not ok. Driving like that is selfish and needless and kills people. It stops people who might cycle from going in the roads. It’s not ok.

To suggest that’s minor is a grave misunderstanding of what’s going on on our roads.

Avatar
Hirsute replied to sockpuppet | 5 years ago
1 like
sockpuppet wrote:

@hirsute The only way that’s a minor incident is if you look at it from the “well, I didn’t actually hit you” camp

It breaks a host of Highway Code rules.
It’s a few feet or a swerve/moment of surprise/wobble/misjudged speed away from a crash, likely a serious one.
It’s indicative of the ‘must get in front if the cyclist’ urge

Moreover, it displays a fundamental lack of respect of the other road user as a human, a vulnerable and squishy one at that.

That driving is not ok. Driving like that is selfish and needless and kills people. It stops people who might cycle from going in the roads. It’s not ok.

To suggest that’s minor is a grave misunderstanding of what’s going on on our roads.

There's no point arguing with me, I'm not a police and crime commissioner, neither do I run these police portals where you can submit your footage.

Avatar
Hirsute | 5 years ago
3 likes

There is a difference Xena between footage supplied for minor offences as here and what you describe.
For a start, it would be failure to stop, so I think the police would take action in the manner described above

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Legs_Eleven_Wor... replied to Hirsute | 5 years ago
2 likes

hirsute wrote:

There is a difference Xena between footage supplied for minor offences as here and what you describe. For a start, it would be failure to stop, so I think the police would take action in the manner described above

The sooner that thuggery on the roads stops being considered as 'minor offences', the better.  

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Xena | 5 years ago
0 likes

Say some dickhead knocks you off your bike . You get your phone out and video the car and get the plate as it drives away . Your bike is destroyed and you may have a injury . So because you did not film it the police are not going to do anything ,,,who the fuck makes these rules up .  Police are to busy stopping people going 10 mph over the speed limit or having one brake light so they get revenue. No revenue in doing real police work .  Fuck the police  and the government rules do nothing for nobody except themselves.  Ker fucking ching  . You tell a police man that we pay his wages and he should talk to us like a fellow human being  “ does not compute “  check you tube countless innocent people being treated like criminals by the police . Fuck em . 

 

 

 

 

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Mark B replied to Xena | 5 years ago
1 like

Xena wrote:

Say some dickhead knocks you off your bike . You get your phone out and video the car and get the plate as it drives away . Your bike is destroyed and you may have a injury . So because you did not film it the police are not going to do anything

 

While I agree that the two minute rule is silly, in a case like you describe, there's not much they could do anyway - if you started videoing after the event, you're not going to have evidence of what happened! If you were actually injured, and if you had other evidence, such as witnesses, then I'm sure they would investigate, and in that case would no doubt accept your video just as a record of what the plate was.

 

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HarrogateSpa | 5 years ago
0 likes

Keen-eyed viewers will appreciate that the driver was almost certainly a pensioner.

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