Near Miss of the Day 409: Motorist incensed by cyclist filtering at traffic lights intimidates him with his car and calls him an ‘imbecile’ (and more besides)

Today’s near miss features a motorist so enraged by a cyclist (legally) filtering past him at traffic lights that he is moved to call him an ‘imbecile’, a ‘dickhead’ and a ‘cunt’ while intimidating him with his car.

The confrontation began at the junction of High Street and Wellington Street in Slough on Friday.

Lyndon said: “As I filtered to the front of the line of traffic at a red light, the driver of a green Mercedes clearly thought I was breaking some sort of law.

“I didn't realise at the time how close he came to driving into the back of me, and only noticed when I watched the footage when I got home.

“I turned right and figured the one honk from the driver was the end of it, but he soon pulled beside me when I entered the bus lane and shouted some obscenities as he pulled in front of me in the left lane.

“He indicated left, and I could see he was going to pinch me into the kerb, so I figured it was best to go around him in the right lane to simply get out of his space, which according to the driver made me a ‘fucking dickhead.’”

In the video, you can see that having almost come to a stop, the driver then sets off again, changes to the right hand lane and honks a bit more.

He shouts for Lyndon to pull over and calls him an ‘imbecile’.

“I shouted back that he was the idiot, and the driver slammed his brakes on and opened his door in moving traffic, getting out and shouting at me again. At this point I just wanted to leave the situation and headed for the junction.

“I saw a pedestrian and shouted at her to, ‘get your phone out and record this, this guy behind me is nuts’ – but she probably assumed I was the crazy one.

“He pulled up beside me at the lights and shouted, ‘You want to pull up? You fucking cunt,’ and continued with a tirade to that effect.

“He was wished a nice day and I headed into Windsor where I flagged down an officer and reported the incident, making a formal complaint with the footage when I got home.

“Piecing it all together, it appears the man was angry at the fact I filtered to the front of the line. Angry may he be, but it is not acceptable to use a vehicle to threaten and intimidate other road users.

“I just hope Thames Valley Police see it the same, and have the resources to prosecute this driver.”

> 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