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Near Miss of the Day 446: Close pass of cyclist caught on bus’s own cameras

Our regular series featuring close passes from around the country - today it's London...

Today’s near miss offers an unusual vantage point. The footage was not shot by the cyclist, but by the cameras attached to the bus.

The incident occurred earlier this month in Herne Hill.

Simon said: “I don't run cameras, but this close pass was unusually disturbing so I did a Subject Access Request for the bus’s CCTV, which has just come through.

“I would have reported to the police but now it is too late, such is the process to get the CCTV.

“As you can see, the bus barrels through the lights just as I'm pulling off at the top of Red Post Hill in London.

“The side camera then shows me pulling out sharply to avoid the bus – it must have been an inch or two from my bars. (It didn't help that I had a picture strapped to my bag.)”

Simon received a predictably vague response from Stagecoach.

He was told: “I was concerned to learn of the incident you described as our driver training places much emphasis on sharing the road with cyclists.

“I can advise that a copy of the CCTV was passed to the garage manager responsible for the route and that action has been taken with the driver in regard to the event seen.

“I am not able to give details of the outcome, however, I can assure you that any sanction imposed would have been appropriate and intended to avoid any repetition of such behaviour.”

> 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

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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