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Near Miss of the Day 468: Beware of this vehicle passing on the outside

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

Today’s near miss is an unnecessarily close pass by a driver who declined to wait five seconds for a safer opportunity to pass. You’ll no doubt have spotted the 'cyclists beware of passing this vehicle on the inside' sticker on the back of the van.

“The irony of the sign wasn't lost on me just after the van brushed the hairs on my leg,” said Glenn.

The incident occurred in Rochford, Essex, but Glenn said he’d been reluctant to send it before now.

“I've held back since July to let Essex Police work their magic – but I get the distinct impression there's not much magic going on.”

Writing on the YouTube page, he added: “Essex police discourage sharing of these videos but then have a caveat on their upload page that due to Covid restrictions a prosecution is currently very unlikely.”

Glenn said the incident took place about two minutes after leaving his house.

“I've let it run a little afterwards just so you can see how much room the van would have had to pass five seconds later, and also to see them turning right just 100 yards further up the road.”

> 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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15 comments

Avatar
Pantster | 3 years ago
1 like

Inexcusable driving when he could have just waited a few seconds. For me this is the type that needs cracking down on as they've chosen to squeeze theough

 

I know wide angle lenses don't help but it looks like the rider is very close to the curb. On such roads I always ride in the 'primary' position, a metre from the curb so he has no choice but to wait a few seconds more

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kylemalco replied to Pantster | 3 years ago
1 like

Have to agree with your comment entirely. The fact the cyclist rides through the bus stop looks too courteous. Sometimes you just have to ride the primary line and discourage overtaking

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andystow | 3 years ago
1 like

The following car did it perfectly.

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Awavey | 3 years ago
5 likes

what makes it worse, other than the lack of action, the stupid sticker on the back, the van takes the next right turn, a turn given the nature of the road and traffic they may well have had to stop and wait for a gap, and the cyclist would have caught them up. which kind of shows the not even thinking about what they are doing next approach to driving that typifies close passes like that.

I dont think riding in prime would help on a road like that, and everyone else was managing to find the room to overtake safely, Essex white van man was just driving like an idiot

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DoctorFish | 3 years ago
3 likes

I said a bad word.  Terrifying manouver.  

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LetsBePartOfThe... | 3 years ago
3 likes

That is disgusting driving. The van driver is only interested in their self, and gave no consideration whatsoever to the cyclist they endangered

The lane itself was only just wider than the van. It seems like a strong case for the cyclist to adopt the primary position every journey there. Make it clear to motorists that they cannot overtake at all within the lane. And that they will need to be patient until they can overtake in the oncoming lane when it is clear and safe. Or perhaps just not overtake at all

 

 

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Milkfloat | 3 years ago
4 likes

It does not excuse the van driver,  but please help yourself and stop riding in the gutter.

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NZ Vegan Rider replied to Milkfloat | 3 years ago
1 like

Agree.

On that road (I have a helmet mirror) I would've seen them coming so close and moved more to the middle of the road.

Terrible driving and utterly slack by the cops ;-(

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griggers replied to Milkfloat | 3 years ago
0 likes

Yes!!! Riding assertively May have prevented this near-accident. 

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Hirsute | 3 years ago
0 likes

My submission from late August to Essex police is

Status: No further action
Notes: due to operational commitments unable to process

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OnTheRopes replied to Hirsute | 3 years ago
3 likes

It's about time the Police were challenged on their apparent general policy of "Can't be ar**ed"

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Hirsute replied to OnTheRopes | 3 years ago
0 likes

I should have put that this is the current policy.
Up to early August, I was on 6 or 7 in a row of course or points on the licence ( which I thought was reasonable given court difficulties under current circumstances).

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HeadDown replied to OnTheRopes | 3 years ago
4 likes

It's just funding, innit. Noone joins the police force to not then bother. They're drowned in red tape and have been decimated in numbers. While those who largely caused it, being the financial crash of 2008, continue to mince around scot  free - but that's a different story. 

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wtjs replied to OnTheRopes | 3 years ago
2 likes

It's about time the Police were challenged on their apparent general policy of "Can't be ar**ed"

Yep! That's a real close pass. Lancashire has come up with a new dodge in their ceaseless quest to ignore all traffic incidents and file them straight in the bin with no officer ever seeing them and having to take responsibility: You can now report as much as you like online, such as the school bus crossing right over the unbroken white line in a dangerous place, but you won't receive any response whatsoever. I waited 3 days and then wrote to 'Force Control Room' who used to issue the LC-XXXXXX-XXXX incident number, asking them to provide said number. I received the automatic bounceback saying how busy they are, then nothing. Another 3 days have elapsed. A little more delay and they can send it automatically to the 'now too late to process' bin.

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m.a.t.t. | 3 years ago
4 likes

That's disgraceful

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