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Near Miss of the Day 798: "20-second masterpiece in karma" - a close pass results in a speeding fineclosepasstwitter credit Ollie

Near Miss of the Day 798: "20-second masterpiece in karma" - a close pass results in a speeding fine

Our regular series featuring close passes from around the country - this time a driver squeezes past a cyclist into a speed camera flash
by Suvi Loponen
Sat, Jul 16, 2022 13:55
6

Today’s Near Miss comes from Ollie. In the video that Ollie posted on Twitter a car first squeezes past him only to get two flashes on the speed camera just seconds later. 

Sometimes a close pass has immediate consequences and this time, the driver speeding past a cyclist got to experience that. 

> Near Miss of the Day 797: Motorist charged with careless driving after overtaking at speed towards oncoming vehicle

In the video that Ollie shared on Twitter, a driver decided to pass him on a 20mph road. They failed to acknowledge the speed limit and got two flashes almost simultaneously to the risky overtake.

Ollie's reaction can be heard in the video and in the replies following his tweet, he points out how the speeding was clear as he was doing 20mph, meaning the car had to be going faster.

It seems like Ollie isn't alone in what he experienced, as his Tweet also resulted in others sharing their experiences of car drivers being in such a rush to pass cyclists that they completely miss what is ahead on the road. 

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

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Near Miss of the Day
NMotD
Suvi Loponen

Suvi joined F-At in 2022, first writing for off-road.cc. She's since joined the tech hub, and contributes to all of the sites covering tech news, features, reviews and women's cycling content. Lover of long-distance cycling, Suvi is easily convinced to join any rides and events that cover over 100km, and ideally, plenty of cake and coffee stops. 

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6 comments

Avatar
wtjs | 1 year ago
2 likes

This is another aspect of the unshakeable police belief that cyclists are always travelling at less than 10 mph, and that therefore it is always legal to cross unbroken white lines to overtake them no matter what the road and traffic conditions are. If they could they would be prosecuting cyclists exceeding the motorised traffic speed limit, just like they do with cyclists passing red lights while excusing motorists with 'everybody does it', and refusing to prosecute or, indeed, taking any action against them. Needless to say, Lancashire Constabulary has refused to respond to my report of battered Mazda 2 PE62 ZZG going through the lights 1.2 seconds after they turned red

Avatar
HLaB | 1 year ago
0 likes

A lot of speed cameras apparently flash but don't actually have film in them; I hope this is not the case here though.

Avatar
Karlt replied to HLaB | 1 year ago
5 likes
HLaB wrote:

A lot of speed cameras apparently flash but don't actually have film in them; I hope this is not the case here though.

Pretty sure they're all digital now anyway.

Avatar
Mungecrundle | 1 year ago
5 likes

Driver, upon receiving the speeding ticket in the post: "That's so unfair! The cyclist forced me to speed to get past him."

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IanMSpencer replied to Mungecrundle | 1 year ago
3 likes

There are two 20 areas near me which both have features that mean I am very unhappy to be passed. My solution has always been to try and ride as fast as I can - both level areas with traffic calming crossings, bends and other hazards so no reasonable motorist should want to overtake.

The unreasonable driver response is often to do bizarre and agressive overtakes, when they legally are not being held up at all - in fact on my local High Street, when I check my mirror after an anxious junction where I take a very strong position to ensure I am seen by cars and am looking ahead I lose track of what has happened behind and it is rare that a car has kept up, so either they can't keep up because they have to cope with crossings and speed bumps that I can ride over more comfortably, or they are keeping up by getting fixated on passing me and ignoring the traffic calming. I never filter to avoid enraging drivers (and we all know that is a real problem and you can't tell from looking at the back of a car which driver has a need to be sat in the naughty corner until they learn to behave) even though I am normally quicker when not impeded, the half mile or so is not worth the grief. Even dismounting and walking through temporary traffic lights can enrage some drivers.

Avatar
zideriup | 1 year ago
7 likes

Driver, upon receiving the speeding ticket in the post: 'But that can't be right. They said on Facebook that the 20mph speed limit isn't even enforced'.

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