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news
Pickup driver chases cyclist after close pass (Jay McSerk, Twitter)Near Miss of the Day 839: Pickup driver screeches to a halt and chases cyclist on foot after rider slapped vehicle during close pass
This story was updated on Monday 12 December 2022 after the cyclist involved released a statement explaining how the incident had been resolved via a Community Resolution, something he described as "the best option for me and the other individual involved".
The original video had been deleted from social media and another uploaded in its place with the driver's number plate blurred following people "harassing another individual associated with this vehicle". However, the cyclist told us due to the unsavoury nature of the replies he has chosen to delete it off social media for good, hence the lack of video below.
Jay McSerk took to Twitter to say: "The police have been in contact with the driver who voluntarily admitted to being behind the wheel.
"They are apologetic about the incident and the case will be closed via a Community Resolution. This is the best option for both me and the other individual involved.
"Unfortunately, a few people have gone out of their way to harass another individual associated with this vehicle. Because of this I've deleted the original tweet/video and now posting this one with the registration blurred out.
"If you have shared information derived from the original post, please remove it."
A Community Resolution is a fairly unsevere punishment often used by police to resolve low-level ofending. If a person accepts a Community Resolution they are not prosecuted so are not required to attend court, but accept they committed the offence and may have to engage in reparation, ranging from an apology to attending a course.
Orginial story:
Sussex Police have come in for criticism after a motorist, who close passed a cyclist through a busy town, before reacting to the rider’s retaliatory slap to his vehicle by slamming on his brakes and chasing him on foot, escaped punishment for the dangerous overtake.
Cyclist Jay uploaded the footage of the terrifying incident to Sussex Police’s Operation Crackdown portal, but was told that the pass failed to warrant a prosecution or even a warning letter.
1/2
Reuploaded video of original video with blurring pic.twitter.com/3ac4bGfro7— Jay McSerk (@JMcserk) December 12, 2022
In the clip, the motorist, driving a white pickup truck, squeezes between the cyclist and a queue of traffic in the opposite lane. After Jay hits the rear of his vehicle – the universal signal that a driver is too close – the motorist then comes to a screeching halt right on a pedestrian crossing, before getting out of his car to confront the cyclist. Realising what is about to happen, Jay turns and flees, as the drivers shouts forlornly behind (ironically holding up traffic in the process).
Posting the video to Twitter, Jay wrote: “This driver is clearly a danger to everyone using the roads, using their vehicle like a weapon.”
The driver’s manoeuvre and reaction – and Sussex Police’s subsequent inaction – has been widely condemned on social media.
Guardian journalist and active travel advocate Peter Walker wrote: “Amongst everything else, bringing their pick-up to a tyre-screeching halt *on a pedestrian crossing*, seemingly to start a fight. And no action? Baffling.”
Time trial specialist and cycling author Michael Hutchinson also noted that Jay’s encounter with the angry pickup driver is certainly not an uncommon occurrence for cyclists across the country.
“So apparently driving like this is fine,” he said. “Rider lucky he could escape. I’ve lost count of the number of times I've had to take refuge in gardens, shops, etc.”
Much of the online ire has also been reserved for the attitude of Sussex Police, who contacted the cyclist on social media to tell him that he should simply re-report the incident. Responding to Jay’s tweet, the force told the cyclist that “if you do not believe the decision by Op Crackdown was correct you can contact them again and appeal this” – a reply described by one Twitter user as “mealy-mouthed”.
After Jay queried how best to appeal the original decision, Sussex Police again replied: “Although we have no say in the outcome they give so cannot comment on this, I would still suggest you re-report this as if it were a new report and express your further concerns. You may get a response.”
The police, however, later phoned Jay to inform him that they were looking into the case again, which sounds somewhat more promising.
> 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
Ryan joined road.cc in December 2021 and since then has kept the site’s readers and listeners informed and enthralled (well at least occasionally) on news, the live blog, and the road.cc Podcast. After boarding a wrong bus at the world championships and ruining a good pair of jeans at the cyclocross, he now serves as road.cc’s senior news writer. Before his foray into cycling journalism, he wallowed in the equally pitiless world of academia, where he wrote a book about Victorian politics and droned on about cycling and bikes to classes of bored students (while taking every chance he could get to talk about cycling in print or on the radio). He can be found riding his bike very slowly around the narrow, scenic country lanes of Co. Down.
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Ex black cab https://twitter.com/KingArtAT/status/1783296299787309088
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72 comments
Must admit I've been tempted to slap motorists that are way too close , but a part of me always worries there's some total nutter inside , possibly armed with something in addition to their one tone plus weapon .
Must admit I've been tempted to slap motorists that are way too close
I'm amazed you've all got the time- around here they're passing at 40+, like this Discovery PX07 ZXM allowing me 20 cms. You rarely catch them up because there aren't any traffic lights (except on the A6!), and so few cyclists that there are rarely any traffic jams.
As an aside... if a motorist stops their vehicle, gets out of said vehicle and aporoaches me in an aggressive manner, am I OK to assume I am in danger and defend myself?
If I have the drivers action on camera, and I go straight for a throat punch, am I getting done for assault?
I did have a guy look to get out of their van once... he got as far as opening the door before I said, 'oh, getting out of the van yeah, OK then' before he decided to continue his verbal abuse from the safe confines of his vehicle.
The same basic principles would apply as to any act of self defence - summarised here: https://www.cps.gov.uk/legal-guidance/self-defence-and-prevention-crime
The self defence defence is a minefield. A single punch to the throat might be considered excessive, given that using sufficient force would be lethal.
IANAL but I think you'd be on pretty dodgy ground if there was any route/means of escape, which generally if you're on a bike there will be. The rider here did the sensible thing. I never see any shame in running away from a physical confrontation when possible (and as an ex rugby player I'm not particularly scared of them), if for no other reason (and there are plenty of other reasons) than that there is always the chance that you can push or hit someone, they can go down and hit their head on the kerb and that's your life ruined as you face manslaughter charges. It's simply not worth it.
Sounds to me as though the OP has been pressured to removing all records of the offending vehicle. The supposed 'carrot' being a completely worthless community resolution order.
I wonder what the 'stick' was from the police to ensure the OP's compliance?
Make no mistake, this is no positive outcome. The offender has contacted the police, complained of harrassment and the police has supported that offender, ensuring that the victim stops talking about the incident and remove all evidence of it from the internet.
Utterly disgusting if you ask me.
Community resolution is literally that the thug in the truck writes an apology letter. The police 1st response is the bigger problem, that they didnt do anything until social media shamed them. The thug has an anger problem that should have resulted in being prosecuted before he kills someone, the police had time to consider their action and decided to do nothing about someone using their vehicle as a weapon then chasing their victim down the street.
The 'cycling community resolution' will have caused the perp more trouble! Their company has had to deal with some flack because of it (and rightly so IMO). Perhaps they will now be a little more careful who is driving company vehicles and provide some additional driver training.
I believe Mark Hodson is working on a proposal to standardise 3rd party traffic incident reporting across police forces. So hopefully in time, levels of enforcement will improve.
Pedant [ON] flak [OFF]
Damn it! Been shot down again
Judging by the various blurred images and removed links, I'd guess that they're getting a lot of grief. I don't really agree with people harassing him, but if the police are failing to do their job, then what's the alternative? Causing the business some grief is more acceptable because it was advertised all over the vehicle.
The business wasn't advertised on the vehicle. It had a vanity numberplate, that was visible on a different vehicle used in a photo on the company Google listing.
Google must be putting photos added to google maps through image recognition, the number plate had been ANPR'd by google and came up in an image search!
I think highlighting a potential link with that vehicle to the company is ok. As is sharing details of a vehicle that is being driven dangrously so that others can avoid it. But direct harrassment of the company owner is a step too far.
Hmmm.
What is a vanity numberplate if not an advert?
The issue for the company, aiui anyway, is why does he lend his vehicle to reckless idiots who are inclined to violence.
Sorry - I should have paid attention to the video. I saw a bunch of blurred vehicles and assumed that the company logo was there.
I agree about direct harrassment, but am generally okay with businesses reaping the results of employing psychopaths (see Twitter for more info)
I agree with the 'cycling community resolution' as it seems to be more effective. . Large companies and institutions require their staff to adhere to codes of conduct outside of work and will sack them if they don't, because that behaviour can impact the companies reputation and have a financial impact. Cyclists taking action to highlight how business employees behave will bring longer term benefits than just retribution for one incident, as other businesses will be aware of what can happen and will likely require their staff to be good citizens outside of work or get sacked.
The OP has rather let the side down on this one, unless the offender has paid significant reparations and the OP tells us about them. Otherwise, he'd have been better to leave the case with the police recorded as having done nothing about the offence, which was their original intention. An apology without reparations is entirely worthless, because the fact that no offence is on the record of the villain means that he could commit a similar offence again tomorrow and the police and the Shyster Solicitor could turn up in court with 'the defendant has a clean record, Your Honour '- although my guess is that he doesn't, regardless of the present case
You are probably right, however, the OP has got the police to admit a mistake. It's not easy to admit you were wrong but it's a necessary first step to getting it right next time. I'm not saying things will change overnight but small steps in the right direction is encouraging. Let's hope the force and the driver learn from this incident.
The OP has taken time and trouble to report this and then question the decision. In my opinion he deserves our thanks.
In order to inspire confidence for the public, there does need to be an explanation of what when wrong on the initial submission and how the police will rectify it. Right now it looks like they got found out publicly and they made the publicity problem go away (at least to a cynic like me). I'd like to be wrong.
No criticism of the OP from me, they've got a life to lead, they know what the best decision for them is.
If the driver has come in for a lot of abuse, the person may well think twice in the future. The community resolution is a bit weak-kneed but at least the police finally took some action, even if it was feeble.
the person may well think twice in the future
Drivers like this don't even think once
Well I've gone through my posts and removed links and obscured images as requested by the OP.
A police led community resolution is at least something, but I think a better solution would be to enforce the traffic laws, especially where a vulnerable road user is involved. Why can't the police just hand out 3 points and £100 fine for this sort of thing. The process and legalities need to be streamlined.
It's a shame the 'hierachy of road users' doesn't extend to police dashcam portals, where footage involving pedestrians, cyclists, horseriders or motorcyclists gets a bit more priority. You get the feeling the police didn't even look at the original video submission.
A better solution after the police reverse ferret would have been a police caution for the assault.
A better solution would have been a police caution for the assault
This was never on offer and would not have fulfilled the police requirement for a non-penalty penalty chosen from their very large bag of tricks. We're not going to find out now because of the omerta enforced by the police, but I would have enjoyed the non-apology apology written for him by the police: he apologises for the misunderstanding over his motive for coming gently to a halt and seeking to warmly thank the cyclist for indicating that he had come slightly closer than the non-mandatory 1.5 metres
Your scheduled announcement that a Community Resolution doesnt leave a criminal record, is not recorded nationally, and is not legally binding on the offender.
Its also an easy cop-out for Lez Rozzers of course...
I do wonder if the driver was an employee and not the business owner - though the agressive response to the reviews suggests a certain element of shared anger management training is needed.
Too close, and wrong to try to overtake on zigzag line approaching traffic crossing.
Shame he didn't trip up chasing said rider. Good he has been found out and where he works. Perhaps some folk could ask for a comment as to why he thought putting a vulnerable road user at risk was worth it
Ah, the good old "in too much of a hurry to wait half a second for the one oncoming car that's stopping you from leaving the correct passing distance, but has enough time to get out and pick a fight when someone dares to retaliate for you endagering their life".
As a sidenote, is anyone else struggling to undestand why normal people are even allowed to buy these massive, gas-guzzling, 4x4 monstrosities? I live in a more remote location than probably 98% of people in the UK. Near enough all of my driving is on remote, singletrack country roads, my driveway is half a mile of muddy lane with 15% inclines on it in some places. I have zero issue coping with a 1.5L, front-wheel drive Mini - even now, when it's covered in snow.
There are a plenty of farmers around here who use them as workhorse vehicles (which is fine), but for every one of those you see, you see ten pristine, luxury exmples in an urban environment, that have probably never seen so much as a wet leaf in their lives (much like the one in the above video). The vast majority of people who own these things would seriously struggle to reasonably justify doing so. Same goes for SUVs.
See below for the full explanation, to do with tax breaks for 'working' vehicles. What is really required are tighter guidelines by HMRC as to who gets to claim this kind of vehicle as a commercial working vehicle.
The driver of this classic nutter-vehicle is undoubtedly a dangerous nutter Anyone defending him is a troll/ nutter, and there are more of those on the 'cyclist filmed hitting driver has charges dropped' topic. Those nutters are, at least, easily spotted and avoided
The behaviour of the motorist was insane. My guess, steroid junkie
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