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Near Miss of the Day 855: Driver dangerously overtakes on the wrong side… is let off the hook by the police because she lives abroad

A consecutive Near Miss of the Day from London. Surprised?

After sending a cyclist diving to the side behind parked cars, the driver seems to have found a new loophole in the law: Don’t live in the UK!

At least that’s what the police are claiming after Rendel Harris submitted footage of his near-miss in Southwark, London to the Met on the same day of the incident back in October 2022.

> Near Miss of the Day 854: Taxi driver hits cyclist with wing mirror at pinch point... blames rider for swerving

He was descending down the hill towards Camberwell Grove and could see a white 4x4 drive opposite him up the hill. However, a Toyota Yaris, whose number plate he caught on camera, proceeded to overtake the 4x4 on the extremely narrow road and headed straight towards him at high speed.

“It forced me to dive to the side and stop up against the parked cars on the left, with the oncoming vehicle missing my right-hand handlebar by about 20 cm,” Harris told road.cc.

He appreciated the 4x4 driver’s reading of the situation as he slowed down, allowing the speeding driver to pass and most definitely saving Harris from a nasty collision.

“Huge vote of thanks to the 4x4 driver who realised what was going on and pulled in and slowed down. If he had insisted on holding his line and speed, the Yaris would most certainly have hit me,” continued Harris.

In the video, the 4x4 driver can be seen coming to a complete halt after the Yaris sped past himself and Harris, exchanging a few words to remark on the insanity of the situation. He tells the driver, “I’ve got it on camera, she’s going to the police.”

Except, she didn’t. Four months later, the Met police informed Harris: “Our enquiries have resulted in a driver residing abroad, therefore we have had no option but to close this case.”

Harris, a road.cc reader and someone who isn't new to NMotD, commented, “Obviously I'm not very happy about this result, the police do seem to have done their best to trace the driver but is it the case that now anyone who lives abroad can't be pursued for offences in the UK?”

> Updated – Near Miss of the Day 549: Cyclist “flabbergasted” as magistrates acquit close pass driver (video includes swearing)

“And do the police take the registered keeper's word that the driver at the time of the incident lives abroad? That would seem to open up a massive loophole in the law if you can simply nominate a friend in a foreign country as a driver any time you are accused of an offence.”

Harris also submitted a FOI request with a bunch of questions, including if proof was submitted that the alleged driver resides abroad. However, the request couldn’t be fulfilled due to reasons of GDPR cited.

And if you were wondering about what was Harris wearing, he had reflective Proviz Night Rider jacket and fluorescent yellow gloves and helmet on. To top that off, he had a strobing daylight running light on the front of his bike too. Well, there goes any arguments of the driver being unable to see him!

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

Adwitiya joined road.cc in 2023 as a news writer after graduating with a masters in journalism from Cardiff University. His dissertation focused on active travel, which soon threw him into the deep end of covering everything related to the two-wheeled tool, and now cycling is as big a part of his life as guitars and football. He has previously covered local and national politics for Voice Wales, and also likes to writes about science, tech and the environment, if he can find the time. Living right next to the Taff trail in the Welsh capital, you can find him trying to tackle the brutal climbs in the valleys.

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34 comments

Avatar
Justanotherhuman | 1 year ago
5 likes

Could they not put a mark on the passport close the case, next time they return to the uk. A lovely welcome Committee

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ErnieC | 1 year ago
4 likes

Even if the driver was a foreign national, no excuse for overtaking when there is someone coming down the road. Doubt they would have tried that manouver if there had been a bus trundling down the road. 

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HoarseMann | 1 year ago
2 likes

If they were an overseas visitor, then they probably don't have a UK driving licence - prosecuting them would therefore (quite literally) be pointless, but they could at least have fined them.

Visitors to the UK can drive for 12 months without having to apply for a UK licence. That timescale resets everytime they leave and then return. So, as long as you visit your home country once a year, you could be driving perpetually on UK roads without ever passing a UK test.

Quite a nasty one that, not sure if seeing it coming was better or worse!

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eburtthebike replied to HoarseMann | 1 year ago
8 likes

HoarseMann wrote:

Visitors to the UK can drive for 12 months without having to apply for a UK licence.

Does Scruella Braverman know this?  I'm sure she'll be all over it once she finds out that those nasty foreigners are threatening us poor vulnerable cyclists as well as taking advantage of the NHS, working in the black economy and claiming the dole, while voting illegally for the tories.

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nosferatu1001 replied to HoarseMann | 1 year ago
3 likes

They create a ghost licence, and apply the points there - and so can ban people. 
 

usually the police require the keeper to prove the overseas driver was insured

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lio replied to HoarseMann | 1 year ago
5 likes

I'm of the opinion that it should be a crime for the registered keeper of the vehicle to lend it to someone without a license.

I think it should also be a crime to not know who's driving your car.

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Rendel Harris replied to lio | 1 year ago
3 likes

Absolutely. As I mentioned elsewhere, in Canada the registered keeper is responsible for checking that anyone using their vehicle has the appropriate licence and insurance and is also liable for penalties for any crimes, e.g. drink driving, another person commits when using their vehicle. 

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CyclingInGawler replied to HoarseMann | 1 year ago
4 likes

I'm pretty sure that under the reciprocal arrangements any points I pick up driving during my visits to the UK can be applied to my South Australian divers licence. 

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HoarseMann replied to CyclingInGawler | 1 year ago
3 likes

Possibly, but I suspect even if a mechanism exists, it's too complicated for the police to bother with in all but the worst cases.

Apparently, one Brexit benefit is EU drivers can now evade prosecution in the UK (and vice-versa):
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/01/13/speeding-british-drivers-eva...

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ChrisB200SX replied to CyclingInGawler | 1 year ago
2 likes

CyclingInGawler wrote:

I'm pretty sure that under the reciprocal arrangements any points I pick up driving during my visits to the UK can be applied to my South Australian divers licence. 

Drive safe. Wouldn't want to be banned from Scuba activities.

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wtjs | 1 year ago
6 likes

I'm taking this as an opportunity to display one of my newly uploaded videos- even though it's an old case, matters have not improved here as shown on this morning's assault by Astra PO17 ROU

https://upride.cc/incident/p40htn_audi_closepassdwlcross/

 

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Sriracha | 1 year ago
11 likes

Driver is beyond the reach of the law? Then seize the car.

Edit - if they can't seize the car, put a marker on their passport; always assuming the story is genuine, unless this was their one and only visit then they can be arrested on their next visit. Given that they were not driving a hire car, I guess they were visiting friends or rellies and would be likely to want to visit again.

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Awavey replied to Sriracha | 1 year ago
3 likes

Feels like the registered keeper could have been pursued, they'd have to prove it wasn't them driving or accept the penalties for non id of the driver, as else everyone would claim it was some non UK resident driving. Even Mr Loophole doesn't use that one.

But I suspect it falls in that there were no injuries, its rubbish for Rendel as the victim, but how much effort do they put in for it bucket.

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nosferatu1001 replied to Awavey | 1 year ago
3 likes

The police usually ask for insurance details for any claimed overseas driver, and prosecute the rk if they don't provide a certificate 

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Sriracha replied to nosferatu1001 | 1 year ago
2 likes

Can the police then not put some info on the insurance industry database? After all, insurers should be fully appraised of the risks they are asked to underwrite next time this person wishes to drive in the UK.

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NotNigel | 1 year ago
9 likes

Waaaiit a minute...

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Rendel Harris replied to NotNigel | 1 year ago
5 likes

Love it!

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squidgy | 1 year ago
9 likes

Probably crashed into a cycle storage rack shortly after.

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NOtotheEU | 1 year ago
4 likes

A consecutive Near Miss of the Day from London. Surprised?

A little. I sent you two last summer from Birmingham that ended up in court but you haven't used either.

Still think NMOTD is very important though and it is what brought me to Road.cc in the first place.

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ktache | 1 year ago
12 likes

And which version of Nigel will make themselves conspicuous by not being able to resist blaming rendal for this?

Or perhaps Martin's new username, which I do hope is tin foil Dave.

Good reactions from you and the 4x4 driver.

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Rendel Harris replied to ktache | 1 year ago
12 likes

Definite big thanks to the 4x4 guy, if he'd held his ground she clearly wasn't going to back off and the consequences would have been quite ugly.

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wtjs | 1 year ago
5 likes

However, the request couldn’t be fulfilled due to reasons of GDPR cited

I have already bored people on here with the GDPR dodge used by Lancashire and Sussex, at least, in which they force people to promise that they're 'informing people that they're being filmed'  in order that the police deign to accept the report, even when that's almost invariably untrue. I have never even seen such a notification on any vehicle or bike up here, and I certainly don't carry one- accepting this police misuse of GDPR would open the way to interminable further dodges from the Guilty Offender's Shyster Lawyer : m'lud, how could my law-abiding Audi/ BMW driving client see such a notification when passing this invisible cyclist who is undoubtedly always passing traffic lights at red?

In addition, I have begun the long process leading to the Information Tribunal over this case, where I received the joke LC 'action letter' (this was before OpSnap Lancs stopped responding in any way to reports), but they later refused, in response to FoI, to tell me anything about what they actually did, citing the police omni-dodge GDPR. 

https://upride.cc/incident/4148vz_travellerschoicecoach_closepass/

This was despite having previously, admittedly in a different case, written to me stating that if I wanted to know what had happened to an RLJ driver

https://upride.cc/incident/mf09hyk_chevroletaveo_redlightcross/

I would have to submit a FoI request. 

 

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Mungecrundle | 1 year ago
12 likes

"...he had reflective Proviz Night Rider jacket and fluorescent yellow gloves and helmet on. To top that off, he had a strobing daylight running light on the front of his bike too. Well, there goes any arguments of the driver being unable to see him!"

Well I guess that leaves the cycling on the public highway in less than perfect conditions loophole currently being trialled by IoM Police.

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hawkinspeter | 1 year ago
6 likes

That's ridiculously bad driving and the Met police are not fit for purpose if they can't enforce the law even when provided with clear video evidence.

It's about time that failing police services are completely sacked and people brought in that actually care about doing their jobs.

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Mungecrundle replied to hawkinspeter | 1 year ago
16 likes

To be fair to the Met Police, it would seem that they generate quite a lot of their own workload so maybe don't have the time or resources to deal with crimes committed by members of the public.

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nosferatu1001 replied to hawkinspeter | 1 year ago
0 likes

How, practically, do you prosecute a driver who lives overseas?  

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hawkinspeter replied to nosferatu1001 | 1 year ago
2 likes

nosferatu1001 wrote:

How, practically, do you prosecute a driver who lives overseas?  

Most likely using MLA (Mutual Legal Assistance): https://www.cps.gov.uk/legal-guidance/international-enquiries

I have no idea how it would work in terms of points on a license, but I'd imagine they could be issued a fine and then the next time they visit the UK, they could be apprehended at the border.

I wonder how insurance companies deal with overseas drivers and the unknown level of risk they present.

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Rendel Harris | 1 year ago
21 likes

Just for interest [sic], these are the questions I asked in my FOI request which was met with the predictable "can't answer - GDPR" response:

A) What proof was offered by the registered keeper that the alleged driver resides abroad? Was s/he simply taken at their word?

B) Did the police check that the alleged driver was licensed and insured to use the vehicle in the UK?

C) If one or neither of the above (insurance/licence) was in place, why was the registered keeper not prosecuted for allowing unlawful use of their vehicle?

D) Was the age and sex of the alleged driver supplied by the registered keeper and did it accord with the fact that the vehicle at the time of the incident was being driven by a relatively young woman?

E) Was the alleged driver resident in the UK at the time the NIP was sent and left subsequently?

F) Have any measures been implemented to charge the alleged driver should they return to the UK and/or attempt to drive on UK roads?  

G) Is the alleged driver a British passport/licence holder who resides abroad or a foreign national? If the former, why was no action taken against them in absentia?

The only thing that I would add to this is that in Canada if you lend someone your car and they commit an offence with it, you face sanctions as well. That would seem to be a good way of closing this loophole.

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Secret_squirrel replied to Rendel Harris | 1 year ago
14 likes

And none of the answers to those Q's would breach GDPR, as none require releasing PII. 

But we all knew that didnt we?

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Awavey replied to Secret_squirrel | 1 year ago
2 likes

I'm not sure, it feels too specific to this case and driver for me, if the questions were more generalised, like what proof do you ask for in non resident cases, and what checks are made for non resident cases, I think would elicit a better response. As soon as you start tiptoeing around the specifics of one case it's very easy for the recipient of the foi to say nope that falls into identifiable information, so no go.

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