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news
Near Miss of the Day 669: Cyclist confronts driver after 'worst overtake I've ever seen'
The road.cc reader involved in today's video managed to catch up with the motorist who'd nearly sent him into the hedges on a country lane in Kent, labelling the close pass 'the worst I've ever seen' to the driver before reporting him to the police.
It is one of the many close passes the cyclist has had to deal with over the years, like so many of you, prompting him to film his rides as potential evidence.
Kent Police received this footage but only issued the motorist with a warning letter, which the cyclist believes is 'not a very satisfactory result'. What do you think upon closer inspection, does this driver deserve a tougher punishment?
> 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
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80 comments
I do the same. They wait for me, then I wait for them, I think that's a fair trade.
Not sure it would have worked with this driver though. Looking at the rear footage, he seemed determined to force his way past.
Nasty aggressive driving. Yet another one where you wonder why they seem in such a rush. Is a Mini that awful you are compelled to drive like a lunatic to minimise time behind the wheel?
Well he had to get to that layby, to, to , to get out of his car. The couple seconds that the rider cost him were really really important y'know
He parked up literally seconds later - you could probably see that lay-by (and his house, I'll wager) from where he overtook, so what on earth was the point!?!
Cos.. reasons....
thats the thing that annoys me most about this style of overtake, its just a got to get in front of the cyclist overtake, theres no rhyme or reason or logic behind it, because we all know they arent remotely being delayed by the cyclist.
not sure Id have stopped to have a chat with them about it, theyd have certainly been glared at though as Id pass, and I might have held my drinks bottle in their general direction,and given it a squirt just to clean the drinking lid from all the crud on the road you understand.
Classic "I'm so angry because I feel you wasted a few seconds of my time I need to waste minutes of my time explaining just that."
So loads of distance...
No distance would be slamming on a full emergency stop half way through the overtake and skidding past the turning into their driveway.
(yes, seriously I have had a driver so determined to overtake that they were unable to slow enough to make their turn... )
Yeah, see this often, I think many of the drivers who do this genuinely haven't considered the speeds, and, therefore, the distances covered by fairly fast paced riders. For many I suspect it's a lack of conscious awareness re their driving decisions, eg, they haven't effectively evaluated the risk cost/benefit dynamic of overtaking.
Many driving decision take place on the edge of consciousness awareness - there is significant research on this subject. Raising people's awareness to risk can often, facilitate, behavioral change, belive it or not.
Definitely have that with me sometimes. They see bike so think "that will be slow" so I have plenty of time to get through the narrow section, make the left, cross in front.
One day on a quick 20 miler, I was stopped at some lights to go straight on and a car turning left pulled along side me and the driver stated "you know you were doing 25mph down that bit". (I was actually touching 28 on my Wahoo but it was downhill 3-4% for parts of it). The road was 30mph so a bit puzzled about the comment and it turned out he was impressed I could do that speed on a bike.
"You were in the middle of the road mate" - a clear admission, on camera, that it was dangerous to overtake! Even if one (wrongly) doesn't think the cyclist should've been there (I can hear trollish fingers tapping out, "All the cyclist had to do was pull over to the side courteously like I do and the driver would've gone past with a courteous smile and a wave and we would've all enjoyed our day") it cannot be denied that the driver has openly admitted making a dangerous pass.
Yep, it wasn't a patictularly adroit 'legal' argument. 🙂
I'd say he needs to be beaten to near death for that, but I'd be blocking the overtake and establishing eye contact, that usually changes their tune
Same here.
I'm not exactly a shrinking violet.
Had the driver said I'm sorry, I'd say that the police response would have been ok.
But the they didn't. They doubled down even maintaining that the manoeuvre was actually justified (in spite of not even disputing it was piss poor)
This should have been a 3 pointer at least
BTW I am showing full empathy for the poor driver who must have been terrified, poor lamb.
Had the driver said "I'm sorry" I wouldn't even have reported it (which is a huge hassle here in Scotland) because he'd be acknowledging that he knows it was wrong.
This driver tried to defend his behaviour, clearly insisting that it was acceptable and indicating he plans to continue driving like that. It's disappointing he didn't get points and a fine for that offence.
I suspected that was the case, but didn't want to put words in your mouth.
Thanks for submitting it to the police, and taking the time to post it here
Don't think this is the videographer Badg, Kent and Glasgow, Scotland are quite a distance apart. Think he is stating his actions in a similar situation following on from yours.
Well spotted
Sorry Ianglasgow and anonymous poster....
And so you should. Driving that close, if anything happened, they could have had to shout at the cyclist that they almost killed him.
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