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Near Miss of the Day 772: Glitch in police system loses close pass submission

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

A more frustrating than usual close pass features in our Near Miss of the Day series today, not so much because of the actions of the driver – though of course, that’s bad enough, with the motorist overtaking at a pinch point despite an oncoming bus – but because after the cyclist went to the trouble of completing the form and submitting it to police, a glitch in their system meant it disappeared into the ether, or wherever it is that digital files that fail to reach their destination end up.

The footage was filmed by road.cc reader Tim, who told us that he shot it on 23 February, only to receive the following response: “Thank you for informing us of your recent road traffic incident, unfortunately there was a severe issue that occurred with the Online reporting system which in turn caused all evidence created on the form to not attach and reach this department.

“This lasted roughly for 52 hours from around 1300 on 21/02/2022 until fixed at 15.40 on 23/02/2022.”

Tim added that he resubmitted the video and accompanying information, but has heard nothing further since then …

> 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

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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10 comments

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wtjs | 1 year ago
1 like

Tim added that he resubmitted the video and accompanying information, but has heard nothing further since then …

It was a dodge, and they're afraid of providing evidence against themselves by Dodge 2 which would have been something like 'owing to the glitch and the backlog, we were unfortunately unable to process the resubmitted video within the 14 day limit'. There's no end of lying going on at the police- Lancashire even claimed that 2 really dire close-passes (featured on here) had been NFA'd because 'no video submitted with report'. It's not even a very good lie because I have emails from a different officer which unequivocally prove the video was, of course, sent in with the report- we all know that any report from a cyclist without a video doesn't even cross the hibernation consciousness level of a traffic officer.

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a1white | 1 year ago
1 like

Sounds a bit suspicious when the police claim they lost evidence due to a 'glitch' or whatver 🧐

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Hirsute replied to a1white | 1 year ago
0 likes

No server is guaranteed to be up 100% of the time. If you are in trading in the city, they have systems that allow server2 to take over if server1 fails but obviously not applicable here.

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hawkinspeter replied to a1white | 1 year ago
4 likes

a1white wrote:

Sounds a bit suspicious when the police claim they lost evidence due to a 'glitch' or whatver 🧐

Not as suspicious as fining people for attending a party during lockdown and yet mysteriously not fining Boris for attending the same party as it would be embarrassing for him

Avatar
brooksby replied to hawkinspeter | 1 year ago
3 likes

hawkinspeter wrote:

a1white wrote:

Sounds a bit suspicious when the police claim they lost evidence due to a 'glitch' or whatver 🧐

Not as suspicious as fining people for attending a party during lockdown and yet mysteriously not fining Boris for attending the same party as it would be embarrassing for him

Clearly he'd been ambushed by a bottle and a glass...

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Secret_squirrel replied to a1white | 1 year ago
0 likes

a1white wrote:

Sounds a bit suspicious when the police claim they lost evidence due to a 'glitch' or whatver 🧐

agreed. Would be interesting to know if they are on Nextbase which is a national system and unlikely to go down for 3 days without anyone noticing.   It's always possible that a more local related system went down I guess 

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Secret_squirrel | 1 year ago
5 likes

This guy is a legend!  Next time I'm close passed I'm going to forego turning the air blue and instead shout "Oh hello" in jaunty tones whilst reading the reg plate out.

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PRSboy replied to Secret_squirrel | 1 year ago
4 likes

Secret_squirrel wrote:

This guy is a legend!  Next time I'm close passed I'm going to forego turning the air blue and instead shout "Oh hello" in jaunty tones whilst reading the reg plate out.

Indeed, very zen.  I enjoyed the music too, so much so I watched the video to the end!

 

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chrisonabike replied to Secret_squirrel | 1 year ago
3 likes

Hello sailor!  I loved that tone too.  Don't shout 'em down, send them up.  Think Mr. C wagging his finger at them while declaring them "very naughty!" or "absolutely outrageous, mate!"

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nordog | 1 year ago
5 likes

If that were me I forgo that silly very narrow cycle lane and ride the traffic lane.

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