Near Miss of the Day 905: Oncoming driver who didn’t rejoin lane after overtaking another motorist passes cyclist on the wrong side of the road

You might be mistaken in thinking that road.cc has perhaps broadened its Near Miss of the Day series beyond the United Kingdom, given that the driver in this instance was so unbothered by the presence of a cyclist on the road that they didn’t even care to slow down and tuck back into the right lane, instead carrying on and passing the cyclist on the wrong side of the road, as the cyclist was forced to come to a stop in the middle of the road.

This incident is from Ryal Fold, a tiny village between Bolton and Blackburn along the A675. road.cc reader and cyclist Don Weir was riding on the Tockholes Road was slowing down and moving towards the white line in the centre of the road, ready to turn into the car park of the R&R cafe.

“As you can see from the clip, the road isn’t terribly wide — surely not enough for two cars and a bike alongside,” he told us. “Since there was a car approaching [from the other side] and indicating left, I slowed down, ready to follow him in.”

“You can then see a car overtaking in the opposite direction. Having presumably seen me, he made no attempt to stop or slow down. The problem I had was trying to decide whether he would pull back over to his left, in which case I could steered left, or pass on my left, in which case I could have steered right.”

“All I could actually do was stop and hope for the best.”

> Near Miss of the Day 900: Police offer “suitable advice” to driver who squeezed between cyclist and oncoming campervan in dangerous close pass

Weir proceeded to upload the clip to the Lancashire Constabulary Portal, including details of both the offending vehicle and the vehicle being overtaken, to which they replied:

Your footage has been viewed by members of the OpSnapLancs team and we are writing to advise you that we will be taking further action in relation to the incident you have witnessed. 

We will write to the registered keepers of the vehicles involved, requiring them to identify the drivers.

Once the drivers have been identified then we will assess the most appropriate outcome, which will be;

 1.  An advice letter/Intelligence report.
2.  A Driver Educational Course.
3.  A conditional offer of points and a fine.
4.   A summons to court.

Should you be required to give evidence in court you will be further contacted by Witness Care officers.

Please advise us immediately if you would not be prepared to attend Magistrates Court if required.

However, since this response, Weir told us that he hasn’t received any other communication. road.cc has contacted Lancashire Police for comment.

Unfortunately, this isn't the first time we're coming across a near miss that includes a driver on the wrong side of the road. Last year, a taxi driver decided to overtake a long queue of vehicles at speed in the wrong lane – narrowly avoiding an oncoming cyclist Kate Ball, who works for cycling charity Wheels for Wellbeing and was riding with her daughter, in the process.

> Near Miss of the Day 849: Warning letter for taxi driver who close passed oncoming cyclist while overtaking queue of traffic in wrong lane

Derbyshire Police ended up giving the driver just a warning letter, deciding on “offence committed, conviction not realistic or prosecution not proportional”.

“My daughter goes to one of the schools,” Kate told road.cc. “And there are no route options on quieter streets, or I’d use them!

“There are frequently vehicles parked in the cycle lane, too,” she continued. “Derby City Council have confirmed in writing that they allow all-day parking on double yellows, including in cycle lanes and on pavements, ‘for loading and unloading’. That gets exciting with poor sight lines and 40mph traffic.”

“The unwillingness of local authorities including Derby to improve infrastructure to national guidance standards is another important issue making our roads disproportionately dangerous even in comparison to national figures.”

> 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