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news
Near Miss of the Day 62: Overtaking National Express coach
Our latest Near Miss of the Day involves a company featured before on road.cc - the coach operator, National Express.
It happened to road.cc reader George Woodrow on Royal Hospital Road in Chelsea, with the coach driver squeezing the cyclist into the kerb as he overtakes him ahead of a section where the road narrows.
George said: "You can see the gap narrowing with no clue my side how far across he would keep on coming. Luckily not enough to hit me but not far off.
"I spoke to the driver after and basically got a shrug of the shoulders. Being none the wiser about what he had done he will inevitably keep on doing it."
The road is one of the main approaches to Victoria Coach Station, and George continued: "Given he must have driven that road many times he would have known the road narrows and from his elevated driving position he could probably have even seen the zebra crossing and cars in front that would have brought him to a halt just after the narrowing.
"So a completely needless pass from all aspects."
George is also sending the footage to National Express and has told us he will let us know what happens.
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.
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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15 comments
I've had it with close passes!
The last time I was close passed by a bus I cught up at the traffic lights, stopped in front of the bus & wouldn't move until the police arrived. It then took some persuasion to get me to move.
Next time I won't budge until the bus company sends another driver.
See it all the time, they focus on getting past and not what’s just up the road.
Aye, which is bad, but to be expected in poorly trained members of the public when they drive. But this guy is a professional driver on a realistic timetable being paid for their time and on a regular route.
I hope the cyclist has reported this to National Express. When similar has happened to me i’ve reported it to the company. Arrival took it seriously and I believe the driver was disaplined and when a fire engine did a similar thing, the driver was sent on an awareness course.
National Express drivers seem to think they are in a must faster & smaller vehicle, they drive like some baseball cap wearing / BMW driver hybrid IME.
A punch to the side of the bus may, or may not, have got his attention.
Bus drivers, like HGV drivers, can't actually hear you.
Btw coaches like buses have lots of cameras on them.
Well that was clearly one of the worse ones in this series.
Last time I was on a national express buss there were signs asking people to report dodgy driving, this is certainly time to test their procedures.
Surely, every cyclist knows that if a bus begins to overtake you you must stop and let them pass...
Cyclist did alright. The issue here is that he should have never been put in that position.
Take the National Express when your life's in a mess
It'll make you smile
When it was a lorry last time we collectively mentioned applying the brakes to save ones life (and that we shouldn't really have to) - this incident would have been a whole lot scarier if the cyclist wasn't 10 times more aware than the bellend driver!
A less experienced rider than George could well have panicked, clipped the kerb and fallen with the bus barging in like that. Simply appalling driving, this fella should not be in charge of a coach.
I think national express drivers have a quota for stuff like this. the ones going into bristol are horrific.
All operated by the same company. although a national company the coaches are operated by local companies. The coaches that operate along the M4 are operated by a company in Avonmouth, not SGB anymore as they are the people operating Megabus in the area now.