Near Miss of the Day 119: Two incidents with the same bin lorry several months apart

Conrad Dalziel had two separate incidents with the same bin lorry, a few months apart. In the first, the driver pulled out on him on a roundabout. The second was a close-pass where he says he was almost taken out by the machinery on the back.

Conrad said: “In the first one I was clearly well on the roundabout when the driver kept going and glad I managed to slow down in time to avoid contact. I’m hesitant to slam my brakes on when negotiating roundabouts as I’ve had a few offs on roundabouts due to ice or spilt fuel/oil and I might have ended up under its wheels if I’d done so here.

“The second one was a really stupid move by the driver, overtaking on approach to a sharp blind corner with traffic coming in the opposite direction in the rain.

“Again, I needed to find a space to avoid the truck and the pavement on the far side of the corner. Braking and sharp turning were both inhibited by the conditions.”

Conrad reported both incidents to the council, but said he didn’t know whether they involved the same driver.

He added: “It’s difficult to make out the number plate on the second video but the council confirmed it was the same van from their GPS data when I contacted them.

“To be fair to the council, they took the situation very seriously and the drivers are noticeably more careful now – no notable incidents with bin lorries since this one.”

> 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