Cyclist who swerved to avoid out-of-control driver questions if £500 fine for "driving without due care" an "appropriate" punishment

A cyclist has recalled how he narrowly avoided a collision with a driver who lost control on a bend, the motorist almost smashing into the rider and another vehicle having rounded the corner on the verge of the wrong side of a Somerset road. The images of the incident have also prompted questions about how it was dealt with by Avon & Somerset Police, the driver accepting a fine, penalty points and costs for driving "without due care", some arguing that the motorist should have faced the more severe offence of dangerous driving.

The roads policing unit reported that the incident happened in October, in Ilminster, the driver pleading guilty in court last month to driving without due care, and subsequently being given six penalty points on his driving licence, a £480 fine and ordered to pay costs and victim surcharge totalling £277.

Without Due Care (10/2023) Ilminster. Driver lost control just before bend narrowly missing oncoming cyclist who veered out of the way & then stopped just before hitting the informant. In court (04/2024) where driver pleaded guilty by post:

6 Points
£480 Fine
£85 Costs
£192 VS pic.twitter.com/k5RHy4fwXK

— ASPolice Roads Policing (RPU) (@ASPRoadSafety) May 8, 2024

Recalling the incident to road.cc, the cyclist Steve Western said despite the dramatic images "funnily enough it felt as though I had all the time in the world to decide when to swerve".

"I heard the tyre noise before I actually saw it, so had some warning that something was wrong, the guy didn't even get out of the car, he manoeuvred around the car and drove off. I hadn't realised the lady driving had reported it."

Steve had earlier replied to Avon & Somerset Police's social media post about the incident and court result: "Dear @ASPRoadSafety. Not sure [driving without] due care was appropriate for that incident which could have ended so differently. Love from the cyclist in the pictures."

Others joined him in questioning why a more serious dangerous driving offence was not applied here, Robin Pickering saying: "Surely, due care is failing to look properly at a junction causing someone else to have to brake, or maybe close passing a cyclist at a moderate 1-1.5m distance. That looks like clear S2 RTA: driving which falls 'far below the expected standard' and which could easily have had fatal consequences. Why the downgrade?"

Another called it a "pathetically weak sentence" and "hilarious that the social media manager thought this was worth boasting about".

Others suggested that part of the concern for the police might have been the driver avoiding punishment completely had they been unable to prove the more serious "dangerous driving" offence.

> Undertaking motorist's claim that he mounted grass verge "in panic" to avoid crash "utter bollocks", says cyclist "lucky to be alive"

As mentioned in an earlier quote, dangerous driving "is when driving falls far below the minimum standard expected of a competent and careful driver, and includes behaviour that could potentially endanger yourself or other drivers", and may involve speeding, racing, or driving aggressively, ignoring traffic lights, road signs or warnings from passengers, overtaking dangerously, or driving while under the influence.

The lesser offence of driving without due care and attention (careless driving) refers to when "driving falls below the minimum standard expected of a competent and careful driver, and includes driving without reasonable consideration for other road users".

It may involve "overtaking on the inside, driving too close to another vehicle, driving through a red light by mistake, turning into the path of another vehicle, the driver being avoidably distracted by tuning the radio, lighting a cigarette etc., flashing lights to force other drivers to give way, misusing lanes to gain advantage over other drivers, unnecessarily staying in an overtaking lane, unnecessarily slow driving or braking, dazzling other drivers with un-dipped headlights".

It was far from the first time Steve has been on the receiving end of driving that put his safety in danger, and he suggested that Avon & Somerset Police "seem unwilling to do anything" in two other stand-out cases from the past 12 months, both times when his flat bars were clipped by a passing motorist.

"Once by the door mirror and once by the front wing," he explained. "Both occasions by elderly drivers who seemed to think that I shouldn't be riding on the road adjacent to a shared path. Avon and Somerset police seem unwilling to do anything about those though. The joys of cycling..."

In May 2022, we reported that the county's police force had shared a similar social media post featuring a court result, that time after a bus driver hit a cyclist, pushing them into a hedge as they overtook.

Again, the driver pleaded guilty to driving without due care and attention and was fined £256 and given five penalty points.

In 2020, the force was accused of incompetence by a cyclist after they failed to track down a driver he said was responsible for a hit and run – even though he had provided them with footage of the incident. 

A police spokesperson said: "Footage the victim provided to us showed he was not struck by the vehicle but does show the poor manner of driving and failing to stop. However, we were unable to track down the driver of the vehicle, despite making exhaustive searches using the Police National Computer and other intelligence databases available to us, which meant that we were unable to prosecute the suspect.

"Regrettably, because of the time taken to make appropriate and necessary checks, the time period we legally have available to us to make those enquires – six months – had elapsed."