Near Miss of the Day 555: Driver nearly left-hooks cyclist; rider who filmed shocking footage says it underlines need for safe infrastructure

Pretty much how I got hit the one time a driver drove into me. Came up from behind, performed an incomplete overtake and a left hook into me. Bent my front wheel beyond repair, but fortunately didn't injure me.

A difference was I was in the marked cycle lane - which took me across the mouth of the side-road the driver wanted to turn into. That seems like really bad design, I now think, for precisely this reason. Another way in which bad infrastructure is worse than none at all.

In my case it was a hit-and-run - driver took off like a scalded cat immediately after, and I didn't have a camera or get the licence plate. Made me glad I only have a cheap bike, as a replacement wheel didn't cost much.

The car ended up on the wrong side of the road.. anyone coming the other way would have resulted in a nasty collision; that idiot driver should be prosecuted for dangerous driving at a minimum.

When I was 17 I was coming down a slight incline probably at about 20-25 mph when someone overtook then immediately put their brakes on I was so close that I could not slow down as quickly as they did. They then turned left so I had to go left with them and there was hardly any room between their rear passenger door and the kerb. My pedal clipped the kerb I was flung off fortunately just behind the car and my bike was left as I was lying in the road. They stopped and the bloke was shaking more than I was. He had thought he would have more room in front of me before he would slow down then he had thought I would be able to slow down to make up for his cock up and it was only when the bike and myself fell behind him that he realised that I had been in his blind spot on the inside. Scared the living daylights out of me, it had also scared him to the same level that he might killed me. I cycled off to play cricket and had a lovely afternoon as I recall I made a half decent score that day.   

Dr Mark Hartl is an eye witness to a victim suffering a near, potentially fatal impact from a (willfully callous) dangerous driver and, in the intrest of public safety, should have a moral duty to report the scrote behind the wheel before they endo up killing a child or any other vulnerable groups.
The victim may be reluctant but needs encouragement to have the incident reported as now that dangerous driver will believe they can continue on their rampage, unabated, as will similar others.

I was hit by a delivery van who left hooked me without slowing or indicating. It was at a junction along a large segregated bike path. Sent me sprawling across to the other side of the road. Got big rash and a shoulder injury that refuses to go away months later. Amazingly, bike not too damaged. Cosmetic damage is almost more annoying, however. Reported it. Policeman called me and said 'I've talked to the driver, he admitted he didnt check or indicate. Look, he's a nice guy, on this occasion he's just cocked up. I can't see any grounds for prosecution. That's for where someone fails to stop, etc.'

No amount of safe infrastructure is going to prevent complete bellends like that from driving how the hell they like. Get that twat reported, pronto.

Driver needs to be prosecuted. This was an utterly stupid overtake with the driver obviously having no regard for the cyclists, even if he thought they were together and turning left. 

Safe cycling infrastructure in the form of dedicated cycling paths is hardly a panacea IMHO. A perfect example in my home city of Coventry (around the Cannon Park area, if you're local) - a dedicated path has been constructed leading from a shared pavement just off the A45. However, this has narrowed the road down to one lane from two and there is no way to either enter or exit the path onto the road; furthermore, the path is a) usually clogged and b) littered with frankly bizarre speed bumps. This leaves anyone merging onto the road with the awkward choice of either sharing a single lane with increasingly irate motor traffic that is unable to overtake (bearing in mind the road is a 30) or riding at snail's pace down an agonising roller coaster path that leads to an equally rubbish shared path. There is good infrastructure and bad infrastructure but sometimes just maintaining roads might go a long way.

I fail to see how any form of cycling infrastructure, apart from a raised flyover, would prevent this sort of incident, even protected lanes can't have the protection extend across junctions, so any idiot driver that MGIF will continue to drive like this.

Needs reporting to the police so this driver can be prosecuted.

If you are raising it for awareness then I suggest Dr Hartl should be calling for a tougher stance with law breaking drivers, as I suspect they will only get a warning letter or a training course.

Cycling infrastructure is always welcome and I believe it will get more people cycling but there will never be enough infrastucture to go every where we need to go and at some point nearly every cyclist will need to use a road. If cycling is going to become a real alternative form of transport, with all it's benefits, then the roads will need to be made safe to use. One way of doing this is to make sure that motorists like this one are educated and, if the behaviour persists, then punished (severely). If we don't report then this won't happen. It may not happen anyway without the support of the police but that's out of our control. If we report at least we will know we have done our bit.

What appals me about this and many other NMOTDs is that, once a mistake has been made, motorists feel its more important to keep going, and sometimes even accelerate, than to behave reponsibly and slow down or change direction for the saftey of a cyclist.

I know that road very well. It's actually where I learned to drive, a long time ago and no that wasn't me in the car!

Yes, Police Scotland should be sent the footage. Given their record, they may not take action, but they should get it all the same.

A point worth noting is that the road is generally a decent one for cyclists as it's not busy. But you do have to keep an eye out for the road surface, which is very poor. There are a few industrial units along the route, so if you cycle along there you do watch out for the occasional mixer truck or tipper truck. But you can divert off the main road bit further on and ride along the promenade.

It's of note that the driver saw fit to overtake, given the poor road surface that means you generally have to trundle along there at low speed to avoid damage to your vehicle. It's a classic case of a driver not thinking ahead, and probably not looking after their vehicle that well either. I bet the suspension bushes will be knackered if that's the way the person drives.