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news
Near Miss of the Day 586: Texting driver oblivious to cyclist she nearly hit
There’s a phrase often used by traffic police in safety campaigns and on social media – the Fatal Four – highlighting the four most common factors behind deaths or serious injuries on the road. Drink and drug driving, speeding, and not wearing a seat belt are three, with the most recent addition to the list being using a handheld mobile phone while driving, which is what we have in today’s Near Miss of the Day video from North London as a texting driver pulls out on a cyclist, oblivious to his presence.
Dean, the road.cc reader who captured the footage, told us: “I was behind a car in the right-hand lane (right turn only by the way) on Southbury Road in Ponders End, preparing to turn right into the High Road.
“We both started moving off, and a driver in the left-hand lane (driving inside the cycle lane I might add) pulled into the right-hand lane (a right-turn ONLY lane) and cut me off, I shouted in surprise and swerved to avoid her hitting me.
“I later saw the same car at the traffic lights ahead and I realised as I was passing that she was on her phone texting. I told her that she almost hit me and how close she was to taking me out. She was unapologetic and hid her phone.
“I got home and after watching the footage back, realised she was also texting while she cut me up, and that's why she didn't even realise she almost hit me.
“If it was an honest mistake, I would have understood, we all make mistakes, but texting while driving is an intentional choice.”
> 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
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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76 comments
Vanity plates and anti-flash covers do get picked up on the MOT but it's a 5 minute job to swap back to "show plates" after the MOT. Not that I ever used to do that m'lud. Neither did I use to just pop the cat on for the MOT. Or refit my neon indicator bulbs. Or the underbody LEDs. Or the excessively loud rear exhaust box.
According to the 2018 versions, they do.
Not really. They're two different standards. Many things checked on the MOT aren't a matter of roadworthiness at all, and others can fail to meet the MOT standard, but still not be so bad as to be actually unsafe on the road (yet).
Just for example, a car could fail on brake effectiveness, because the brakes aren't working as well as they should, and yet still have good enough brakes to be safe when driven carefully. It's pretty rare for a car to fail MOT so catastrophically it has to be taken away on a low-loader.
(I think your responsibilities in regard to careless, reckless etc driving would be affected by car condition in a situation like that. So driving it somewhere to get it repaired requires driving it in accordance with the impaired braking. In that respect it's like driving on a slippery road-surface.)
Road Tax? What's that then?
It's what I pay for the roads on my estate...
VED sounds like some kind of nasty social disease.
You pay a tax hypothecated to specifically cover the roads on your estate? Where do you live? It's certainly not the UK....
What was the recovery time like after you had your sense of humour surgically removed? Take you long to get back on the bike?
Dunno, still a bit sore. How about you?
Never had one to start with. I thought dad jokes were funny before my first kid came along
Now that you've had a kid, are they "daaaaaaaaaad" jokes?
Points are no good - they'll continue to do it; it's a way of life for a lot of people. The unapologetic reply says it all - they simply don't care. That is why harsher penalties are needed; like a ban.
Presumably it's been reported? Although it isn't actually a right-turn only at that point, but this in no way has any bearing on the manoevre.
But also the other idiot racing you to the red light <smh>
Please please submit this to the Police. This is the sort of behaviour that results in injuries and fatalaties.
Thank goodness the cyclist didn't swear.
I think you mean "Thank f**k the cyclist didn't swear"
Well I wouldn't want to offend the police!
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