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news
Near Miss of the Day 836: Company takes firm action after tanker driver close passes cyclist
A tanker company has taken firm action after one of its drivers close passed a cyclist in a busy town, forcing the rider to brake heavily to avoid a collision.
Cyclist Martin was riding to work on Monday 14 November, on the A644 Huddersfield Road approaching Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, when he was overtaken by the driver of a Suttons tanker.
However, as you can see in the above clip, the driver – who, it later transpired, was on his final written warning from the company – appeared to be unaware that another motorist up ahead was preparing to turn right, forcing him to swerve sharply back into the path of the cyclist.
Martin, who spent nine months recovering from a collision with a motorist a few years ago, told road.cc: “Once I realised the length and size of the vehicle passing me, I slammed on my brakes and narrowly avoided getting hit by the back-end of the truck.”
After submitting footage of the incident to West Yorkshire Police’s Op Snap – and receiving what he calls the “usual response” (thanking him for his submission and informing him that enquiries were ongoing) – Martin contacted Suttons itself and sent them the clip.
“I laughed that Suttons’ company branding is all about safety, and even as the tanker passed me on the video there's a big cyclist safety warning on the side of it. I contacted the company for comment, not really expecting anything,” the cyclist says.
In fact, Suttons’ head of compliance Tony Greenhalgh got back immediately to Martin, thanking him for bringing the matter to the company’s attention and reassuring the cyclist that it would be taken “very seriously”.
In the email, seen by road.cc, Greenhalgh assured Martin that a full internal investigation was underway and that the clip would be used both for assessing the employee’s driving standards and for anonymous training for other drivers. The incident was also reported by Suttons to the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) and Tim Blackmore, the Traffic Commissioner for the North East of England.
In a later email, Greenhalgh revealed that the driver was issued with a formal Notice of Intended Prosecution by the police and that he had resigned from his role before formal action could be taken by the company.
“Irresponsible driving can’t be excused or ignored”
“Personally I’m disappointed that one driver has had impact on our image in the public domain,” Greenhalgh said in the email. “I’m thankful that no one was hurt this time – we will use this footage in our training programme and issue a safety flash to all drivers.
“This driver was on his final written warning, irresponsible driving can’t be excused or ignored. Professional HGV drivers have training on how to spot obstacles well in advance. All our drivers receive Smith Defensive driving training.”
After pointing out that “significant changes to the road network is needed to encourage more cyclists”, Greenhalgh added: “I’m proud of the vast majority of our drivers, most of whom have been with us for well over 20 years and are exceptional – but it only takes one or two bad ones to cause significant damage to a company’s brand.”
Describing the in-depth response from Suttons as “unexpected”, Martin told road.cc: “It's nice to see a company taking responsibility for road safety and striving to educate and train their drivers in safe driving practices.
“It’s a shame the driver lost their job, but it sounds like he wasn’t up to Suttons high standards anyway.
“So good on Suttons, and to Tony Greenhalgh. He’s given me faith that people are listening and trying to actively improve road safety for all users, and especially cyclists.”
> 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
After obtaining a PhD, lecturing, and hosting a history podcast at Queen’s University Belfast, Ryan joined road.cc in December 2021 and since then has kept the site’s readers and listeners informed and enthralled (well at least occasionally) on news, the live blog, and the road.cc Podcast. After boarding a wrong bus at the world championships and ruining a good pair of jeans at the cyclocross, he now serves as road.cc’s senior news writer. Before his foray into cycling journalism, he wallowed in the equally pitiless world of academia, where he wrote a book about Victorian politics and droned on about cycling and bikes to classes of bored students (while taking every chance he could get to talk about cycling in print or on the radio). He can be found riding his bike very slowly around the narrow, scenic country lanes of Co. Down.
Latest Comments
- David9694 8 min 35 sec ago
Cyclists should be made to have insurance etc https://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/24757516.four-vehicles-seize...
- A V Lowe 40 min 6 sec ago
On a bus the driver has a fully glazed double set of doors that give a direct view of any cyclist or pedestrian travelling right into the left side...
- matthewn5 1 hour 5 min ago
A friend in my cycling club has a new Ribble Allroad, I think the model with 105, and when I asked how he was finding it (before reading this...
- Rendel Harris 1 hour 14 min ago
Well yes but that's if you're looking at an equation x = n x 3 where n is any number less than 5. If you're looking for a number that is three...
- check12 2 hours 32 min ago
Get them back? They've never gone away for me, cheap tdf winning bikes on eBay with rim brakes and cheap rim brake aero wheels, just don't tell...
- Simon E 3 hours 15 min ago
It used to be called Buy Nothing Day as a protest against the the Black Friday discounting madness. The constant BF adverts, promos and stuff...
- chrisonabike 5 hours 30 min ago
Apologies - you're quite right! Something about presentation and comprehension...
- wtjs 5 hours 51 min ago
You can find out whether they're lying about 'taking action' by asking them what they actually did. When they refuse to tell you, citing various...
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31 comments
Thanks for sharing my video and full story. I felt it needed to be shared to show that some good does come from reporting these things. Suttons responses were unexpected and it's great to see them take immediate and decisive action, and they do have a great safety record. This driver clearly wasn't following their procedures, but as others have said I'm sure he'll be working for another haulage company already and be back on the road!
Good on the company for taking suitable action. I wish more trucking firms were this responsible. Good on you for submitting the footage too.
Just like to thank Martin for taking the time and trouble to report this and the company for it's positive action. Let's see if the police will be as helpful to vulnerable road users. I look forward to any updates.
I can't see how that can not be below the standard of a competent and careful driver, in fact I would say it's far below. One may think that losing one's job is punishment enough but the courts need to send a message to everyone that this is unacceptable.
Finally well done for avoiding the lorry. I'm not sure I would have done as well.
Thanks :). As we all know, the video with it's wide angle doesn't often look as close as it really was.. and if I hadn't hit my brakes here I would've ended up on the pavement, or worse.
I was really impressed with the response from Suttons (and surprised to hear about the police had already been in touch). They've definitely gained by respect after learning about their dedication to safety, and their practices.
I can't see how that can not be below the standard of a competent and careful driver, in fact I would say it's far below
Nothing whatsoever would have happened to the driver in Lancashire. The companies take the lead from the police, and Lancashire Constabulary did not respond to this close pass by a Sainsbury's 44 tonner YN67 MVJ because they couldn't care less about cyclists
The real irony is coming when this is done by a Shell tanker; just a matter of time.
there was always a delicious irony to be close passed by a white van with Sky logos on, especially the one with the riders photos on.
How about the actual team bus then?
https://road.cc/content/news/204005-video-team-sky-bus-driver-makes-extr...
Gosh, close pass. Rider unfortunately didn't help themselves. With so many traffic islands. Ride central, prevent giving the idiot driver from passing
at the moment the tanker driver overtakes, they are driving centrally towards a static 1-2 tonne metal object in their path, why do you think having a human on a bike centrally in front of them is going to suddenly alter their plan ?
there wasnt the room to pass, can we stop blaming the riders for this please.
The thing is, along this road there are a lot of typical road users heading to work. There was plenty of space here for a car or small van to overtake. I'm a confident cyclist and I ride close to the kerb to allow people to pass.
Drivers of larger vehicles should be more aware of the space they need to pass and when it's safe to do so. I'll ride centrally in a few select spots along my rides but I try to be courteous to drivers on sections like this and not hold them up.
I ride central everywhere and give space when it's safe for me to do so. Sod the driver, I'm only holding them back a few seconds
It is unfortunately common for drivers of large trucks to force their way in traffic, using their vehicle size to intimidate other drivers to get out of the way to avoid a collision.
Gosh, but i wonder what the driver had done before, to now be on their final warning...?
I almost felt like I was doing them a favour, if the driver was already one step away from dismissal. I don't share videos to be malicious and I ignore the vast majority of close/speedy passes too, but this one was too close to ignore. I was encouraged by the representitive of the company to continue sharing videos too as they have limited visibility of how their drivers behave on the roads when they are out-and-about.
Rewatching that video, it is just astounding that the driver (apparently) failed to see the car stopped ahead of him waiting to turn right... And his reaction just shows that if it comes down to 'slowing/stopping' vs 'squash the cyclist', he'd choose the latter.
Suttons have always been a good crew, so hats off to them for their positive action.
I've learnt they are good guys. I'm not sure I would have received this sort of response from other haulage companies!
Nope you don't unfortunately, when I contacted the company behind this lorry driver who close passed me, they blocked all contact with me. I vowed then on to always report to the police first & never let the company have that opportunity again.
Ah yes, the "cyclist safety sign" that essentially says "don't cycle near me, because the driver of this vehicle is an idiot who drives where they like, even if they can't see that their way is clear".
I did laugh when I watched the video back from my GoPro and saw that :-p
Pretty sure the tanker driver's training would have told him not to overtake in the opposing right-turn lane, nor at a road junction, nor at the entrance to a petrol station, and not through a hatched area. Had he followed any of his training then his woeful traffic observation skills would never have been tested. Good call by his employers. The worry is he simply rocks up at a new employer who asks no questions.
Should be a register accessible to prospective employers of drivers of certain vehicle classes. The NIP could come to nothing, and a court case could take months. There's nothing to stop this driver from getting a job driving tankers tomorrow. It's also likely that Suttons would not be able/willing to release details of the disciplinary record for data protection reasons. I know local transport firms tend to be a bit of a small world where everyone knows everyone but that wouldn't stop him from going further afield. If he's got a clean license there won't be any red flags for a transport manager.
I assumed that is why the company reported this to the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency, either because they do keep a record or because this driver may hold an HGV operators licence and go self employed in the future.
Great to see a company actually taking action and caring about road safety though.
It looks like the third world up there too. Does it get more ugly and grim north of Birmingham even?
You seem a nice chap believing anywhere outside of London is third world.
Heh. This was just approaching Dewsbury. Not the most luxurious part of Yorkshire
There's been a police HGV operation that's been popping up on Twitter. An amazing number of the stops are for wrongly licensed drivers, along with excess loads being over weight, not applying for over-weight exemptions, and not abiding by travel time embargoes. Makes you think that the RHA don't grasp the meaning of professional.
That's an area I ride through very regularly; close passes and abysmal driving standards all the time unfortunately in Ravensthorpe, Dewsbury. A positive company response at least.
Yep good to see there have been a few instances lately of companies taking a tough stance.
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