Near Miss of the Day 922: Double trouble as cyclist gets close passed TWICE within the space of a few minutes — first by lorry driver and then by pick-up driver

There are certain times when you’re simply faced with rotten luck. As a cyclist on British roads, that can mean a host of different things, but coming across a driver who’s willing to close pass you to make up a couple of seconds (which is more often than not, arguable) is definitely one of those. But what do you do when you’re on the receiving end of not one, but two back-to-back close passes within the space of minutes?

The cyclist, who has wished to stay anonymous but you might know them by their road.cc username, ooblyboo, was riding in Cheriton near Folkestone, Kent on Saturday 15 February when a lorry driver and a pick-up driver pulled two close passes.

“The first was a Romanian lorry driver who close passed and honked me, presumably because he thought I should be in the left only lane heading into the Eurotunnel,” he told us. “I have been hit by a car from behind before so jumped out of my skin and veered left.”

“The second was a couple of minutes later in Cheriton when a pick-up driver decided he didn't want to wait for me to get through the traffic island before passing. Doubtless, at least one person will note in the comments that I should have been primary, which I probably should have.”

They added: “In any case, I very much doubt the police will bother even looking at a close pass involving Romanian plates, so I have not submitted either clip.”

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We have come across similar instances of “cheat code”, where the driver gets away scot-free because the vehicle is registered in a foreign country.

In 2023, we featured a close pass in our Near Miss of the Day series, in which an HGV driver decided to pass so fast and so close to the cyclist that she was forced off the road, however since the lorry was registered in the Netherlands, the police “couldn’t do anything”.

In the same year, cyclist and road.cc reader Rendel Harris also submitted a near miss footage of a 4x4 driver dangerously overtaking on the wrong side, forcing him to dive to one side and stop against the parked cars to the Met. However, four months later, the Met police informed Harris: “Our enquiries have resulted in a driver residing abroad, therefore we have had no option but to close this case.”

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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