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news
Near Miss of the Day 629: “Daddy, that car came too close” (video includes swearing)
“Daddy, that car came too close” is what the young girl on the back of a tandem said to her father after the pair received this close pass in Rugby, Warwickshire.
Joel, her father and the road.cc reader who sent the clip in, told us: “Had a great birthday bike ride on the tandem with the big little one. Except for this. So lucky that they didn't actually hit us.
“I've now discovered that, having started giving very basic feedback on dangerous driving reports in January/February, Warwickshire Police have now decided it's not worth the time of day to even respond to reports any more. Not even a canned response, thank you for submitting your report. Nothing.
“That tiny scrap of hope that something actually got done when someone chooses to drive as horribly dangerously as this, now gone again.
“I got the message below when I emailed to find out if anything had actually happened after submitting this report. They don't even bother to send an automated response to submitters to say this. They've just ditched the whole responding to reports thing without even a courtesy.
“So yeah. Rest safe Warwickshire citizens. If a driver decides to try to kill you tomorrow, you will now never know if the police will do anything about it or not. That's justice, apparently.
Thank you for contacting Operation Snap Warwickshire. Due to the large volume of submissions received each week, we are unable to update each submitter regarding the outcome of their allegation. However, all submissions are dealt with pro-actively to help reduce risk taking and poor driving on our counties roads.
After lodging a complaint with the Warwickshire Police & Crime Commissioner’s office, Joel has now heard that the driver will be sent a notice of intended prosecution.
“So hopefully just a glitch,” he said, “but nevertheless discomforting that doesn't seem to be any way to check receipt of the report.”
> 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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19 comments
Warwickshire have never responded to any of my submissions, including some which look closer than this. I guess I need to submit and then immediately complain before the time to send a NIP elapses?
Pinch points, yet again. Road designers seem to think that they add safety, but a road near me (past Musselburgh race course) has so many that it's really hard for anyone to overtake, and whilst most drivers are patient, there are always some idiots.
I always try to take primary through pinch points but it's not always possible at busy times. There's some signage, sometimes, but usually too small or infrequent to remind motorists not to kill us, so could we have an addition to the "pass to the left" arrow pointing at 7 o'clock to indicate that overtaking is not allowed, including overtaking bicycles?
You honestly believe that the highly trained, insured, registered and law abiding motorist will actually pay attention to new road markings? I regularly get taken on double whites even though I'm happily tapping out 20mph. Stop lines at junctions are treated as giveway lines. Chevrons with solid white borders entered. Exits and entries to roundabouts where the preceding cyclist has priority ignored. The list is endless.of guidelines that the aforementioned highly trained and skilled motorist blatantly ignores yet demands that we as cyclists should be licensed!! It's unreal.
Some might, and it's a cheap and easy thing to do. No panacea, I'm often stupid but not that naive...
One can only hope! As far as motorists are concerned I have become pretty much jaded to their behaviour. In general most are fairly good and will take it on the chin when challenged about their behaviour and driving standards. The rest fall in two camps. Those who don't give a rip and our out to bully you off the road and the others who have become lazy and complacent in their driving. It's these two groups that stuff up your day. And possibly your life if it all goes pear shaped. They are also the very loud vocal groups that have convinced themselves that there's a war against motorists.
A new one for me today. At the same pinch point I mentioned above, range rover lady decides to overtake into the turn right box as someone coming the otherway starts to enter it to turn right.
How shit at driving do you have to be to end up in that position?
I did a lot of shouting and gesturing at her. I hope she got the message.
Similar one for me as well. Some bloke tried an overtake using the opposite right turn box but had to abort due to the traffic island/pelican crossing rapidly approaching and my yelling stay back. At the roundabout he opted to make a point at the exit by barging through. He got stuck in the tailback for the roadworks resorting to hurl abuse at me as I filtered past. Here's the clip below.
Making a point
https://youtu.be/eiVzVGjrqg0
That's a great illustration.
Must be some material for a psychology PhD.
I had something similar s while back. Overtaking me someone did a really good job or giving loads of space, textbook, completely crossed the line....
....into the right filter whilst approaching traffic lights that were on orange...
Made I larf that did
Can't be too hard on Warwickshire Police a NIP beats a warning letter or strong words of advice hands down!
Think a bit of a misunderstanding. The PCC office advised that they would look into why I hadn't received a response.
I still don't have an actual response on this one, but the PCC have said they will give me a call to update.
The submission I made last week (also a close pass but not quite as bad as this one) I did received a next day response - which was that a warning letter would be sent.
Overtaking at clearly marked and easily seen pinch points such as these type of pedestrian refuge or designed traffic calming islands demonstrates an utterly pathetic inability to look any further than the end of the car bonnet and merely remove foot from accelerator to ensure that cycle and car are not competing for the same road space at said pinch point.
Such a basic failure of driving skill should be a badge of shame and result in a NIP every time. If a driver is unable to cope with a convergence of their own vehicle, cycle and static road furniture, then what hope do they have of predicting convergence points when there are other moving vehicles involved?
Rugby is an awful place to cycle through in my experience. The parts of National Cycle Route 41 that do pass through it are reduced to a single, almost completely worn off dashed white line under 3ft wide in most places. I used to cycle regularly from the station to Ashlawn Road and most of the route is pitted with terrible road surfacing too. Throw in the almost daily congestion through the (very small) city centre and I say these two are lucky to have escaped without collision.
Not an excuse at all but I can only imagine that such appalling driving as in this clip is only worsened by driving in such poor travel infrastructure.
The highway engineers term it "traffic calming" but it does seem to bring out the worst in some drivers!
I thought the rider on a 30 road had the speed to be primary all the time.
Looked like they moved over just enough to let the moron squeeze through.
Still, when the new highway code comes out...
Hope you have a streaming licence !
Being central islands every 50 yards or so, he should have been dead centre of the lane, holding the traffic behind him
I can do that in a 20/30. Although I have been thwarted by drivers using the 'central turn right from the other way' box to get past before a pinch point.
It's not possible to hold the traffic behind here as the central hatched section provides easily enough space to pass even of you are primary in the lane.
I take primary going into the pinch points to discourage passing as much as is possible, as I did here (you can see at 1:02 I am slap bang centre lane going into the pinch point) - but I guess this guy wanted to make a point
So Warwickshire Police react "pro-actively" when they receive a submission. How exactly does that work?