Near Miss of the Day 667: “Are you trying to kill me?” – Aggressive PHV driver fined £660 for close pass (video includes swearing)

A public hire vehicle driver filmed accelerating towards a cyclist to try and get round him ahead of a pinch point on a 20mph road in east London, then unleashed a torrent of abuse on the rider, has been handed a £660 fine and ordered to pay court costs of £120.

Lukei1, the road.cc reader who filmed the incident on Bishops Way, Cambridge Heath, told us: “I was keeping primary position on a street with numerous pinch points and crossings, this PHV driver decided to squeeze past despite me holding the speed limit without any issues.

“My initial swearing is due to turning around to look at the perfect moment to see the car heading towards me at very close range and sh*tting myself.

“Despite being a so-called professional, the driver then stopped to unload a load of nonsensical abuse, justifying his driving on the basis that I was not dead.

“Apologies for the unforgivable faux pas of describing myself as being in the middle of the road rather than the lane,” he continued.

“Thanks to the cameras, the driver was taken to court for failing to drive a mechanically propelled vehicle on a road / in a public place without reasonable consideration to other users, hit with 6 points and a fine of £660 and court costs of £160.

“I also reported him to TFL as the PHV regulator but they are a closed book on outcomes,” Lukei1added. “Let’s hope he’s not driving passengers anymore.”

> 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