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news
Near Miss of the Day 674: “The driver is going to have to inconvenience someone,” say police – that “someone” was a cyclist
“The driver is going to have to inconvenience someone,” said the police worker who reviewed the poor driving featured in our Near Miss of the Day series – that “someone” was of course a cyclist, and we are glad it was just an “inconvenience” he suffered.
Here is the reply that road.cc reader Richard got from Gloucestershire Constabulary when he sent the footage to them.
Thought your readers may be interested in my latest submission to Gloucestershire Constabulary for your NMOTD. I have attached a copy of the video I sent in and below is the reply I received.
“I’m not going to prosecute the driver.
“Initially he has left plenty of room. The opposite carriageway is clear. The van then appears from the mini roundabout and the car is already quite far passed you. At this point the driver is going to have to inconvenience someone because of the situation has developed in a way the driver didn’t foresee.
“Because of this it wouldn’t meet the threshold for careless driving as the driver hasn’t been careless they have been the victim of unforeseen circumstances.”
An interesting take on a close pass that put the cyclist in danger, don’t you think?
> 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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115 comments
Suggest you read the highway code, specifically 167.
For ease, 167 says this: "stay behind if you are following a cyclist approaching a roundabout or junction, and you intend to turn left."
In this video, the car was approaching a roundabout and it turned left. Game, Set & Match on that rule I'm afraid.
It's amaxing how often - when it helps you blame the cyclist - you seem to be able to tell what happened before the shared clip, or what words were exchanged when they can't be heard; but here, when the evidence is clearly visible, you can't see it. It's almost like you have an agenda.
Of course the fuckwad has an agenda. His pisspoor attempt at doing a Poophole type "evidence" shows it. Just a shame the site admins don't treat his so over the top posts as what they are and just get rid again.
Especially as most of the victims are on here and have to put up with his direct blames.
Gloucestershire Constabulary doesn't follow-up on incidents that affect cyclists unless there's an injury. They seem to take a pro-driver standpoint, despite putting up the standard "give cyclists 1.5m" posters around the county.
I am the OP.
I am afraid that is not true. I've had several submissions followed up by "words of advice" and this same officer has told me that they have sent a summons for two of my previous submissions, although I have heard nothing more about them since.
At least this officer takes the time to respond and justify the decisions made and even though I disagree with this one I suspect that they are thinking ahead to possible arguments that a defence lawyer would make if it came to a court case.
It is my belief that the law needs to change in order to deal with driving like this so that people are not put off cycling on our roads.
You were lucky then. I was punishment passed by a van in Cheltenham that then slammed on in front of us and swung his door open into my mate. We had other witnesses to this. Gloucestershire's finest then explained to my mate, as he as being treated by paramedics, that since we were riding two abreast he get we were breaking the law and therefore 'asking for it'.
And so my faith in my local police force is zero.
I have been submitting for over a year now. There was no system in place when I started but one was introduced shortly afterwards. Initially the submissions were dealt with by different officers and I didn't get any response from some of my early submissions and variable responses from others. Recently however nearly all my submissions have been dealt with by the same officer and I have been given feedback every time. I have to say that I am a lot more selective in what I submit now as a result of this feedback which, I hope, gives more time for officers to concentrate on incidents they can respond to.
From your description I suspect that action would have been taken had you submitted video evidence but I did think action would be taken for this one so no guarantees.
I think you have hit the nail on the head here though in that at present responses to poor driving around cyclists are very variable both within and across different forces from what we read on this site.
"Because of this it wouldn’t meet the threshold for careless driving as the driver hasn’t been careless they have been the victim of unforeseen circumstances.”
Some real steep mental gymnastics to defend the car driver there. Unforeseen circumstances? They didn't have time to complete their overtake and tried to crush the cyclist instead of abort it. This needs appealing, and these motorist appeasing police should be retrained or sacked.
Unfortunately if the policeman had spotted that this was less than stellar driving that would automatically put them in the "well above the standard of a careful and competent driver" bracket. Or at least it would appear from what passes muster in the courts. In which case it would be not just unfair of them to penalise this dozy chap but it could probably be challenged in court!
Interesting watching this a few times. Driver looks like they'd have been past the cyclist if they'd not had to brake for the speed bump . You really wonder if they even noticed it ? Pretty poor driving , not backing off soon as they realised the speed bump was affecting their overtaking, if they even did see it until too late. Then not signalling at a roundabout .
Whilst it's clearly a really shit bit of driving the rider should have been able to see it unfolding and braked/soft peddled so the risk of getting twatted/kerbed diminished.
We can't trust drivers so we have to use our own brains in these sorts of situations as the OB are clearly not willing to do their jobs.
Why not both? I think in general cyclists are pretty aware of the dangers of the environment. Constructive criticism's good and yes - maybe here you could have spotted this coming, or been a bit sharper. However the rider was negociating the speed hump and I'm guessing also having an eye on the overtaking car. From when the van actually turns into this road (they could have gone another way at the roundabout) until the cyclist starts braking is only 2 seconds. I believe the standard for "momentary lapse of concentration" in a car is between twice and five times that...
now we are into the realms of guessing, because if the driver does slow and try to pull in behind (as they should) then that is the worst response.
"At this point the driver is going to have to inconvenience someone because..."
Nothing.
At this point in the video they should apply the brake and bail out of their misguided manoeuvre. I don't see any other reasonable course of action.
That weasel word "inconvenience" here means "endanger". The police officer is a disgrace.
I would re-submit the footage if its not too late. Hopefully it will get picked up by someone who isnt an empty uniform and actually wants to do their job.
Have they even read the Highway Code? 153 says they shouldn't overtake when there's traffic calming. 167 - do not overtake approaching a junction. Even if it wasn't prosecutable the driver really needs educating.
Don't be silly - have they read The Highway Code?? Of course they haven't - very few will have picked it up since learning to drive. That's one of the reasons driving standards are so low.
But what about driving without reasonable consideration:
The offence of driving without reasonable consideration under s.3 RTA 1988 is committed only when other persons are inconvenienced by the manner of the defendant's driving, see s.3ZA(4) RTA 1988.
Overtaking on the approach to a roundabout with a blind entrance to your right (worth noting that the driver of the car would have been even more blind than the camera view), let off because of the unforeseen circumstances of, um, somebody else using the roads at the same time as you. Well that seems fair.
Didn't even indicate at the roundabout.
German car.
Now that's the sort of driving you should be offered an improvement course for. If you can't foresee that situation developing, you really do need some help.
So they are accepting starting an overtake when you can't see you can safely complete it, if an oncoming vehicle appears in the distance is seen as OK ?????
Jesus, apart from the fact that if it was printed by the police as it is printed here, they need to go back to school. It is grammatically dreadful.
Aside from that, the driver was approaching a roundabout, so why didn't they simply wait a few seconds? You should never overtake on the approach to a junction, well that is what I was taught by my driving instructor.
With a police response such as this, is it any wonder that the standard of driving is so poor?
I am also surprised that this is not in Lancashire, this is the standard response.
I am also surprised that this is not in Lancashire, this is the standard response
I am outraged! BP is getting special treatment from Lancashire Constabulary- the standard response to me is no response at all no matter what the offence. However, the YouTube channel draws closer
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