Near Miss of the Day 756: Cyclist “forced off road to avoid being knocked off or run over”

A cyclist in Kent experienced a close pass from a lorry driver which led to him “being forced off of the road to avoid being knocked off or run over” – as shown here in our latest Near Miss of the Day video.

It was filmed on 14 April by road.cc reader Daniel, who reported it through an online form to Kent Police the same day, but he told us that he has not received a response, and police have not requested the video from him.

“As 14 days have now passed I assume they have done and will do nothing,” he said.

In the description of the video that Daniel supplied to police, he wrote:

Cycling uphill towards the layby there was a queue of vehicles travelling in the opposite direction waiting to pass roadworks.

Nearing the layby I became aware of a lorry approaching from behind as I was about to crest the hill but it did not sound like it was going to wait to pass. At the entrance to the layby the lorry forced its way past pushing me across the white line into the layby to avoid being knocked off or run over.

There were still vehicles queuing in the opposite direction at this stage and another lorry at the point of passing so no way the driver could have moved over to give a safe passing distance but they could have waited and passed safely shortly after.

He said that the close pass took place “on the A225 between Farningham and Sutton‒at‒Hone in Kent by the northbound layby.

“Signage on the lorry is quite clear as it passes but it seems to be a small outfit and I saw little point in trying to take this up with them.”

Daniel added: “Having reviewed this 14 days after it happened it somehow seems worse than I remember.”

> 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