When you’re riding in flowing traffic with motorist coming up from behind to pass you, alarm bells start ringing when you spot a parked car on the street ahead – and that’s exactly what we have in today’s Near Miss of the Day series as the driver of a Jaguar 4x4 overtaking a cyclist who gets squeezed between that vehicle and the parked one he is passing.
The danger is increased by the Jaguar driver pulling into the left as they pass the cyclist due to cars coming the other way on the A657 Carr Road in Calverley, just outside Leeds in West Yorkshire, with the cyclist inches away from being knocked from his bike.
The road.cc reader who submitted the video, who wishes to remain anonymous, said: “This was a reckless close pass. As the swearing shows, the closeness happens just before the vehicle enters the camera's field of view.
“I glanced behind me and saw a large 4*4 approximately 2 inches away from my back wheel. They moved out very slightly as they passed, but it was far too close for comfort.”
He continued: “I've submitted this to West Yorkshire Police, who were considering this and said they were going to give the driver a visit. I don't know what outcome came from this, and the police aren't responding to my emails enquiring about the outcome since November.
“One possibility is that the police are so under-resourced that they don't have time to reply. Sadly, another possibility is that they just aren't taking cyclists' safety seriously and aren't passing this one on to the CPS.
“I have had some very positive experiences with West Yorkshire Police with regard to cyclists' safety, but also some very negative ones.
“The inconsistency is frightening – for the same incident, it seems that outcomes can range from prosecution for careless driving to 'it's not serious because they didn't hit you, and it's your fault anyway for cycling on the roads', depending on which officer is tasked with dealing with this.
“Some officers are fantastic, others appear to show distinct anti-cyclist prejudices,” he added.
> 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.