Today’s edition of Near Miss of the Day features the rare spectacle of not one, not two, but three motorists leaving ample space between their cars and the cyclist they were passing. Unfortunately for the terrified cyclist coming the other way, however, these wide passes resulted in two close calls and an almighty scare.
This double near miss took place yesterday morning on a straight, mile-long stretch of road in Cheshire known as the Tatton Mile, which road.cc reader Bob, who sent us the footage, describes as “a popular cycling route but also a bit of a rat run with a 60mph speed limit”.
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“Three cars pass me giving a nice wide pass,” Bob tells us. “Unfortunately, the last two were very close to the cyclist going the other way”, prompting a shout of terror from the oncoming cyclist as the driver of the blue car attempts to squeeze between the two riders on the narrow road.
According to Bob, the car belonging to the driver who committed the first dodgy overtake is currently untaxed.
Both drivers will likely escape punishment for the tight squeeze, however, owing to the police’s rules regarding video submissions.
“Unfortunately, I switched off the camera so I could find [the footage] easily,” Bob says. “So I cannot send it through to the police as they want a minute after the incident.”
Who knows, maybe the other rider kept his camera on for slightly longer?
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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