A cyclist who was on the receiving end of a shocking close pass from a speeding driver with a traffic island approaching that left him "shaken" has criticised police for offering the offending driver the choice of points or a fine as punishment.
road.cc reader Tony, who goes by the name CykelTony on YouTube, was cycling along a slight downhill on the A128 in Brentwood, Essex back in April. The downhill meant he was doing around 25-30mph when the incident occurred.
"It's a fast road with a 50mph limit", Tony told road.cc.
"I was approaching a traffic island by the entrance to a country club when I was shockingly passed at high speed by this driver, coming incredibly close to my right-hand side and cutting back in front sharply to make the traffic island. I was shocked at the recklessness, and shouted at the driver.
"It's one of the few incidents that truly left me shaken, I found myself having to stop a couple of times afterwards to collect myself and calm down, as it kept replaying in my mind.
"I reported it to Essex Police as soon as I got home. After chasing for the result, they stated the driver will be offered the choice of a driving course or points and fine.
"I felt let down by this and did write to them to complain about the outcome, but to date have not received a response."
road.cc has contacted Essex Police for comment.
> 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