Please report dangerous drivers to the police - Roadsafe. Report to plod, not just whinge here.

Just completing a 30 mile leg stretch yesterday afternoon, and only about a mile from home I have to climb a short sharp hill onto a stretch of road about 75 yards long between a stone wall on one side of the road and a very solid old building on the other, this is all in a residential area. The road is just about wide enough to get two cars along, but only carefully and at a crawl, there are only inches of clearance when this happens.

I was about a third of the way along the narrow road when I heard a vehicle approaching, all revs and speed behind, I was nearing the centre line of the road as I was about to signal and turn right at the far end, and with that a white van came past me at speed. Looking at the video from my camera it was no more than a foot from my shoulder, probably a lot less and the footage shows I actually jinked left. The van then went straight on and down a hill where I was going to turn right at the brow, he had to brake hard as the road down the hill is even more narrow and I assume something was coming up I don't know for sure as I turned right and headed home.

A&S Police have an excellent web page where incidents like this can be reported and video can be uploaded, I have used it before and had feedback about any action taken. Needless to say I spent a half hour with iMovie yesterday evening and the whole thing has been reported.

By overtaking me, the van driver saved himself absolutely no time, if they had remained behind me they would have been there for a maximum of a couple of seconds as I was ten yards from the junction. The camera got a nice clear shot of the reg, plus the small painter and decorator signage that was also on the back door of the van. From past experience A&S will at the very least send the registered keeper a letter, but in this case as space as so tight and the manoeuvre so aggressive, I hope they take this further.

Such is a daily life of a leisure cyclist in Somerset.

By overtaking me, the van driver saved himself absolutely no time

I find so many car drivers just don’t look/think ahead when they see a cyclist. All they see is a cyclist and think “must get in front”.

What camera do you use?

Yes, it is always the same with drivers feeling they must barge past. I am not shy about taking primary, as a lifelong motorcyclist, cars and vans don't intimidate me, even so, drivers will do the most stupid things and I have lost count of the number of times I have then caught and overtaken the culprit. I have an SJCAM, I think the model is the SJ4000 (or something 4000 anyway), I've had it for a few years and recently put it into a new case that allows me to run and external battery pack. The combination of the two batteries gives me around 3 hours continuous videoing.

Riding in the countryside I get LOADS of close and stupid passes, or people not feeling the need to stop so driving straight at me down a single track / country lane, most I just shrug off, but yesterday was just dangerously pointless (aren't they all pointless?), so, Popo involved.

Such is a daily life of a leisure cyclist in Somerset.

Yup; I live in Bristol and commute by bike 3 or 4 days a week. I report drivers / upload video footage pretty much every single commute. Never achieved more than having a letter sent but it sure makes me feel better.

Unexpected hit and run justice. In case anyone is as disheartened with the system as I am, sometimes it’s worth it.

I was side-swiped by an inattentive driver back in December last year. It was in front of a traffic camera and a witness stopped at the scene (unlike the driver, who paused on the other side of the junction then drove off when I was visibly not-dead). I phoned it in on 999 but just wanted to head (limp) home so declined an ambulance and they didn’t despatch any officers. I got a letter in January saying they were looking into it, and then nothing. I assumed it was dead in the water until I received a letter with a provisional court date in October (‘failure to identify who was driving the vehicle’), and this landed on my doormat half an hour ago. So a shitty Christmas present last year (couldn’t walk for a week or two, dodgy knee well into February) and an early present of justice for me this year.

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fuck yes

I hope your taking their insurers to the cleaner too.

Failure to identify is such a shitty loop hole which needs closing.

Yes

https://youtu.be/_uZ1VyzZtWE

This nobber on tower bridge road last night. I took a defensive line at the junction with tooley street and flipped the camera around at the lights, because he'd been inches from my wheel since druid street.

I heartily pointed out to him that this dickery hadn't got him very far as I passed him in traffic further along across tower bridge. He was in such a rage he was incomprehensible. Submitted to roadsafe, which now has the handy feature to upload direct!

I'd never heard of mongoose beers until last night, what a great way to advertise the brand.

update from police:

Dear pizzarat

We have received your online submission form regarding an allegation and the video or photographic footage has now been viewed and downloaded as evidence. As an investigation has now commenced, please can you ensure that you remove your footage and/or any photographs that you may have posted from all social media websites.

We have now sent a Notice of Intended Prosecution to the registered keeper for them to furnish the drivers details at the time of the alleged offence

Fuck that guy.

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definitely tweet that video and image to the company moosegoose. Guarantee they will not like seeing a driver doing that. Also mention you have roadsafed them maybe?

Good result. What does 'fail to nominate' mean? The same as ‘failure to identify who was driving the vehicle’? Also, can you request the police report yourself (and not just your solicitor or insurance?). I assume this would be a sound basis for an insurance payout from her?

I think that’s what it means, yes. So not exactly justice for hitting me, but justice nonetheless. I’ve not pursued any sort of payout (all my BC/LCC insurances are long lapsed so no solicitor involvement at my end) and besides a limpy Christmas don’t feel particularly hard-done-by. I’m looking into the report/transcripts etc this week to see what about this case made it stick when so many other incidents slide, will let you know how it goes.

That would be interesting, thanks. I imagine it was probably a good witness statement?

Reported a lorry from Cheam Scaffolding, NX08HGM, to roadsafe. Overtaking at about half a foot distance, while I was going 22mph on a 30mph road with other traffic about 100m ahead.

(Picture from when I overtook them a minute later when they got stuck in the usual congestion there)

Weirdly, I didn't even get angry the way I would usually do, maybe because it's was early (well, -ish) morning.

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Is it just me or have the last few days been extra angry /stupid?

Full moon was the 23rd. There definitely seems to be a correlation.

An observation - as an old car driver, cyclist, ex-motorcyclist and now a bit of a walker, I have noticed something in relation to ‘near misses’, close passes etc. If the incident is really close - I mean deathly close, I never have had time to shout and scream etc. In the event where there is no actual accident, I’m not able to vent my fury of the other person (driver, cyclist, walker etc). It may be the shock.
I do wonder when I see a lot of these close pass vids are they actually that close. Definitely bad driving but was life really at risk?
I’m interested in views.

I don't understand your point. What do you mean, 'never have time'? People in these videos generally 'shout and scream' after the close pass, how does time come into it?

In the event where there is no actual accident, I’m not able to vent my fury of the other person

Well... to me that just sounds like different people react differently to just having narrowly avoided death. It escapes me how you deduce from this that the close passes might not actually be that close.

My point is that if it was me in the situation, initially I would think I was lucky to be alive and I wouldn’t be able to shout etc at the other driver - perhaps due to the shock.
This has happened on numerous occasions, the worst ones whilst on a motorcycle.
I am debating buying a camera for cycling and the car as well. I suspect I would be posting a lot of videos as the standard of driving here is absolutely shocking.

Waiting to turn right in the ASL at the junction of Upton lane and Portway this morning. Turning right onto Portway. Lights on red. The light cycle at this junction has a crazy long red if you’re going north to south, to the point where you’re beginning to think that the lights have broken. I’m sitting there thinking ‘maybe the lights have broken’ when it changes to green and I go to pull into the centre of the junction to turn right.

Just as some absolute fucking tool who has obviously decided the lights are broken and has ragged it down the wrong side of the road to get past the queuing traffic scorches by me with inches to spare and fucks off down Plashet Road.

Should’ve got their licence plate but I was too busy screaming about what a giant cunt they were. Need to get a camera.

it seems that you're trying to raise a couple of points.

1) that if people are shouting and screaming, perhaps the incident isn't really that serious - because in your experience you haven't found the words?

my view:

• everyone reacts differently in these situations, it doesn't make anything more or less serious.
  
  

2) some videos you've seen appear to show close passes that you believe aren't actually that close, and so life was not at risk, so why upload it / report it to roadsafe?

my view:

• maybe you just had to be there?

• i think that life is in fact at risk in these incidents. the vehicle may indeed pass without making contact with the rider, but consider this: what if something causes the rider to fall into the path of the vehicle as they pass within millimetres, with very little time or space to react eg the rider hits a pothole / the rider is doored / a pedestrian steps off the pavement into the rider's path and knocks them into the path of the vehicle.

• i have submitted clips to roadsafe before that, following review, have been deemed by the police as 'not dangerous enough' or 'not close enough'. reporting the incident is still a worthwhile exercise, it is my understanding that it does not serve solely as a means of prosecuting drivers for isolated incidents. the evidence submitted previously may be referred to by the police in future, should another incident occur involving the same vehicle or driver.

i don't report every incident i encounter, but if I am still shaken by it by the end of my journey i tend to report it.

Yeah but you realise people react to things differently? And honestly, I find it a little bit insulting to suggest the close passes I've had were not actually a big deal because I shouted out and got annoyed at the driver... Basically, this is not a good metric for anything.

Fair points. My most recent death defying feat involved me pulling off the toad to allow a lorry to pass on a steep hill as I didn’t want to hold up traffic on a fast, busy road. I would estimate his wing mirror missed my head by millimetres. I doubt my helmet would have saved me. This happened to quickly I didn’t have time to shout. I got on my bike and thought I was lucky.
Maybe time for a camera but I’m not so sure the driver did much wrong in that instance.

Yeah I'm not judging the way you're reacting to such situations, I just ask for the same the other way around. And yes, most people shouting when someone passes them too closely don't shout while that is happening, as they definitely don't have the time for that, but they do it afterwards when the surge of adrenaline comes.

Personally, I get that quite intensely, and it makes it very difficult to stay calm in any way as my first instinct after something like that is not "oh my god that was close", but "I am going to kill this motherfucker" (or, more succinctly, "muetterfigger!!!", as I tend to default to Swiss German in cases of spontaneous swearing). Again, I think different people just react differently.

pulling off the toad

you jerked off an amphibian?