Almost sideswiped by an overtaking lorry tonight - report it?
I bought a helmet cam a month or two ago after a similar (but slightly worse) incident with a bus. So I have it all on video, clearly identifying the company and registration plate.
I was riding home from work down a fairly quiet country road early this evening. The initial pass was a little close, but then it's not a terribly wide road and the driver was using most of the other lane, so no big deal. I also ride a bit out from the verge so I have a buffer in this sort of situation, which I fell back on. However, the driver then started moving in again pretty quickly while I was still well alongside the vehicle and the rear overhang swiped pretty close to me. I'm fairly sure that I'd have been clipped if I'd been going any faster or if I hadn't moved in from my initial riding position.
Having watched the video a few times I definitely don't think it was malicious and not necessarily careless, more misjudged. It was certainly alarming though and obviously small mistakes in big vehicles have big consequences.
Would you bother reporting this to either the police or the company? I'm more interested in driver awareness than making a complaint as such.
Posted Jul 8, 2016, 10:24 PM UTC
It is easy to report these things to companies, and I usually get a decent response. Definitely worth it.
Reporting to police is normally way more effort - you're unlikely to get the driver charged with anything even if you wanted to. However it should be recorded against the driver's name, which is useful for the next person they close pass.
+1 reporting to company is usually worthwhile, most hauliers take this seriously and have drivers who take a lot of pride in their work so care about this sort of thing
Yep, report it to the company. Don't go overboard - I usually start by saying something like "I'm not in the habit of reporting every time a driver makes a mistake, but this particular incident really scared me and I wanted to bring it to your attention"
according to reports from numerous cyclists. Anything from "well, you were riding quite far out weren't you?" to "we don't have the time for this."
If you're in Surrey, however, they have (iirc) made a statement that they will follow up on helmet cam recordings of such incidents.
It's very much a lottery, some forces take it seriously, and within forces some officers are hot on it, while others are like you describe - often it's worth demanding a more senior or other officer look at something if you get fobbed off on first try.
Yes I was recently passed by a car so close that all four wheels were in my lane and his wrong mirror passed within a foot of my handle bar.
I would have reported it to the police but the car which passed me was a police car. I'm not sure they'd really act seriously on the report.
Well, in theory they should, and I daresay in some cases they would. Wasn't there a report about a police speed-cam van being done for illegal parking recently? Depends on the integrity of the officer your report it to, so bit of a lottery I guess.
I'm in Edinburgh. When I was run off my bike by a range rover driver and her boyfriend threatened me right in front of the police, I was told by two very angry officers that I shouldn't have wasted their time since apart from my injuries only the car was damaged.
There's a driver in Edinburgh who has killed two cyclists in separate incidents and is already back on the road. I bear that in mind every time I cycle.