WELL DONE ALL!

The driver of a vehicle subcontracted to Thames Water who made a very close pass on a cyclist in Oxfordshire was disciplined by his employers (and may also face prosecution) – although the bike rider on the receiving end of the dangerous manoeuvre wonders whether the fact the driver’s boss is also a cyclist may have had something to do with the company taking action.

The incident was filmed by road.cc reader Tom as he rode home from Oxford to Thame earlier this month.

“This was one of the closest passes I've had in a while, that along with the bus coming in the other direction it was all a bit startling,” he told us, “which is why I'll give a warning for potential bad language but it all came out at once so the swears merge into one.

“Obviously I'm fearful of my safety here but I was also on my second outing on my new bicycle which had taken 14 months after being paid for to get to me. so I was equally annoyed about the potential for the bike to end up scratching along the road with me.

“Weirdly enough I was expecting slightly more Thames Water vehicle traffic as they were dealing with a big leak in Thame on the day.

“I got in touch with Thames Water after reporting this to Thames Valley Police via their online portal.

“I had the usual guff about how they'll investigate and couldn't let me know the outcome (they initially wouldn't accept a Dropbox link and wanted me to upload the video into the Twitter messages which just seemed to be avoiding taking responsibility).

“I did however get a call on Monday from the subcontractors who provide the vehicles and drivers who told me they'd disciplined the driver (he also mentioned the gaffer was a cyclist himself and was keen to sort this out, which the cynic in me means this may not have happened if he wasn't) and had been talking with the police who intend to file an NIP [Notice of Intended Prosecution] too.

“I'm still waiting to hear from Thames Valley Police on this and to be fair they normally do give me a call whatever the outcome,” Tom added.

https://road.cc/content/news/nmotd-740-hgv-driver-disciplined-after-very-close-pass-291541

Avatar
StokieBloke | 1 post | 1 hour ago
1 like

As a few have said, there's a question mark over most of the passes due crossing solid white lines. It looks to me that you were doing >10mph for pretty much the full video, and I counted 20 go passed over solid lines.

reply quote

Avatar
wtjs | 1717 posts | 2 hours ago
1 like

Driver is guilty. The word of a 'subcontractor to Thames Water' is worthless, especially accompanied by an 'I'm a cyclist myself' variant. They haven't done anything. Until you get something written about an NIP, nothing has been done- this is axiomatic

reply quote

Avatar
Velophaart_95 | 243 posts | 2 hours ago
3 likes

It's not just that driver; quite a few drivers need to read their HC, as they overtook when the road markings forbade them to - unless he was doing less than 10mph - and I doubt he was.

reply quote

On 31/03/2022 05:04 pm, swldx...@gmail.com wrote:
>
> Avatar
> StokieBloke | 1 post | 1 hour ago
> 1 like
>
>
> As a few have said, there's a question mark over most of the passes due crossing solid white lines. It looks to me that you were doing >10mph for pretty much the full video, and I counted 20 go passed over solid lines.
>
> reply quote
>
> Avatar
> wtjs | 1717 posts | 2 hours ago
> 1 like
>
>
> Driver is guilty. The word of a 'subcontractor to Thames Water' is worthless, especially accompanied by an 'I'm a fairy-cyclist myself' variant. They haven't done anything. Until you get something written about an NIP, nothing has been done- this is axiomatic
>
> reply quote
>
> Avatar
> Velophaart_95 | 243 posts | 2 hours ago
> 3 likes
>
>
> It's not just that driver; quite a few drivers need to read their HC, as they overtook when the road markings forbade them to - unless he was doing less than 10mph - and I doubt he was.

Yes, but whoever you are, it doesn't matter what you "think" - or doubt
- about something you've seen in a video on the internet - does it?

reply quote

Avatar
TGT replied to brooksby | 10 posts | 19 min ago
0 likes
Just had a look and I'm going along at around 24mph on this bit. And around the same in the 30 limit before it starts to go up hill a bit. To be fair, most drivers on this road are pretty decent but all it takes is one. Was even closer than it looks on the video too.

On 31/03/2022 16:11, swldx...@gmail.com wrote:

> Just had a look and I'm going along at around 24mph on this bit. And around the same in the 30 limit before it starts to go up hill a bit. To be fair, most drivers on this road are pretty decent but all it takes is one. Was even closer than it looks on the video too.

Clearly, 'closer than it looks on the video' means what is needed is a
video system that makes things look *worse*.

--
Spike

Bungle_52 | 457 posts | 17 min ago
0 likes
Re crossing the white lines. Have a look at NMOTD 689

https://road.cc/content/news/nmotd-689-you-prck-close-pass-speed-289183

Driver didn't cross the lines and no action from the police. Which would you prefer?

I'm quite happy to be overtaken by cars crossing the white lines even when I'm doing over 10mph providing it's safe for them to do so.

In this case the only one which wasn't safe was the lorry which did cross the white lines unsafely (both for the cyclist and the oncoming vehicle) and they should be prosecuted in my opinion.

Fignion's ghost | 26 posts | 2 hours ago
1 like
What an absolute cnut.

Double whites.

Should've been chain whipped. That wasn't a close pass. The rear wheel closed the door.

Cyclists. On the roads. THAT IS WHY YOU ALWAYS WEAR A CAMERA. FRONT AND BACK.