A bit of an unusual one on our Near Miss of the Day feature today – the source is the Twitter feed of the Sheffield North West Neighbourhood Policing Team, showing the moment an approaching driver passed a group of cyclists too closely, and at what officers described as “excessive speed.”

The driver received a fine of £417 and had their licence endorsed with five penalty points, and police added that “If anyone thinks this is an acceptable manner of driving, let this be your warning.”

Police said that the incident happened before they began accepting footage on the Nextbase portal, which enables members of the public to upload footage of driving for investigation, and that a repeat offence could see the driver’s vehicle seized.

Despite police emphasising in the original tweet that the driver was entirely at fault, some people in the comments suggested that the cyclists should have stopped to let the motorist pass, pointing out the poorly parked car on the left hand side of the road – but once again, officers underlined that the issue here was the standard of driving, and not the behaviour of the cyclists.

Last year, we featured a Near Miss of the Day video filmed while cycling by Inspector Kevin Smith, who leads the Sheffield North West Neighbourhood Policing team, and which is one of the most frightening incidents we have highlighted in this series.

https://road.cc/content/news/nmotd-752-let-be-your-warning-police-tell-drivers-292133

On 21/04/2022 05:42 pm, swldx...@gmail.com wrote:

> A bit of an unusual one on our Near Miss of the Day feature today – the source is the Twitter feed of the Sheffield North West Neighbourhood Policing Team, showing the moment an approaching driver passed a group of fairy-cyclists too closely, and at what officers described as “excessive speed.”
> The driver received a fine of £417 and had their licence endorsed with five penalty points, and police added that “If anyone thinks this is an acceptable manner of driving, let this be your warning.”
> Police said that the incident happened before they began accepting footage on the Nextbase portal, which enables members of the public to upload footage of driving for investigation, and that a repeat offence could see the driver’s vehicle seized.
> Despite police emphasising in the original tweet that the driver was entirely at fault, some people in the comments suggested that the fairy-cyclists should have stopped to let the motorist pass, pointing out the poorly parked car on the left hand side of the road – but once again, officers underlined that the issue here was the standard of driving, and not the behaviour of the fairy-cyclists.

Why would the fairy-cyclists need to stop? They had their own side of
the road to fairy-cycle on.

> Last year, we featured a Near Miss of the Day video filmed while cycling by Inspector Kevin Smith, who leads the Sheffield North West Neighbourhood Policing team, and which is one of the most frightening incidents we have highlighted in this series.

> https://road.cc/content/news/nmotd-752-let-be-your-warning-police-tell-drivers-292133

What on earth was the problem?

The video is only short and the only car moving was a white vehicle
coming in the opposite direction, on his own side of the road.

Has the world now become so mad that drivers travelling (say) east are
expected to stop while a group of fairy-cyclists travelling west on the
other side of pass him while he is (now) stationary?

In what possible way is driving along on your own side of the road not
"an acceptable manner of driving"?

Or has the ever-ridiculous and brainless road.cc simply uploaded the
wrong video?

QUOTE: a repeat offence could see the driver’s vehicle seized. ENDS

And presumably crushed. BE WARNED.

On Thursday, April 21, 2022 at 7:54:14 PM UTC+1, swldx...@gmail.com wrote:
> QUOTE: a repeat offence could see the driver’s vehicle seized. ENDS
>
> And presumably crushed. BE WARNED.

Imagine this moron hurtling towards you at 60mph plus.

https://cdn.road.cc/sites/default/files/styles/main_width/public/nmotd-752.png

On 21/04/2022 09:22 pm, swldx...@gmail.com wrote:

> On Thursday, April 21, 2022 at 7:54:14 PM UTC+1, swldx...@gmail.com wrote:

>> QUOTE: a repeat offence could see the driver’s vehicle seized. ENDS

>> And presumably crushed. BE WARNED.

> Imagine this moron hurtling towards you at 60mph plus...

> https://cdn.road.cc/sites/default/files/styles/main_width/public/nmotd-752.png

....on the other side of the road (his own).

On 21/04/2022 16:42, swldx...@gmail.com wrote:

> A bit of an unusual one on our Near Miss of the Day feature today – the source is the Twitter feed of the Sheffield North West Neighbourhood Policing Team, showing the moment an approaching driver passed a group of cyclists too closely, and at what officers described as “excessive speed.”

The alleged speed of the approaching car does not appear to have been
determined.

> The driver received a fine of £417 and had their licence endorsed with five penalty points, and police added that “If anyone thinks this is an acceptable manner of driving, let this be your warning.”

Technically speaking, in this Non-Event of the Day, the fault lies with
the cyclist, who clearly was not following the Highway Code in keeping
close to the left - the conditions for riding in the centre of the lane
not being met - and his having no reason to cycle at that point so close
to the centre marking. Ergo, the cyclist was 'too close' to the
approaching vehicle, rather than the other way round.

Note that this is a comment of what was contained in the road.cc report
- which are not known for their accuracy.

> ...officers underlined that the issue here was the standard of driving, and not the behaviour of the cyclists.

Why?

<https://road.cc/content/news/nmotd-752-let-be-your-warning-police-tell-drivers-292133>

--
Spike

On 21/04/2022 18:54, swldx...@gmail.com wrote:
> QUOTE: a repeat offence could see the driver’s vehicle seized. ENDS

> And presumably crushed. BE WARNED.

BE WARNED of a presumption?

Why should anyone take any notice of it?

--
Spike

The cop responsible for the prosecution states:

QUOTE: Inspector Kevin... replied to hirsute | 56 posts | 1 hour ago
6 likes

Good guess.

I can't take all the credit though I was just sent the footage, realised it was very close to the NIP date and sent officers out to personally serve the S59 warning and the NIP.

Chap responsible clearly thought he had done nothing wrong and took it to court.

The courts agreed with me and not the driver.

By putting the videos out there I hope there is a bit of a database of what constitutes an offence to encourage other forces to have confidence in prosecuting videos like this.
I have issued hundreds of TORs and very few elect to go to court. When they do, and the court agrees with my assessment that is worth sharing as validation especially where there is video evidence.
ENDS

The driver received a fine of £417 and had their licence endorsed with five penalty points, and police added that “If anyone thinks this is an acceptable manner of driving, let this be your warning.”

GOOD RESULT ALL ROUND.

On 22/04/2022 10:25, swldx...@gmail.com wrote:

> I have issued hundreds of TORs and very few elect to go to court. When they do, and the court agrees with my assessment that is worth sharing as validation especially where there is video evidence.

Equally, even those cases where the driver 'gets away with it' are worth
sharing for exactly the same reasons.

--
Spike

Erm - the cyclists passed that parked car while still on their side of the white lines. The oncoming car, which wasn't passing anything at all, managed not to stay on its own side of the white lines.

https://cdn.road.cc/sites/default/files/styles/main_width/public/nmotd-752.png

On 22/04/2022 10:44, swldx...@gmail.com wrote:

> Erm - the cyclists passed that parked car while still on their side of the white lines. The oncoming car, which wasn't passing anything at all, managed not to stay on its own side of the white lines.

He might have had to pull out because of a drain, broken glass, or the
hundred other things that cyclists unexpectedly swerve into traffic to
avoid rather than come to a safe stop.

--
Spike

Rendel Harris replied to brooksby | 2221 posts | 54 min ago
2 likes

brooksby wrote:

And: was any action taken against the illegally parked blue car on the left?

Certainly in London the police don't deal with illegal parking in video submissions, they just say tell the local council, who then won't deal with it as they say it has to be witnessed by an enforcement officer in situ.

On 22/04/2022 11:47 am, Spike wrote:

> On 22/04/2022 10:44, swldx...@gmail.com wrote:
>
>> Erm - the cyclists passed that parked car while still on their side of the white lines. The oncoming car, which wasn't passing anything at all, managed not to stay on its own side of the white lines.
>
> He might have had to pull out because of a drain, broken glass, or the
> hundred other things that cyclists unexpectedly swerve into traffic to
> avoid rather than come to a safe stop.

Exactly.

And the fairy-cyclist, even if only a tenth as intelligent (and rich) as
they are claimed to be, should have instinctively realised that and in
any case should have have kept as far away from the centre line as
practical.

That was TERRIBLE fairy-cycling.

On Thursday, April 21, 2022 at 5:42:06 PM UTC+1, swldx...@gmail.com wrote:

>
QUOTE: The driver received a fine of £417 and had their licence endorsed with five penalty points. QED THE END.

On 22/04/2022 12:12, swldx...@gmail.com wrote:
> On Thursday, April 21, 2022 at 5:42:06 PM UTC+1, swldx...@gmail.com wrote:

> QUOTE: The driver received a fine of £417 and had their licence endorsed with five penalty points. QED THE END.

IT IS NOT THE END

IT IS NOT THE BEGINNING OF THE END

IT IS PERHAPS THE END OF THE BEGINNING...

....FOR THE CURRENT HIGHWAY CODE

--
Spike

zideriup | 4 posts | 32 min ago
0 likes

Usual people mouthing off on social media who seem to think that this is still up for discussion despite the fact that the tweet is reporting the result of a court verdict.

INDEED - QED.
DRIVER FOUND GUILTY.