lorry passing too close

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Vantage
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Re: lorry passing too close

Post by Vantage »

You're absolutely right about my road position and the road in question reohn2.
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MikeF
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Re: lorry passing too close

Post by MikeF »

Sussex police have "Operation Crackdown" for reporting bad driving although I haven't used it.

If you don't report anything wrong then "no complaints" means there isn't anything wrong! :wink:

Recently I've noticed that lorries and buses that have passed me have given me plenty of room, with no "close shaves" and I wonder if there has been any driver training introduced. Also recently I was driving (a car) behind a driver and that driver waited until he could pass a cyclist with plenty of room. The problem is it takes only one driver to pass too close and cause an accident.
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niggle
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Re: lorry passing too close

Post by niggle »

reohn2 wrote:I don't know how far out from the kerb you ride but it's never less than 0.8m to 1m for me(unless I move over and signal for someone to overtake say on a singletrack road)that distance gives me a safety margin to the left in the case of such lunatic/dangerous/maniac drivers.

That pretty much describes my position and the safety margin I moved into in the clip I linked.
Raph
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Re: lorry passing too close

Post by Raph »

Vantage wrote:I never did hear back from the company.
Please excuse the language.

http://youtu.be/3X61xx6ABOQ


Yeah I think in the top trumps of closeness, my example beats that. I'm going to have to post it up! I'll crop the rear facing vid when I have a moment... Meanwhile here's the helmet cam:

Image
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Vantage
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Re: lorry passing too close

Post by Vantage »

:shock:
How he didn't take the tape off your bars with that pass is beyond me.
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kwackers
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Re: lorry passing too close

Post by kwackers »

Here's mine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1-nqFzCmCE

Looks jerky on my machine, not sure why. Quite an old one, I reported it to the guy in charge and he threatened me with libel (apparently I was making the company look bad!) So I told him to do one and made it public.

Bear in mind it's a wide angle lens so things are closer than they look and after the roundabout I was moving over to try to increase space between him and me. (The road also opens up to multiple lanes about 100m further up so he had no excuse).
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[XAP]Bob
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Re: lorry passing too close

Post by [XAP]Bob »

Vantage wrote:I never did hear back from the company.
Please excuse the language.

http://youtu.be/3X61xx6ABOQ


Language is to be expected, but I'd suggest not ducking back in between those parked cars, and passing them wider out.

The ducking in can easily be taken as an invitation to overtake (which is clearly wasn't), and the door zone could easily land you on the road...
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Rich_S
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Re: lorry passing too close

Post by Rich_S »

This is mine from this morning..... Should I report the driver?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKl90rG ... e=youtu.be
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gaz
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Re: lorry passing too close

Post by gaz »

It was certainly a very badly timed overtake and since the bus stops about 10-15 seconds later to pick up/put down passengers an utterly pointless one too.
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661-Pete
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Re: lorry passing too close

Post by 661-Pete »

Looks to me, like Raph's close pass beats the lot of 'em in terms of closeness. Quite often the camera makes a pass look wider than it was in real life. So: I can only imagine....
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661-Pete
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Re: lorry passing too close

Post by 661-Pete »

MikeF wrote:Sussex police have "Operation Crackdown" for reporting bad driving although I haven't used it.
I used 'crackdown' once - after some idiot in the passenger seat gave me a pat on the bum. I didn't expect anything to come of it, but sure enough a few days later I was summoned to the nick to give out a statement. Apparently the driver of the car (I'd given them a reg. no.) was 'known' to them: although they couldn't file a charge on his unidentified passenger, they were glad to have the info as 'intelligence'.

Perhaps that's the answer. The cops will go after people they already have paperwork on, but possibly not otherwise. Or is this too paranoid?
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Psamathe
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Re: lorry passing too close

Post by Psamathe »

661-Pete wrote:I used 'crackdown' once - after some idiot in the passenger seat gave me a pat on the bum. I didn't expect anything to come of it, but sure enough a few days later I was summoned to the nick to give out a statement. Apparently the driver of the car (I'd given them a reg. no.) was 'known' to them: although they couldn't file a charge on his unidentified passenger, they were glad to have the info as 'intelligence'.

I thought the driver was responsible for the behaviour of their passengers (e.g. passenger not wearing a seatbelt, driver is held responsible. But maybe I've got the wrong idea there.

661-Pete wrote:... The cops will go after people they already have paperwork on, but possibly not otherwise. Or is this too paranoid?

But they have to get the initial "intelligence" from somewhere. Last summer I stopped and had a chat with a PCSO on her Police bike. I'd just been "cut-up" bad and stopped to ask if Police would act on such reports. She was saying along the lines of it depending what I expected the outcome to be. They would record the incident. If they had previous record that might then provide enough for them to pursue. Or they might send somebody round for a "chat" (which I interpreted as "put the fear of God into them"). But I guess they have to get the initial intelligence that is not enough to act on from somewhere. And that might need to be several incidents.

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thirdcrank
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Re: lorry passing too close

Post by thirdcrank »

Psamathe wrote: ... I thought the driver was responsible for the behaviour of their passengers (e.g. passenger not wearing a seatbelt, driver is held responsible. But maybe I've got the wrong idea there. ...


Even identifying the driver (ie sufficient for a prosecution) might be difficult. The power to require the identity of the driver of a vehicle only extends to traffic offences, which don't include an assault. That's not to say that the registered keeper can't be asked. If the driver were to identify the passenger / assailant, then the driver would almost inevitably be an accomplice so any evidence they gave against the passenger would have to be corroborated. In many assaults, the victim can identify their attacker because they saw them and may even have known them personally. A random assault by a person in a passing vehicle may mean that the victim only had a fleeting glance at the assailant. Formal identification at an ID parade or the electronic equivalent might not be possible. This is all assuming that the current keeper of the vehicle is registered as such. Is this all insurmountable? Of course not. Will a pat on the bum be thoroughly investigated? Perhaps not.

IIRC, a female forum member did report something like this with a satisfactory result.

There are some traffic offences where the driver has a responsibility for the conduct of passengers, "dooring" is perhaps a good example.
Raph
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Re: lorry passing too close

Post by Raph »

I've written a letter to the company but haven't sent it yet, it's moderately friendly, saying I've got the videos, I'm putting them on that roadjustice site, and could they please have a word with the driver, cos if he keeps driving like that, sooner or later a pedestrian will step out and push a cyclist into his path and he isn't leaving any room for error and it could end up in a tragedy... or words to that effect.

I haven't sent it mainly cos I can't find an email address for the company, they're all over the net, lots of phone numbers and their postal address but no email address, so it'll have to be snail mail, which at least means I can send it by recorded delivery.

From what's been said above, it seems I should show it to the cops as well. Hopefully that makes it more likely I'll get a response from the company.

When long vehicles overtake then cut in, I feel it's a different issue to passing too close in the first place. Obviously it's still unsafe, but once the vehicle is partly in front of you, it's annoying but you can slow down. I've several times bashed the side of a bus or lorry with my fist when they've cut in like that, but advice from driving instructors and cops is if someone cuts in, let them in. If you plough on then you become part of the problem - legally I think that's how it is. Someone coming up too close from behind is a different issue, there's no evasive action you can take there.
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squeaker
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Re: lorry passing too close

Post by squeaker »

Raph wrote:Someone coming up too close from behind is a different issue, there's no evasive action you can take there.

Not strictly true if you are using a rear view mirror and are riding along a road with a soft verge... But easy to get paranoid about :roll:
Hope you get a positive response to your letter.
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