Near Miss

Nigel Randell' nigel_randell@_1.web said:

Anyway, when I got home I thought that a call to Plod would be in order, and
after the usual bit about needing 2 independant witnesses to do anything,

I always wonder if they respond in that way to other calls concerning
criminal behaviour.

"OK, we'll send an armed response unit out just as soon as we get
another phone call from an independent witness telling us about the
gunman you claim to have seen."

James

O

Quoted message said:

any difference and I doubt that I will ever hear anything more of it, but we
are encouraged locally to be the "eyes and ears of the community" so I guess
that's our part in it.

you might think that information would be kept as potentially valuable
intelligence.After all , a list of phone calls to the the police over
even several years would be interesting if at some point their
attention is drawn to the person for something nasty.
But when I phoned Derbyshire police to report that a van driver had
driven threateningly through a couple of cyclists and past my car
then got out wanting a fight with me I was told that if no other
witnesses made statements the report would be destroyed after 2 weeks
and that would be that.
So he could do this on a regular basis and if he finally got in real
trouble no doubt he would claim it was a one-off.
It might be that reporting his behavior as suspicious would result in
a record being kept, but no action would be taken as I understand it.

I had a near miss at that roundabout the night before when a car drew
up alongside then turned across my front ,and it happened again last
night on the thorntons roundabout where the cyclelane peters out as
you get to the white line.i am going to lose my voice at this rate.

Nigel Randell said:

Driving home today (yes, I know - you can shoot me later) I had left the
dual carrigeway in the left hand lane of the sliproad (Watchorn roundabout
off North/Eastbound A38 headed into Alfreton if anyone knows it) and I got
to the give way lines at the roundabout, looked to the right and saw a
cyclist coming round the roundabout towards me. I reckoned that he would be
in front of me in 3-5 seconds so although I could have got out in front I
decided to wait and let him in front. I was then aware of another car (also
turning left) coming howling past me and entering the roundabout at some
speed. I can't honestly say that I saw whether the car passed behind or in
front of the cyclist, but a couple of metres in the wrong direction and it
would have passed through him. Cyclist gave me a wave, and some serious
eyeball to the driver (who reached the queue at the next traffic lights a
whole car length in front of me.

Anyway, when I got home I thought that a call to Plod would be in order, and
after the usual bit about needing 2 independant witnesses to do anything,
the lady on the phone was quite positive, thanking me for calling etc. It
helped that I had time to get the full index of the car, make, model and
colour. It's the first time I've done that, and I feel that it hasn't made
any difference and I doubt that I will ever hear anything more of it, but we
are encouraged locally to be the "eyes and ears of the community" so I guess
that's our part in it.

Just glad not to be giving a witness statement for a fatal RTA.

I congratulate you for having the balls to do something. It's a shame
more people weren't like this.

Whatever you do, don't discuss this in uk.rec.driving. You and the
cyclist would have both got a lot of stick - you for !not positioning
your car in a way to prevent someone from overtaking1", and the cyclist
for "not making himself more aware". You'd both be called "[censored]".

Additionally, even though you had no expectation of anyone passing you
and turning left, you were supposed to have guessed that something like
this might happen and the exact course of the dangerous driver even
before you were aware he was there.

IMHO - doesn't matter where you are, some [censored] is going to do
something, and if they can't get past you safely, they'd have probably
rammed your car and you'd then be getting stick for not positioning your
car further to the left! LOL.

I think you did the right thing.

Simon Dean said:

Nigel Randell said:

Driving home today (yes, I know - you can shoot me later) I had left
the dual carrigeway in the left hand lane of the sliproad (Watchorn
roundabout off North/Eastbound A38 headed into Alfreton if anyone
knows it) and I got to the give way lines at the roundabout, looked
to the right and saw a cyclist coming round the roundabout towards
me. I reckoned that he would be in front of me in 3-5 seconds so
although I could have got out in front I decided to wait and let him
in front. I was then aware of another car (also turning left)
coming howling past me and entering the roundabout at some speed. I
can't honestly say that I saw whether the car passed behind or in
front of the cyclist, but a couple of metres in the wrong direction
and it would have passed through him. Cyclist gave me a wave, and
some serious eyeball to the driver (who reached the queue at the
next traffic lights a whole car length in front of me. Anyway, when I got
home I thought that a call to Plod would be in
order, and after the usual bit about needing 2 independant witnesses
to do anything, the lady on the phone was quite positive, thanking
me for calling etc. It helped that I had time to get the full index
of the car, make, model and colour. It's the first time I've done
that, and I feel that it hasn't made any difference and I doubt that
I will ever hear anything more of it, but we are encouraged locally
to be the "eyes and ears of the community" so I guess that's our
part in it. Just glad not to be giving a witness statement for a fatal
RTA.

I congratulate you for having the balls to do something. It's a shame
more people weren't like this.

Whatever you do, don't discuss this in uk.rec.driving. You and the
cyclist would have both got a lot of stick - you for !not positioning
your car in a way to prevent someone from overtaking1", and the
cyclist for "not making himself more aware".

I would have had to straddle the white line on the 2 lane slip road to do
that. If there had been a collision then I think that the cyclist's front
LED being distinctly green tinged would have counted against him. Having
said that, I had no trouble at all seeing him - I think that actually
looking helped a lot here.

Quoted message said:

You'd both be called "[censored]".

I would expect nothing less ;-)

Quoted message said:

Additionally, even though you had no expectation of anyone passing you
and turning left, you were supposed to have guessed that something
like this might happen and the exact course of the dangerous driver
even before you were aware he was there.

IMHO - doesn't matter where you are, some [censored] is going to do
something, and if they can't get past you safely, they'd have probably
rammed your car and you'd then be getting stick for not positioning
your car further to the left! LOL.

I think you did the right thing.

You are right about the tossers. There's not that many of them, but a
little goes a long way.

--

Nigel

Quoted message said:

I had a near miss at that roundabout the night before when a car drew
up alongside then turned across my front ,and it happened again last
night on the thorntons roundabout where the cyclelane peters out as
you get to the white line.i am going to lose my voice at this rate.

I always feel a bit vulnerable on that roundabout, but for most of it the
sightlines are good although traffic speed can be a bit brisk. Coming back
into Alfreton at night I try to take a fairly wide position approaching the
northbound exit slip so that anyone coming up the right lane has a good
chance to see me.

--

Nigel

Nigel Randell' nigel_randell@_1.web said:

If there had been a collision then I think that the cyclist's front
LED being distinctly green tinged would have counted against him.  Having
said that, I had no trouble at all seeing him - I think that actually
looking helped a lot here.

There's a budget LED set that Halfords sell where the front lamp looks
white in the box but when you turn it on lights up green or yellow. I
can't think why such a thing would even be manufactured let alone sold
as primary bicycle lighting. It's bordering on the criminal.

--
Dave...

dkahn400 said:

Nigel Randell' nigel_randell@_1.web said:

If there had been a collision then I think that the cyclist's front
LED being distinctly green tinged would have counted against him. Having
said that, I had no trouble at all seeing him - I think that actually
looking helped a lot here.

There's a budget LED set that Halfords sell where the front lamp looks
white in the box but when you turn it on lights up green or yellow. I
can't think why such a thing would even be manufactured let alone sold
as primary bicycle lighting. It's bordering on the criminal.

--
Dave...

I got caught out when buying a set of cateye bike lights, I only needed
a rear red LED the shop had a suitable red LED and the same lamp in a
set for a pound more , got the set, only when I switched the front light
( TL-LD 120)on did I realise the LEDs were amber IIRC when I rechecked
the packaging it was careful not to describe the front lamp as primary
lighting.

Allan