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Near Miss of the Day 372: Van driver attempts to turn left through cyclist – UPDATED
The rear view of this near miss is the clearest and most damning. A van driver approaches a cyclist from behind, pulls alongside him and then… starts to turn left.
The incident occurred on February 6 around 6.30am at the M6 junction at Bamber Bridge near Preston on the A6 going north.
Jon points out that as it is on a motorway junction, “I can't go where he is trying to push me.”
In the YouTube description, he writes: “I don't normally get worried too much by close passes, but you can tell by my language this one got to me – and he was giving me verbal and sounding his horn as well.”
He adds: “I knew he was close but on doing this video, he was within inches of my back wheel.”
Jon’s been trying to identify the company, but hasn’t had any luck and so he’s not reported the incident yet.
He is however going to the police station next week for another video, “so I may tell them, but I don't hold much hope of them doing anything.”
Although Jon has been unable to identify the company since publication of this story road.cc has been contacted by someone claiming to be the owner of Excel Ceramics to say that the vehicle in the video is no longer owned by the company and hadn't been "for many months", they also suggested they would be considering legal action if road.cc does 't take the video down. We've asked if they can help Jon (and hopefully the police) by letting us know who the new owner is, we will pass that information on to Jon if we get it.
> Near Miss of the Day turns 100 - Why do we do the feature and what have we learnt from it?
Over the years road.cc has reported on literally hundreds of close passes and near misses involving badly driven vehicles from every corner of the country – so many, in fact, that we’ve decided to turn the phenomenon into a regular feature on the site. One day hopefully we will run out of close passes and near misses to report on, but until that happy day arrives, Near Miss of the Day will keep rolling on.
If you’ve caught on camera a close encounter of the uncomfortable kind with another road user that you’d like to share with the wider cycling community please send it to us at info [at] road.cc or send us a message via the road.cc Facebook page.
If the video is on YouTube, please send us a link, if not we can add any footage you supply to our YouTube channel as an unlisted video (so it won't show up on searches).
Please also let us know whether you contacted the police and if so what their reaction was, as well as the reaction of the vehicle operator if it was a bus, lorry or van with company markings etc.
> What to do if you capture a near miss or close pass (or worse) on camera while cycling
Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.
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33 comments
I've had this before. A van with a company logo cut me up, video was on YouTube and someone claiming to be the owner messaged me saying they had sold the van months before (but apparently left the logos on the van) and threatening me my unspecified legal action. A complete load of rubbish.
I like the Road.cc response of asking who the new owner was.
I'd love to know what 'legal' action they think they're going to be able to take.
Van and driver in a public place, do they think that companies have some sort of 'expectation of privacy' that we plebs don't?
They might be able to get YouTube to take it down, but no legal action.
I filmed this in 2015.. .
https://youtu.be/JvE7HG80ZV0
It can't be seen clearly, but the driver was screaming at me from inside her Beckhammobile. A year later, I got an e-mail from YouTube telling me that the driver had filed a 'privacy complaint' concerning the video.
In the event, they didn't delete it.
PS In my defence, I was cycling so slowly as I was less fit, and I was at the end of a 12 mile commute, most of it uphill.
It seems to me that the firm is in danger of the Streisand effect!
Surely their issue is with the driver and not Road.cc if their tale is genuine.
I think Road CC are being a bit gullible here. How do Excel Ceramics know it had been one of their vans if they can't see the registration number? What grounds do they have to take legal action?
I suspect Excel Ceramics are trying to protect the company name by claiming the van was sold. If they were a reputable company they would disclose the drivers name instead of making up a half arsed excuse like that. Next they'll be claimimg the driver was in Pizza hut in Woking at the time of the incident.
Why gullible? If Road.cc had taken down the video then maybe, however they have left the video up AND reported the contact on here.
You're missing the point. How do Excel Ceramics know it was a van they sold if they can't see the registration number???
You are missing the point. How does "guillible" come into it?
OMG this is painfull. The report states that Excel Ceramics said they no longer owned that van. Why did Road cc not question that? It sounds like they believed everything Excel told them (gullible). Why did Road CC not ask Excel how they knew it was a van they sold when the Reg number isn't visible.
Crikey......next time I'll draw pictures.
Well obviously if roadcc believed them, the story would have disappeared from the site. There would have been no update statement and no further comments.
As Hirsute points out, and I did earlier, if they were "gullible" Road.cc would have taken down the video based on the legal threats. However they have left it up and pointed out the latest "facts" as they know them which as a news site, is more then some do, (for example the Daily Heil).
You also do not know what questions were sent on to them in the reply email.
And, I did have my doubts before about actual ownership but the van on the clip only has the Excel part on as decals on one side only. If you see the pics on the FB page, there are alot more decals and phone numbers and stuff. Their FB page shows they have recently changed numbers compared to what was on the Vans so they might have got rid of them, or they might have been in the middle of changing graphics.
hopefully now the Police might get involved if they at least have a starting point on the trail for ownership, but on that it depends on how good they are for JTheF.
It's funny as the title is excel van and doesn't the still just show that?
It's nice of the company to confirm the van is excel ceramics.
On what basis would they take legal action? The video shows actual events, in a public place where there is no expectation of privacy. It is an accurate historical record of a public event. So what is the charge?
Not to mention media organisations have the freedom to publish information already in the public domain that is of public interest.
If you don’t want your brand tarnished, then don’t drive like a prat in a vehicle that advertises it, and don’t let anyone else do that either. It’s not a difficult concept to understand.
Or don't sell your van still with your livery displayed on it!
I wonder if "someone" claiming to represent Excel Ceramics (dissolved in December 2018 but apparently still hawking for business & posting pics of their fleet on Facebook a year later) might possibly be one Simon Alexander Burgess, Director of the highly reputable (yet strangely dissolved) Excel Ceramics Ltd.?
I WONDER?
I'm sure he has records of that sale, being the respectable man he is.
I found those same details on Companies House last night. To be fair, they may have changed structure to LLP or sole trader t/a excel. But then again...
Excel Ceramics Ltd of Chorley started in June 2017 and struck off in Dec 2018
Excel Ceramics Commercial Contractor (presumably sole tradership or once the trading name of Excel Ceramics Ltd that has been transferred?) of Chorley are still active and have a FB presence since Sept 2017.
There are some questions that could come out of these companies trading style and who bought/sold what van that simpy wouldn't have arisen if the driver hadn't driven like a dick and no-one would be the wiser.
> "the vehicle in the video is no longer owned by the company and hadn't been "for many months""
BULLSHIT.
Yes, kind of hard to believe that they sold it without removing the company information, if for no other reason than that demonstrated here. And they must know who bought it, but rather than provide that whilst denying responsibility, they threaten legal action. Hmmm. Is that how an innocent party behaves?
Vans going off lease always require any signage removed IME. To go off hire, get sold (auctioned?) and still have a company's logo being used by a random driver is odd. Just how could they tell which van it was from that clip?
Report it to the cops and let them find out who owns this and ID the driver
I thought that it might have been a left turn lane, but Google Earth shows it is left and straight on, so Jon was in exactly the right place and the driver had no reason to sound their horn, close pass and try to turn left across him. I do hope something relatively nasty happens to that driver.
I've had similar things happen at motorway junctions, when there are three lanes; left turn, straight on and right, when the car in the left turn lane goes straight on instead, neatly cutting you up from the inside.
The lane the van took is a motorway lane, it takes you onto the M6 and M65, Jon was in the correct lane. However, I never take this road, I always use the cycle lane on the right side of the road. It is a good cycle lane (for a change), and takes you down the old A6 (Now a cul-de-sac), so much safer, and away from the dickheads. I use this twice a day, commuting to Walton Summit industrial estate. This roundabout is a death trap, most traffic flies round at speed, most motorists never indicate, so you end up crossing the motorway slip road, then some idiot is bearing down on you, no indicators. Recently a cyclist was taken out at this very spot, by a car overtaking another car down the slip road, no indicators. The cyclist survived, but didn't stand a chance.
The continuation which Jon is taking is a bit dodgy too, you peel off the roundabout at a point where another motorway slip road joins the roundabout, and another road coming off the motorway joins the exit. When exiting the roundabout you are by default in the centre of two lanes of a dual carriageway, with vehicles leaving the motorway flying up your inside. In this instance, it's cycle lane every time for me.
Thanks for finding the company.I couldn't find it when I looked. Email being sent.
Good luck with that.
On their FaceBook page they are claiming they sold that van before Christmas (not sure how they know how given the registration doesn't show up in the video, and they have more than one based on their FB banner).
https://www.facebook.com/pg/Excelceramicsch/posts/
Hmm, and i thought they would be using the we didn't know who was driving defense, instead it is different take on "the car was stolen officer".
I don't know much on leasing vans, but I would have thought that the grpahics were added by the company and would need to be removed by the company before returning.
However assuming all this was true and they don't own the van anymore, surely they should be more pissed off that someone is "representing them" with totally shit driving rather then the people hosting the video who have not mentioned them in the story at all.
And also I'm sure it is entirely coincidental that if hypotehtically the van was still owned by them, and they had left the office for a job at 6ish, that the Motorway junction he was getting on is a straight run from there.
Yes, I agree. Must be a coincidence that the van was sold before Christmas, and as well as being sold was also returned back to a lease company before Christmas, and one looking quite like it still appeared in a photo on FB on 30 Jan 2020.
The FB post date is misleading as that is the header page post and it states they updated the phone number on it. So I'm assuming if you change something on that page, it uses the main photo banner.
I've also posted elsewhere on here that on review of the footage, there is only that one big Excel in green visible in the footage, no other decals on either side of the van can be seen so maybe they did get shot of it, or they are changing the graphics to update the phone number. Either way, hopefully the Plod is now involved.
Fair enough.
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