Near Miss of the Day 887: Bus company launches investigation after driver hits cyclist’s handlebars during overtake

Occasionally, our Near Miss of the Day series features a hair-raising incident that can only, at best, be loosely categorised as a ‘miss’. And that misnomer has arguably never been more apparent than this latest incident from Worcester, which saw an extremely close passing bus driver squeeze a cyclist up against the kerb before clipping the rider’s handlebars as he pulled in – a dangerous manoeuvre that has resulted in police action and the bus company launching an internal investigation.

road.cc reader Nick was cycling on Worcester’s Deansway at the start of December when the bus driver “pulled up next to me in the wrong lane and crossed the ASL into the box at the lights”.

“After the lights the road narrows to a single lane at which point the bus driver just sandwiched me towards the kerb,” he told road.cc.

“I saw the contact coming and moved my hand in on the grip, at which point the bus made contact with my bar end.”

> Near Miss of the Day 882: Cyclist calls out bus company for dangerous overtake at junction

Nick then reported the incident, which almost caused him to lose control of his bike, to West Mercia Roads Police – who he described as “good with Op Snap” – with the police later informing him the not-so-near miss had resulted in action being taken against the bus driver.

“I just don’t know what action was taken!” he says. “I did get a call from a different department a couple of days later asking if I had been injured or fallen off as it would then become an RTC.

“So my next skill to learn is how to fall off gently.”

> School coach driver tells cyclist he’s “not really bothered” about killing someone after close pass

When contacted by road.cc, the bus company, First Worcester, admitted that they were aware of the incident but had only now launched an investigation having viewed the footage submitted to road.cc by Nick.

“We are aware of the incident after the driver reported it on the day it happened,” a First Worcester spokesperson told us.

“Unfortunately, the incident wasn’t captured by our own CCTV, but now we have seen the footage submitted by your reader we will undertake further internal investigations.

“We take the safety of our passengers and other road users extremely seriously, and we apologise for the distress experienced by the cyclist involved.”

> Near Miss of the Day 881: Bus driver's pointless overtake before "one of the most bizarre conversations" this cyclist has ever had

A few of our recent near misses – in fact, three out of the last seven included in the series – have focused on the poor overtaking skills of bus drivers, who swiftly pull across and into the path of unsuspecting cyclists.

And last February, Transport for London launched an investigation after an “unacceptable” close passing bus driver squeezed a cyclist into the kerb in a similar incident to the one suffered by Nick in Worcester.

At the time, TfL’s head of bus operations, Rosie Trew, said “driving that endangers cyclists or pedestrians is unacceptable and far from the required standard of our bus drivers”.

> Cyclist speaks out about "bullyish" bus driving that prompted Transport for London investigation

The cyclist involved in that particular incident added that “bullyish” driving from bus drivers, especially in the capital, is common, and that she is regularly forced to brake in order to avoid a collision.

“That kind of thing does happen quite often,” she said. “Where a bus is coming around a cyclist [who] knows they’ve got to stop.

“What [bus drivers] do is get to a certain point where they’re sort of halfway past you, then they start indicating, and at that point, you have to make the decision. I don’t want to get squished by a bus, so I’m going to have to make a quick decision to brake, get out the way of the bus before I have a collision.

“It just winds you up so much because it’s bullyish behaviour, you have no option but to brake or you’re gonna get hit by a bus, so they’re putting you in this horrible, impossible situation where you’ve got to just get out their way – which shouldn’t be the case at all.”

> 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