On 15/10/2020 14:31, Simon Mason wrote:

QUOTE:

A cyclist who was riding downhill and suddenly encountered a convoy of tractors as he headed under a railway bridge says the incident is “one of the top five near misses I’ve had, filmed or not.”

The incident happened in Houghton near Preston, Lancashire, with road.cc reader Jon, who shot the footage, saying: “On a commute to work in the evening I changed my route so was going downhill and approaching this corner when out of the darkness there appeared a massive tractor taking the whole road – hence the swearing as it was very scary.

“What made all this harder is the poor road surface, people on a pavement and taking a corner so having to lean over so needing more space.

“I’m not blaming the driver it was just one of those incidents,” he added.

https://road.cc/content/news/near-mi...r-giles-277965

Those pesky "people on a pavement", eh?

In only slightly different circumstances, that would have blocked the
obvious alternative route.

QUOTE:
"having to lean over so needing more space
ENDQUOTE

I suppose behaving like a responsible human being and perhaps *stopping"
was just out of the question?

The tractor driver(s) had the right of way (priority). They had reached
the tunnel first and the lead vehicle was actually emerging from the
tunnel before the cyclist even reached it from the other direction. The
tractors were being driven at a reasonable and responsible slow speed.
the cyclist was travelling too fast for the conditions. From some
distance away, it is obvious that he could not see what was inside the
tunnel. There might have been a broken-down vehicle, an injured
pedestrian, or even an injured cyclist on the carriageway in the
semi-darkness.

The rule is: "Drive / ride so that you can STOP within the distance you
can SEE to be clear". It applies to all vehicular road-users.