Near Miss

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.

--

Nigel

On Dec 18, 9:33 am, "Nigel Randell" wrote:

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

On Mon, 17 Dec 2007 19:48:44 -0800 (PST), wrote:

On Dec 18, 9:33 am, "Nigel Randell" wrote:

[2 quoted lines suppressed]

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."

I phoned the police the other day as there was a 2 foot square block of
frozen food on the A5 (no I don't know either!).

I phoned a station that said it was open 24 hours, and would know the road
well. Instead I got a call centre god knows where who had no idea where I
was talking about.

Were they concerned about someone hitting that as 60mph on a dark road?
Were they ****, all they cared about was if it was their force as it was
very close to the county border, cue comedy exercise in passing the buck
between multiple agencies.

Steve

Steve wrote:

Were they concerned about someone hitting that as 60mph on a dark road?
Were they ****, all they cared about was if it was their force as it was
very close to the county border, cue comedy exercise in passing the buck
between multiple agencies.

Hilarity ensues as 150kg ice-puck is shunted back and forth across
county boundary!

"Chris" wrote in message
.. .
Steve wrote:

Were they concerned about someone hitting that as 60mph on a dark road?
Were they ****, all they cared about was if it was their force as it was
very close to the county border, cue comedy exercise in passing the buck
between multiple agencies.

Hilarity ensues as 150kg ice-puck is shunted back and forth across county
boundary!

Round here a motorcyclist killed themselves on the county boundary. Plod on
both sides turned up and one of each had to wait with the body for quite a
while while those higher up argued whose problem it was.

cheers,
clive

On Tue, 18 Dec 2007 08:32:33 +0000, Steve wrote:

Were they concerned about someone hitting that as 60mph on a dark road?
Were they ****, all they cared about was if it was their force as it was
very close to the county border, cue comedy exercise in passing the buck
between multiple agencies.


I've had that. I reported a drain gulley which had lost its grating,
leaving a hole in teh road. It really needed a plate over it, but
just plonking a traffic cone on top of the hole would have been an
improvement. It was within 10m of a boundary, however, so they had to
carefully investigate whether to plonk a traffic cone on it, or pass
the problem to another force.

regards, Ian SMith
--
|\ /| no .sig
|o o|
|/ \|

O
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 wrote:
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 "f*ckwits".

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 tosser 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.

On 18 Dec 2007 13:34:38 GMT, Ian Smith wrote:

On Tue, 18 Dec 2007 08:32:33 +0000, Steve wrote:

Were they concerned about someone hitting that as 60mph on a dark road?
Were they ****, all they cared about was if it was their force as it was
very close to the county border, cue comedy exercise in passing the buck
between multiple agencies.


I've had that. I reported a drain gulley which had lost its grating,
leaving a hole in teh road. It really needed a plate over it, but
just plonking a traffic cone on top of the hole would have been an
improvement. It was within 10m of a boundary, however, so they had to
carefully investigate whether to plonk a traffic cone on it, or pass
the problem to another force.

Likewise, but I called the local authority. In fact first I called a
friend in a neighbouring local authority, to get, from the horse's
mouth, where the boundary is. (Apparently the signs are not
necessarily placed on the border, but sited for best visibility etc).

Once I'd determined whose the hole was (W Sussex in this case) I rang
them up and put my point across. It was fixed within a few days.


--

Tim

fast and gripping, non pompous, glossy and credible.

Simon Dean wrote:
Nigel Randell wrote:
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.

You'd both be called "f*ckwits".

I would expect nothing less ;-)


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 tosser 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 *******. There's not that many of them, but a
little goes a long way.

--

Nigel