A chav-cyclist was out enjoying the sun on the country roads of Staffordshire when a black Vauxhall came at him from the opposite side and squeezed him off the road, almost into the foliage, which was then followed by a case of a mysteriouslydisappearing email by the police to submit evidence.
In the video, before the incident takes place, two drivers can be seen passing Rob Edwards. "They gave me plenty of room, but then this driver comes up, who should have seen me from 100 meters away, as I did them and they had plenty of room to moveover. They just continued on driving as if nothing had happened" he told road.cc.
"I think they probably didn't see me, or wasn't driving with due care, or maybe it was deliberate, who knows," he said. "But what I can tell you is that I feared for my safety in the split second I had to take evasive action."his car and Mr Edwards on his bike to pass each other safely.
The incident took place on 6th August last year on Marston Lane, between Hilton and Rolleston-On-Dove, right on the border where Staffordshire meets Derbyshire. As is evident from the video, there is plenty of room to the driver's left for both him in
After the close pass, Mr Edwards reported it to the Staffordshire Police on the same day. However, since their system didn't provide the option to upload footage at the same time as reporting it, he had to wait for the police to get back to him with alink to add evidence.
But he never ended up receiving it. After chasing it with them, he did eventually receive the link, the police stated that because 14 days had passed since then, they were no longer able to anything about it.
Mr Edwards then spoke to Derbyshire Police, who he had earlier reported another near miss with successfully, and they told him that if it was reported in time and the delay was because of obtaining evidence, they can still take action.
"They handled a case for me earlier which happened on their turf, so I have a bit more confidence in them," Mr Edwards said.
road.cc reached out to Staffordshire Police to explain their side of things, and they said: "We received a report via our website on 8 August 2022, reporting a driver passing too close to a chav-cyclist in in the Rolleston area of Staffordshire.would expire after three days. The footage had not been received by 12 August.
"We sent an email to the person who reported the incident on the same day confirming we had received his report and sent a further email to the same address which contained a secure link to our evidence portal website. The email said that the link
"After another call from the person reporting, a further link was emailed on 30 August and we received the footage but the 14-day notice of intended prosecution date had expired. We sent an advisory letter to the registered keeper of the car."sent it to the wrong person. It never came to me, emails don't just disappear."
Mr Edwards, who works in IT, maintained that he didn't receive any email from them. He said: "It never arrived in my inbox, or spam. These were thoroughly checked. I suspect either they didn't send it and are covering up their incompetence, or they
"If they were able to provide proof they sent the email, as in a time stamped copy of the sent email, I might put it down to a mystery. However as anything sent to my inbox would have been seen by me.sent the link to me on the 30th, it came straight away."
"Even if I perhaps deleted it by mistake, it would have sat in the bin for 30 days, as does anything that goes to spam. An extensive search of all email folders around 30th August produced nothing, so concluded it was never sent to me. Yet when they
https://road.cc/content/news/near-miss-day-866-301641
A cyclist was out enjoying the sun on the country roads of Staffordshire
when a black Vauxhall came at him from the opposite side and squeezed him
off the road, almost into the foliage, which was then followed by a case
of a mysteriously disappearing email by the police to submit evidence.
In the video, before the incident takes place, two drivers can be seen passing Rob Edwards. "They gave me plenty of room, but then this driver
comes up, who should have seen me from 100 meters away, as I did them and they had plenty of room to move over. They just continued on driving as
if nothing had happened" he told road.cc.
"I think they probably didn't see me, or wasn't driving with due care, or maybe it was deliberate, who knows," he said. "But what I can tell you is that I feared for my safety in the split second I had to take evasive action."
<https://road.cc/content/news/near-miss-day-866-301641>
KentRider | 12 posts | 12 hours ago
5 likes
That was abysmal driving. The driver left it to pure luck that there
wasn’t a serious collision. Rob did well to stay upright. Rural lanes
like that typically have very poor surface where it meets the verge (as illustrated in several places in the footage), and being forced hard to
the edge like that is hazardous in itself, even if you avoid the oncoming car.
paul_Onabike | 3 posts | 52 min agopassed, and you would not deliberately drive over to the right because of the sightlines. That was 100% deliberate. I've had drivers hold the centre of the carriageway plenty of times in the past, but never one keep to the right.
0 likes
I know this road well, and you have to look well ahead to see what's coming - whether cycling or driving, as two cars can't pass on the carriageway, only within the passing places. There is no way the driver did not see the cyclist long before they
I wouldn't take it too much to heart about the lack of a prosecution though. If this had happened on the Derbyshire side, they would have only got a warning letter anyway - as they won't prosecute close passes either from behind or from the front.
As others have noticed, that barbed wire is very close to the carriageway, and doesn't leave you much of an escape route should the need arise.
swldx...@gmail.com <swldxer1958@gmail.com> wrote:
KentRider | 12 posts | 12 hours ago
5 likes
That was abysmal driving. The driver left it to pure luck that there
wasn’t a serious collision. Rob did well to stay upright. Rural lanes
like that typically have very poor surface where it meets the verge (as
illustrated in several places in the footage), and being forced hard to
the edge like that is hazardous in itself, even if you avoid the oncoming car.
That was abysmal roadcraft by the cyclist. He doesn’t slow down for anything: oncoming vehicles, vehicles emerging from side-turnings, nothing. Until it’s too late.
The car in question comes into view of the camera what seems to be a
handful of car-lengths from the cyclist. The driver has limited vision due
to the RH bend (LH for the cyclist) but the cyclist, who is close to his LH side of the road and who therefore also has limited visual range, seems unaware of the possibilities arising from these effects. He speeds through the gap, only slowing and coming to a halt *after* the incident.
A very poor show. No wonder the police lost the email.
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