Welcome back to West Yorkshire Cycling. I’m Charlotte.
In today’s edition, we take a look at a close pass in the Huddersfield area on Sunday, 11th November 2024. The incident happened on the A641 Bradford Road and involved a black BMW.
The map shows the direction the cyclist was travelling in and the location of the incident. Let’s take another look at the incident in slow motion.
The footage was uploaded to West Yorkshire Police on the same day via the Safer Roads Media Submission Portal. An email was returned containing a unique reference number confirming the submission.
West Yorkshire Police replied by email on Tuesday, 12th November 2024, to inform us that enquiries were underway to trace the driver of the vehicle involved so they could be processed for the offence or offences identified from the footage.
The first step in this process is issuing a Notice of Intended Prosecution (NIP) to the registered keeper. It’s important to remember that receiving a NIP isn’t an automatic prosecution; it’s a formal warning that prosecution may follow. The recipient then has 28 days to provide details of who was driving at the time of the alleged offence. Failing to comply with a NIP is an offence in itself.
Data from Operation Snap for October to December 2024 shows the driver was dealt with for the offence RT88576: ‘Drive a mechanically propelled vehicle on a road or public place without reasonable consideration’. This comes under Section 3 of the Road Traffic Act 1988. A person is regarded as driving without reasonable consideration if another road user is inconvenienced by their driving.
This is covered by Highway Code Rule 163, which states that you should overtake only when it is safe and legal to do so. The rule instructs drivers to give cyclists at least as much room as they would when overtaking a car. As a guide, you should leave at least 1.5 metres when overtaking cyclists at speeds of up to 30 mph, and give them more space when overtaking at higher speeds. If it is unsafe or not possible to meet these clearances, the guidance is clear: you should wait and not overtake.
So, what penalty did the driver receive? Operation Snap data shows the driver was offered an educational course. You can only attend a course once in a three-year period. These courses are aimed at changing driver attitudes and preventing re-offending.
The driver had 28 days from the date of the document to book and pay for the course, and 120 days from the date of the offence to complete it. The police retain the right to withdraw a course offer at any time up to the point of completion. While the driver could have opted for a Conditional Offer of a Fixed Penalty or a court hearing, in this instance, they chose the educational course.
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That’s all from West Yorkshire Cycling for this episode.
