Gloucestershire Police has apologised after an emergency responding officer failed to allow an oncoming driver to slow down or change lanes, allowing a cyclist to pass “dangerously” closely, saying his actions fell “below the expected standard” and were an “error in judgement”.
Responding to a complaint from the cyclist that he had been overtaking too quickly and “could have easily fallen onto the road”, the driver’s commander admitted he had been “too close” and said he would “be more careful in future when responding to emergencies”.
The incident, reported last month, happened on the B4063 at Churchdown, around five miles from Gloucester, when an officer approached a cyclist from behind whilst responding to an emergency call.
I reported the incident to @Glos_Police yesterday and they basically replied that there was insufficient evidence to proceed. This happened on the same trip so it’s no wonder #Gloucestershire #Police won’t prosecute their own drivers for this! pic.twitter.com/NikzOZ38Sm
— Cycling Geek (@NerdCyclist) July 18, 2024
“The police car had its lights on and its siren on,” a cyclist known on social media as “CyclingNerd” told road.cc.
“As soon as I realised a vehicle was coming from behind, I pulled over to the side of the road as quickly as I could, but the police vehicle was going so fast that I didn’t have time to fully unclip myself from my bike.
“I’m an experienced cyclist who has ridden thousands of miles using the clip, and I was able to maintain an upright position even with the clip on and despite being hit by a wave of police cars approaching me at very high speed.”
> A cyclist accused the driver of a police vehicle of “dangerous behaviour” while overtaking an oncoming vehicle after it failed to give way or slow down.
The cyclist, who holds bus and truck driving licences and has experience in emergency vehicle response, said the driver of the oncoming vehicle “definitely didn’t pull over to the kerb” and, while he’s “not 100 per cent sure”, he believes “he didn’t slow down at all”.
He added: “The oncoming vehicle did not slow down to allow the police vehicle to pass safely, which caused the police vehicle to do something that they should not have done. Yes, they were responding to an emergency, but even in situations like this, vulnerable road users must be respected.”
“I didn’t expect to be hit, but when the bow wave hit my bike at a near stationary position I felt a wobble. At that point I could have easily fallen onto the road.
“My biggest frustration is that this shouldn’t have happened because not all cyclists are that confident.”
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After seeking advice from a retired police officer who told him the driver of the police vehicle had “completely failed in the face of a foreseeable danger”, the cyclist reported the incident to Gloucestershire Police.
“Despite what a lot of the keyboard warriors are saying, I am confident there will be a positive outcome from my complaint because this is not the first time someone has made a complaint in Gloucestershire about police driving around cyclists,” he told road.cc at the time.
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And this week, in an email exchange seen by road.cc, police apologised to the cyclist, agreeing the overtake had been “too close”.
“As agreed, I have spoken to the officers who were driving the police vehicle involved in your complaint and explained that their driving fell below the standard I expect on this occasion,” the driver’s commander told the bicyclist.
However, it was also pointed out that the link sent by the cyclist had expired so the driver of the car was unable to view the footage, but the officer said: “I wanted to show this footage to officers as it was quite shocking.”
They continued: “However, despite not having viewed the footage, the officers accepted my description of the incident and agreed that in those circumstances they would have followed too closely. They have agreed to learn from the situation and, in line with their training, to be more careful when approaching and overtaking cyclists, other road users and hazards.”
“An error of judgement at the time led our officers to get too close to you. We would like to apologise again. Our officers are aware of this and will be more careful when responding to emergencies in the future.”
“We will complete the report and send it back to our professional standards department, who will consider the action taken and provide you with a copy of the report.”
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The cyclist, who accepted the police apology and forwarded another link to the video shared on social media, said: “Thanks for the update. I’m glad the matter has been resolved but the footage will give officers a better understanding of the situation.”
“We look forward to a copy of the report from the Professional Standards Division.”
Despite Gloucestershire Police’s apology, the cyclist continues to criticise the lack of caution around dangerous driving around cyclists in the county.
Problematic close pass! pic.twitter.com/WLy2uZvyb3
— Cycling Geek (@NerdCyclist) July 18, 2024
On the same day that the officer passed him, the van driver committed a careless overtaking, but when a cyclist reported the incident, Gloucestershire Police said there was “insufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction”.
“Since the incident happened I have joined the national network run by Action Vision Zero,” the cyclist told road.cc this week. “The group focuses on reporting road crime because many reports are not dealt with properly as the police do not take further action. If you remember, my first frustration was when the police ignored my report about the van and drove past it themselves.
“It’s still early days, with only one meeting so far, but the aim is to get police to improve Operation SNAP and ensure there is no ‘postcode inequality’ in reporting of incidents.”
Surprisingly, or perhaps not surprisingly, this is not the first time a police officer has been reported to have overtaken a cyclist at high speed in Gloucestershire – a similarly shocking overtaking incident by a police vehicle driver on the A40 featured in our 2020 Near Miss of the Day series.
And the previous year, officers from Gloucestershire Police told someone who reported being approached by a bus driver: “You might want to consider swapping your bike for a Hummer.”
Police later apologised for their comments and the bus driver was fined and had six points applied to his licence.
