A road.cc reader has updated us on what happened after we published a video he submitted as part of our Near Miss of the Day series last August – and while it seemed at the time that the police would take no action, it transpires that a woman was last week convicted of an offence in relation to the incident.
The footage was sent to us by road.cc reader Andy, whose sister-in-law caught on dashcam the moment a car passed a cyclist at speed in Trafford, Greater Manchester, with the driver immediately turning right across the rider’s path.
> Near Miss of the Day 28: Driver turns across cyclist at speed
Andy’s sister-in-law passed the footage to Greater Manchester Police under its Operation Considerate scheme but was told no action could be taken because the cyclist involved had not come forward.
However, it now turns out that the incident did result in a conviction, with Andy’s relative receiving a court letter last week informing her that one Jeanette Sarah Fidler was found guilty of an unspecified offence last week and fined £745, with her driving licence endorsed with six penalty points.
Andy – a former police officer – told us that one possibility was that she had been convicted as registered keeper of the vehicle for failing to disclose who was driving it, which carries a maximum fine of £1,000 and incurs six penalty points.
He added that he sees it as “a good result” and one that “may encourage more road.cc readers to report incidents such as this to the police – there seem to be a vocal minority of contributors who complain the police never do anything and it's pointless reporting anything to them.”
We’ve asked both Greater Manchester Police and the Crown Prosecution Service for details of the offence of which she was convicted. We had not heard back from either of them at the time of writing.
We also asked if they could confirm that she is the same Jeanette Fidler who has made regular appearances in both the local and national newspapers - her name at times reported as Jeanette Sarah Fidler - as a result of having racked up more than 200 criminal convictions, mainly for theft, and who is banned as a result from entering every health club, leisure centre and hotel in the UK.
> Near Miss of the Day turns 100 - Why do we do the feature and what have we learnt from it?
Over the years road.cc has reported on literally hundreds of close passes and near misses involving badly driven vehicles from every corner of the country – so many, in fact, that we’ve decided to turn the phenomenon into a regular feature on the site. One day hopefully we will run out of close passes and near misses to report on, but until that happy day arrives, Near Miss of the Day will keep rolling on.
If you’ve caught on camera a close encounter of the uncomfortable kind with another road user that you’d like to share with the wider cycling community please send it to us at info [at] road.cc or send us a message via the road.cc Facebook page.
If the video is on YouTube, please send us a link, if not we can add any footage you supply to our YouTube channel as an unlisted video (so it won't show up on searches).
Please also let us know whether you contacted the police and if so what their reaction was, as well as the reaction of the vehicle operator if it was a bus, lorry or van with company markings etc.
> What to do if you capture a near miss or close pass (or worse) on camera while cycling