David Merritt was found guilty of careless driving following the incident on the A443 at Hallow towards Grimley, near Worcester when he appeared at Worcester Magistrates Court this month.
The 73-year-old defendant was convicted of careless driving at a hearing following a trial on Monday, January 6 after the Skoda Octavia hurtled past cyclist Dan Brothwell at speed, forcing him to take sudden evasive action.
MISS: The footage shows how close the car came to Dan Brothwell’s bike in Hallow towards Gimley (Image: Dan Brothwell via YouTube)
Merritt’s car is marked ‘dog handler’ and ‘response unit’ and has a blue and white chequered pattern and yellow and orange stripes. However, the vehicle is not a police car and nor is the defendant an officer, West Mercia Police has confirmed.
The overtake shows the driver passing close to Mr Brothwell, custodian of the SHIFT scheme and chair of Bike Worcester, during the incident on March 27 last year.
Dan Brothwell of Bike Worcester, said: “I could see the cars travelling towards me, and was aware there was a car approaching from behind. Given that there wasn’t enough space to provide 1.50m and overtake safely my expectation was that I’d hear the car slow down to wait, but when I realised this wasn’t going to happen I swerve to the left just before the driver overtakes.
“Had I not taken this evasive action the space left would have likely been within 400mm.
“Driving such as this is antisocial, dangerous and illegal, and in the moments before and after are frightening.”
He added: said: “I’m grateful to West Mercia Police for taking incidents such as these seriously, and that they process them via the Operation Snap portal, primarily to raise awareness of dangerous driving and to educate drivers that this falls below the standard of driving required on our roads, notably around pedestrians and people riding bikes.
“Both city and county councils, and central government, have policies to increase rates of cycling, and yet one of the biggest barriers to this is the concerns people have about the risk. Improving driving standards is essential to ensure people feel safe to cycle on our roads.
“My understanding is the defendant turned down an education course, and instead chose to defend himself at the Magistrates’ Court. The outcome should be a reminder to everyone who drives a motor vehicle, including myself; read the Highway Code, drive considerately and to test standard, and respect all road users at all times.”
Merritt of Middle Mead, Cirencester, was convicted of driving a mechanically propelled vehicle on a road / in a public place without due care and attention.
He was fined £103 and his driving record was endorsed with three penalty points.
The driver was also ordered to pay costs of £400 and a surcharge of £41.
A collection order was made and Merritt was ordered to pay the amount in full by February 3.
A spokesperson for the West Mercia Police Road Safety Team said: “Over the past three years there have been 60 collisions in Worcestershire that have resulted in fatalities and 573 collisions where people have been seriously injured, 76 of these serious injury collisions have involved a cyclist with one unfortunately resulting in a fatality.
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“Our officers police the roads 24 hours a day, 7 days a week but we know that members of the public also witness behaviour that is unacceptable. Operation Snap is a police initiative where members of the public can submit digital evidence of poor/illegal road use. This is then reviewed by a police officer and appropriate action taken.”
Operation Snap has been run by West Mercia Police since 2018. Since then they have processed just over 20,000 submissions, just over 17,000 of these have resulted in some form of positive action (prosecution, visit, education courses or advice letter).
A spokesperson added: “We value education over prosecution and where we can offer words of advice or an education course we do.
“For some submissions however prosecution is the most appropriate form of action so where this needs to be progressed it is. We receive a number of submissions from cyclists and Operation Snap allows us to address these in an appropriate way.”