Abstract
Research on overtaking accidents is summarised. An approach to characterising the cause of overtaking accidents is then described which involved the use of police files together with more in-depth `prose accounts' interpreted by human coders. The method used is described and the results analysed. Accidents were categorised as a) right turn; b) head on; c) side swipe; d) cutting in; e) return and lose control; f) intersecton; g) nearside; and h) miscellaneous/avoidance. Accidents were considered to be due to a) poor observation; b) inexperience; c) misjudgement; and d) excess speed. An analysis by age showed the `risky manoeuvres' specific to particular age groups.