Me vs the Romain lorry on the M25
- Thread starter Robdav
- Start date
A good idea, until someone comes up a few cm's off your rear bumper doing 90 =(.
Would you rather he lost his licence?
It doesn't bother me either way, but he could have easily killed the person (his fault - maybe, maybe not?).
Associate
- Joined
- 18 Oct 2002
- Posts
- 1,894
- Location
- Bedfordshire
This happened to me on the M1 last year, but the lorry was Polish. After a few months the insurance finally got sorted. Hope it all works out easily
Same thing happened to my brother with a Turkish lorry driver. Car was a write off and my brother had to gain control after it started fishtailing.
Took a year to get a insurance claim off them, kept saying letters were lost in transit even though we used recorded delivery, plus they wanted to suggest dual-responsibility =\
Took a year to get a insurance claim off them, kept saying letters were lost in transit even though we used recorded delivery, plus they wanted to suggest dual-responsibility =\
Soldato
- Joined
- 24 Apr 2007
- Posts
- 7,567
- Location
- Southport
If you stay in the lane long enough for him to get a few cms from your rear bumper, your doing something wrong.
Lanes other than the inside lane are for overtaking, not sitting in!
Not using mirrors, usually.
I was behind some woman for ages on a dual carriageway this afternoon and I was looking at her rear view mirror and she didn't look up for a good few minutes.
As soon as she did, she saw me and moved over..
Until your last statement I would have said maybe she doesn't move her head to look at her rear view mirror, that or you have super special optic vision because I generally can't see peoples eyes move in their own rear view mirror whilst driving at a safe enough distance.
...or pay enough attention to that spot until I see that they have looked/haven't looked.
I'd disagree with this. I can and do quite often. Perhaps it is also time spent riding a bike, where you need to see where drivers are looking to go far more than another car driver.
Soldato
- Joined
- 14 Aug 2008
- Posts
- 4,256
- Location
- North Sea
Last Friday I attended a mate's wedding down in Stourbridge. Twice whilst travelling down on the M6 & then M5 I had foreign plated lorries, already in the process of overtaking another and already in the middle lane begin moving into the third lane where I was overtaking them. To have 40 plus tonnes of steel looming toward you while you're travelling at 70+ mph is indeed the stuff of brown trouser moments.
It was never a question of agreeing or disagreeing with me.
Most people I've asked simply cannot see other peoples eyes clear enough to see what they are looking at and this is Jersey, it must be hard to at the distance you need to be for motorway speeds. (This is ofcourse, a discussion about what happened on a motorway no?)
I honestly cannot, I wear glasses but there's nothing wrong past that.
The distance involved, the fact you're looking through a reflection so cannot accurately gauge the focus of the driver, it being in a cabin so lighting won't be great, passing through the rear screen of the vehicle and you can still see?
It can't be just me and a few people :|
But I'd question the time spent paying attention to a drivers eyeballs enough to see them not look, you could be missing the chance that they check their rear view mirror when you are hopefully paying attention to the road ahead.
Also surprises me you didn't take that into consideration
What do you mean by "where you need to see where drivers are looking to go"?
If I look at my non drivers side wing mirror, does that mean I'm about to turn that direction? Not always.
In what situation would you need to see where they are going given they are following a marked road and should be indicating, if you're about to make an over-taking maneuver it won't matter as soon as you're along side them.
Sincere questions, just want to know.
Last edited:
Soldato
- Joined
- 8 Mar 2006
- Posts
- 13,300
- Location
- Near Winchester
I find it astonishing that part of a HGV moving on the motorway is left down to chance, "you were in his blind spot unfortunately".
Cars don't have blind spots unless you have a peculiar load or you don't check the blind spot. So why do foreign HGV's have such a corker of a blind spot which could be solved with one slightly convex mirror below the main right hand mirror. I know RHD vans have a tricky blind spot, but that'll only cause you to be cut-up, not get immediately rammed, unless the driver is a ****.
Cars don't have blind spots unless you have a peculiar load or you don't check the blind spot. So why do foreign HGV's have such a corker of a blind spot which could be solved with one slightly convex mirror below the main right hand mirror. I know RHD vans have a tricky blind spot, but that'll only cause you to be cut-up, not get immediately rammed, unless the driver is a ****.
Associate
- Joined
- 30 Nov 2003
- Posts
- 2,211
Err, yes they do.
In a car you can check the blind spot of the mirrors by looking through a window. In a lorry you can't.
Soldato
- Joined
- 8 Mar 2006
- Posts
- 13,300
- Location
- Near Winchester
We call it a blind spot, but if you turn your head and look it's no longer blind.
HGVs have real blind spots.
The coach driver wouldn't have had a clue he clipped the car.
I've smacked a lamppost quite hard with the N/S/R corner of a service bus whilst pulling out of a layby and felt, and heard absolutely nothing. It was only when a passenger sat at the back came and told me I'd hit it that I realised I was a bit closer to it than originally thought.
Last edited:
Guys, beware the HGV be it foreign plated or not, many UK registered HGV's are left hookers, and anyway, the blind spots are huge be it LHD or RHD.
Add into that mix the - generally - poor standard of eastern european HGV drivers (and a few UK ones!) and you have problems....
a lot of them are too busy watching TV or simply not watching the road / mirrors to see whats going on, the last thing many of them are is "Professional" at all. In an HGV you check mirrors, indicate, wait whilst still checking mirrors, then ideally move over ever so slightly prior to comitting to the lane change, usually its this time when the blind spot sitters tend to react and move forward or back off out of the 'spot and into your (the HGV drivers) field of vision.
I could (perhaps should?) write a book on this!
Had a trailer on an artiulated truck hit you, quite possibly not, I'd doubt very much he'd not hear and / or feel something in a coach.
I saw that too. I find it unbelievable - speaking from the point of view of a large articulated truck driver - that he did not know it was there, and I am extremely shocked that the traffic comissioner agreed!
Bumping a post (hard or not) is a bit different to giving a car a clout hard enough to put it in another lane imo.
Add into that mix the - generally - poor standard of eastern european HGV drivers (and a few UK ones!) and you have problems....
Astonishing or not its the way it is, they do have huge blind spots that smaller vehicles should avoid especially. Its not just cars that can be in a LHD trucks blind spot, I've been forced over a few times by foreign registered HGV's when I've been along side them in mine!
a lot of them are too busy watching TV or simply not watching the road / mirrors to see whats going on, the last thing many of them are is "Professional" at all. In an HGV you check mirrors, indicate, wait whilst still checking mirrors, then ideally move over ever so slightly prior to comitting to the lane change, usually its this time when the blind spot sitters tend to react and move forward or back off out of the 'spot and into your (the HGV drivers) field of vision.
I could (perhaps should?) write a book on this!
Had a trailer on an artiulated truck hit you, quite possibly not, I'd doubt very much he'd not hear and / or feel something in a coach.
I saw that too. I find it unbelievable - speaking from the point of view of a large articulated truck driver - that he did not know it was there, and I am extremely shocked that the traffic comissioner agreed!
Bumping a post (hard or not) is a bit different to giving a car a clout hard enough to put it in another lane imo.
Last edited:
If you stay in the lane long enough for him to get a few cms from your rear bumper, your doing something wrong.
Lanes other than the inside lane are for overtaking, not sitting in!
You can be in the middle of an overtaking maneuver passing a large lorry for this to happen, but on the whole I'd agree with you.
I went past the spot where the accident happend yesterday to find a dirty great skid mark in lane five which may have been from the transit van that almost ploughed into the back of me when the lorry pushed me into lane 5.
The skid mark may have also been from my pants of course!!
The skid mark may have also been from my pants of course!!