HGV Sideswipes car on the M1, caught on camera..

Caporegime
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-34933345

A driver who says he was "deliberately and repeatedly rammed" by a lorry has criticised police for failing to respond to his calls for three hours.

Matthew Stockdale claims he was repeatedly cut up and shunted three times by the other motorist.

He said he made six 999 calls and was connected to three police forces.

Northamptonshire Police, which took the first call, has apologised for the communication failures, saying it plans to interview the lorry driver.

The force says it is carrying out a "live investigation", but no arrests have yet been made. Bedfordshire Police is due to interview Mr Stockdale.

Dashcam footage of the encounter, recorded on the M1 near Northampton on 11 November, shows the lorry hitting Mr Stockdale's car.

"I honestly thought I was going to die," he wrote in a police statement.

"My life literally rushed before my eyes. Whilst that sounds dramatic, I can honestly say I have never felt fear like it. I began shaking uncontrollably."

The former special constable said he was driving southbound towards his home in Northampton when a lorry began flashing him, sounding its horn and driving up to the rear of his car.

Footage shows the lorry apparently bashing his car as it passed at about 20:40 GMT, and repeating the action 14 minutes later.

Mr Stockdale then called 999 and was connected to Northamptonshire Police. After the second incident, he was connected to Thames Valley and then Bedfordshire Police.

Despite assurances from all three forces that help was on the way, he said no-one arrived.

Mr Stockdale, who runs a dashcam company, followed the lorry to a depot in Dunstable where an ambulance took him to hospital with neck and shoulder pain.

Bedfordshire Police had called the paramedics and one of its officers arrived at the hospital nearly three hours after the first call was made.

Footage shows Mr Stockdale stayed in the middle lane for some time, which motorists can be fined for, but he said he was about to move over when the lorry driver began to "intimidate" him.

The Northamptonshire force said it could not attend because officers trained to deal with such incidents were in pursuit of a stolen car. The force has seen the footage and an investigation is under way but no arrests have been made yet, a spokesman confirmed.

Supt Dennis Murray, who is in charge of the force's control room, said: "What we should have done was contact the other forces... that's a failure on our part, for which I apologise to the driver of that vehicle."

The lorry driver, who lives in Bedfordshire, was employed by Wincanton hauliers through an agency. A spokesman confirmed he is "no longer conducting deliveries".

Liability for the car damage has been accepted by the firm's insurers.

Am I being over cynical here? - a driver who apparently runs a dashcam company drives like a twonk by sticking to the middle lane for a long time (which is an offence) to the point where an HGV overtakes him in the 3rd lane - which he shouldn't - and sideswipes him a few times.....

I can't help wondering if the car driver somehow wanted this and tried to create the circumstances where he could get this footage which he recorded out there to highlight the pro's of dashcams as an outcome?

To be clear, the HGV driver was wrong in what he apparently did. In no way do you use any vehicle as a weapon as he has done,least of all an articulated truck, but, it seems a little fishy to me to say the least - The nearside lane was empty. Why was he driving at less than 56mph - an HGV's limited speed - on an empty motorway at night in the MIDDLE lane? The HGV had no trouble passing him which tells me he was driving very slowly.

The damage to his car seems extremely minor given he's been swiped by a moving HGV, I know HGV's can do an awful lot more damage in such incidents.

Again, I don't condone the actions of the HGV driver, he's an idiot, he's done what many many truckers would like to do to some drivers but generally don't!

Thoughts?
 
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Soldato
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Exactly my thoughts. He was obviously cruising in the middle lane at a silly speed while the inside lane was free which forced the lorry to go round him rather than undertake. Complete knob and a massive drama queen as well.
 
Man of Honour
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Whether he was being a bit of a plank or not I don't think his reaction to being swiped numerous times by an arctic makes him a drama queen, you'd be *****ing yourself if you were in that drivers seat.
 
Soldato
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Looks as though he wasn't keeping over and was middle-lane hogging, was maybe egging the lorry on a bit and could have at least backed off, or done something as a preventative measure.

Regardless, lorry driver is an idiot for driving so recklessly.

Two wrongs do not make a right.
 
Caporegime
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Oh, you cynic you ;)
:o

That could well be the case, but then again it could just be an idiot lorry driver

I don't dispute for a moment the truck driver was an idiot.


Whether he was being a bit of a plank or not I don't think his reaction to being swiped numerous times by an arctic makes him a drama queen, you'd be *****ing yourself if you were in that drivers seat.

I'd love to see the whole of the footage,you would expect him to be terrified indeed and to try to get away surely? - it seems odd that he appears to take no avoiding action whatsoever when the HGV comes toward him despite the nearside lane being completely clear.

Very odd imo.
 
Soldato
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Whether he was being a bit of a plank or not I don't think his reaction to being swiped numerous times by an arctic makes him a drama queen, you'd be *****ing yourself if you were in that drivers seat.

He didn't really attempt to avoid it though? Just slow right down and let him go or pull over.
 
Soldato
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The "Professional driver" will almost certainly lose his licence and therefore his employment as a result of this brainfart regardless of the fact he was egged on.

I wonder if the HGV driver is a n00b or nearing the end of his career anyway as most of us have suffered this kind of crap on the road. Generally we rant & rave but know we're the ones who'll get penalised one way or another so "let it go" !

Either way they both should have points put on their licences
 
Caporegime
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shame he didnt hit him harder

To be fair, had he hit him harder the car would have ended up flung off the carriageway or, under the wheels of the trailer - the side crash bars on trailers are not particularly strong - looking on the BBC link, the damage to his car is remarkably minor given he didn't move when the truck hit him.
 
Soldato
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Without reading what was writen in the op, I thought he's a helmet in it for something as soon as I heard "I've got a dash cam... Superb".

Would be interesting to see what the driver of the other Lorry which the rammer was passing had to say, I reckon dash cam ******** was baiting the Lorry, especially as it seems the Lorry in the left hand lane was also catching his car, and the Lorry doing all the overtaking was obviously ******off. While the Lorry was in the wrong I have absolutely no sympathy for the car driver, who it seems was in it for his own gain.
 
Caporegime
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Even a HGV bashing into him twice still didn't get him in the inside lane.


Same person, the bloke is an idiot that uses dashcams and acts like a guardian of the road.

He's clearly off his head. http://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/n...olice-race-to-focus-on-space-threat-1-4376089

Indeed he seems to have an agenda to put it mildly....


And some more footage from this incident, with commentary from his own website.

Again, the HGV driver is very much in the wrong, but, there is more to this than meets the eye.

 
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Man of Honour
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Webcam view at desk of officer dealing with this case:

v2gn8.jpg
 
Man of Honour
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The fact that the driver is in lane two doesn't mean that the lorry driver isn't a helmet. He is clearly aggravated approaching the rear of the car sounding his horn and flashing and then decides to break the law and force his way through. There really is no excuse for driving like that. Yes the guy in the car is clearly also a helmet but just because somebody is being a helmet it doesn't mean you take the law into your own hands.
 
Soldato
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To be fair, had he hit him harder the car would have ended up flung off the carriageway or, under the wheels of the trailer - the side crash bars on trailers are not particularly strong - looking on the BBC link, the damage to his car is remarkably minor given he didn't move when the truck hit him.

Don't I know it !! (Security guard fell asleep whilst travelling between jobs and hit me on the M62 - Liverpool a while back)

1558085981_8cbe0b356f_z.jpg
1558085975_c6ccb25cda_z.jpg
 
Soldato
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He's a tool and is promoting his business. You can clearly see he has his hazards on to add to the driving slowly, he is goading the lorry into doing something and unfortunately the lorry obliged. The car driver / dashcam seller is a complete tool and shouldn't be on the roads and using this as a marketing ploy will hopefully backfire and cause his business to fold.

From reading about it elsewhere, I understand the lorry driver in question has lost his job.
 
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