In my car minding my own business on the outside lane of a dual carriageway a Royal Mail HGV, signalled and then manoeuvre into my lane shoving me sideways then to the rear. 40 limit and heavy traffic so we’re both only doing 20.
Behind and witnessed by armed police and an ambulance.
No injuries thankfully, just shaken but car might be written off due to age which makes me really cross.

Just glad you’re okay. Cars can be replaced.

Time for a what car thread?

Glad you’re ok though must have been prett scary.

Totally the lorries fault for not looking, but for that love of god, don’t sit next to trucks as they always win!

Maintain your safety bubble at all times. If necessary, wait behind and pass positively only when there is space to get fully ahead of the truck

Did the truck driver say he was exhausted from his new extended driving hours?

glad you are ok OP

Couldn’t ask for better witnesses@

The important thing is that you walked away

I thought this was going to be a thread about a truckers dating app

😉

As annoying as it is, it’s just a metal box and thankfully you’re not hurt

Happened opposite a police traffic HQ, fire station & ambulance station. Couldn’t make it up!
I actively avoid large trucks but in heavy traffic you just cannot get away.
One thing I did do was to let go of brakes and steering and that allowed the car just to move freely.
Driver was very apologetic and said I was in his blind spot.

Totally the lorries fault for not looking, but for that love of god, don’t sit next to trucks as they always win!

Maintain your safety bubble at all times. If necessary, wait behind and pass positively only when there is space to get fully ahead of the truck

This is very good advice. As a motorcyclist, I don’t want to be sat in a blind spot for any longer than is absolutely necessary. Wait for the gap then go.

Glad to hear you’re okay.

Can’t understand why, in these days of super cheap camera/screen technology that lorries are allowed on the road with blind spots anyway. I fitted a rear view camera and screen to my transit camper for £45!

Had a similar near miss on the M4 yesterday, some bloke hauling a tank of something, decided he’d be pulling into the middle lane where I happened to be passing him, couldn’t go to the outside lane so had to dab the brakes and let him pull out for one of those snappy 1.5 mile, uphill, HGV overtakes…

Did the truck driver say he was exhausted from his new extended driving hours?

Everyone get ready for a summer of Brexit driven HGV carnage!

Thanks to a bit of light xenophobia and a dash of deregulation, we’ll all be encountering long tailbacks and an increased chance of a fiery death trapped in twisted, petrol soaked cages with our loved ones.

Still, blue passports…

Glad you are ok. Was it a red tractor unit? I ask because I was harassed on my bike by one from the distribution depot near LHR and complained. The site went ballistic with the driver who was a contractor hence the white not red lorry. They take driving standards very seriously. As you’d expect when they have big red 40 tonne lorries advertising their name.

Give Royal Mail vehicles a bit more room. The local vans are driven by trainee Touring Car drivers.

It was a big red Royal Mail lorry, the huge gash of red paint across the total one side of my car confirms this. But he wasn’t wearing a uniform and the police were still talking to him after I limped home.

Time for a what car thread

I hear there may be a 63 plate Merc estate going for good £££’s in a week or so. Loads of extras including tow bar… 😉

Oh, OP. Good to hear you’re OK. HGV’s = big scary vehicles.

20 years I was hit by a an oncoming truck (not hgv) when in my car. There were two Army captains in uniform in the car behind the truck. They gave me their details which I forwarded to my ins co (Norwich union). No injuries but car written off.
I was on the way to a 2 week work trip in Italy. I called the ins co and gave witness details, they said paperwork in the post, do it when you get back.
My insurance paid out by the time I got home, and before I had even looked at any of my statement/claim paperwork to start the witness statement.
I called insurance co and they said the two witness had given comprehensive statements that left the other party’s insurance no choice but to just pay up.

Very lucky!

I saw the aftermath of a crash at Gretna a couple of days ago. Artic had hit a minibus and shunted it into the column of an overpass and it had gone on fire.
One teenage lassie dead and other kids etc in hospital. Very sobering and very glad you didn’t end up in a lot worse accident.

Another RM truck (nsfw language)

^^^^^^^^^^^^
:-O :-O :-O

That video is truly terrifying.

Saw it happen right in front of me on a motorway several years ago. The truck driver didn’t even realise he had hit the car and collected it in front of him and was driving along with the car pinned sideways tyres squealing and smoking and took me to drive up alongside beeping my horn and the wife signalling to pull over. The poor lady driving was pretty shook up. So many blind spots around big lorries. It pays not to hang around them for any length of time and if you have to make sure you position to ourself where you know the driver can see you. I always hang back now until the way is clear ahead so I can drive past the truck.

Caher
Full Member

Happened opposite a police traffic HQ, fire station & ambulance station. Couldn’t make it up!
I actively avoid large trucks but in heavy traffic you just cannot get away.
One thing I did do was to let go of brakes and steering and that allowed the car just to move freely.
Driver was very apologetic and said I was in his blind spot.

Am I the only one who finds it absolute madness that vehicles with such huge blindspots are still allowed on the roads? Surely it is not beyond us to come up with a solution which could be retrofitted to avoid the issue.

My hand automatically hovers over the bibber now when passing or being passed by an HGV, so often they will just whack the indicator on or even just start to drift over into your lane when you’re along side.

Surely it is not beyond us to come up with a solution which could be retrofitted to avoid the issue.

Lower, ‘bin lorry style’ cabs would make a huge difference, but they mean the tractor unit would be a bit longer so to meet the length limit, the trailer would have to be a little bit shorter. Which means less cargo so either marginally higher prices or slightly less profit, so it doesn’t happen.

To be fair the trucks are getting better. Most we work on have additional cameras fitted. Any operation wanting to go into big cities or work on big projects (hs2 or Hinckley for instance) will need a minimum Fors Bronze accreditation. The new mirror cam on Mercedes units is very good indeed. The autonomous safety kit on anything new is exceptional. The old trucks on the road are a liability though. A problem we will see is that planned replacement of trucks will be delayed as new trucks are delayed massively at the moment (150+ days delaying some cases) Glad you are safe OP.

^ that video: the car driver is Jack Joy who works for the Car Throttle website and YouTube channel, the lady who jumped out of the Range Rover is Ellie Goulding.

Am I the only one who finds it absolute madness that vehicles with such huge blindspots are still allowed on the roads? Surely it is not beyond us to come up with a solution which could be retrofitted to avoid the issue.

As someone who has just started driving trucks for a living I can say that there are plenty of blind spots but a good driver will be able to mitigate them to a degree by keeping up observations and really paying attention at key points. Sadly most of the drivers I’ve been out with seem to just presume that cars will get out of the way, they really do play the ‘Might is Right’ game. As for cameras? I’d have the 360 view ones they have on Range Rovers if I could on every truck but cost cutting means you’re lucky to get a reversing camera or even aircon with some companies.

As for the OP’s accident, a car can be completely invisible if it’s tucked under the windscreen. Add in the weight difference meaning the truck could hardly react to hitting the car and it’s scarily common. Two of the companies I’ve worked for have shown me internal videos with multiple versions of it.

That video is quite stunningly similar except my car turned and I then got shunted up the rear.
Just to reemphasize I was in a dual carriageway on the outside lane I had no means of escape as the traffic was very heavy – thankfully.

Am I the only one who finds it absolute madness that vehicles with such huge blindspots are still allowed on the roads?

I do get irritated when I see hgvs with stickers going “warning blindspot” and also “camera fitted for insurance reasons to stitch you up”. Well make sure the driver doesnt have a blind spot you areseholes!
It is an interesting approach to health and safety. On a site it will need either a banksman or confidence that people arent allowed in the operating area but on the public highway sod it things will work out.

Any RM truck driver been big hitting with you recently?

Only kidding, glad you’re ok, sounds terrifying

Admittedly very rarely in heavy traffic these days – but on occasional forays to the Central Belt, get twitchy on the M90 / M8 when big trucks alongside; I’ll try and hang back if possible and then get past as swiftly as I can. But in nose to tail traffic that’s harder to do without massive beeps from behind.

It’s mad that a truck on a building site needs a banksman for H&S but not when it drives through a busy city.

Sorry to hear that, quite a scary experience!

I got shunted right up the chuff on the M4 by a Yodel lorry a few years ago – it was terrifying as the whole rear end lifted up and then we fishtailed after landing. Driver wouldn’t even give his name and tried to drive off until I called the Police.

No injuries thankfully, just shaken but car might be written off due to age which makes me really cross.

We were exactly the same – perfectly good car written off due to age. Don’t underestimate how much of a shock it actually was and whether there was any injury. I was fine at the time but ended up with quite a lot of back and neck pain for a couple of weeks afterwards, and had a bit of trouble sleeping. Fine now though, just don’t necessarily assume you’re okay straight afterwards.