53 replies to this topic

[A KIRK]

Under taking is now legal, providing you don't pull back out in to a left lane for something like 180 yards or something stupid or that you are following the flow of traffic.

[Danny341]

I hate to say this, but i thought it was pretty much common sense with this blindspot!

I mean, its quite easy to loose a car in the blindspot of a small car that you are driving!

I was bought up around lorries, so ive always made sure i give them enough space!

I really hate it when you see these batty women thrashing there micra all around lorries on islands and stuff, giving them no space what so ever, sitting in there blind spots, Then there the innocent hard done by motorist when the lorry squashes them!



Feel better now

[Mini Man Dan]

This is common sense, all vehicles have blind spots just these rhd artics have slightly larger ones.

Sorry but its basic driving skills to be aware of this type of hazard and if you don't know about it I suggest you go back to driving school or get a decent driving instructor.

Again it comes down to people having no idea of how other road users see the road, and again is another reason why we should all have to spend sometime in an artic when learning.

These problems are the same for our Bristish drivers when they go over seas, apart from were a lot stricter on driving hours etc

It might be a basic driving skill but I know I wasn't taught anything about over taking lorries by my driving instructor. I also wasn't taken anywhere near a motorway with my driving instructor. The law should make things like pass plus (or simlar) compulsory as there is nothing to stop somone who passes their driving test to go straight onto the motorway on their own with no experience and very little driving experience. And it is quite a daunting thing to do for the first time.

I only saw the first part of the program, looked an interesting program, if not quite worrying

[Angelic_Fruitcake]

I hate to say this, but i thought it was pretty much common sense with this blindspot!

I mean, its quite easy to loose a car in the blindspot of a small car that you are driving!

I was bought up around lorries, so ive always made sure i give them enough space!

I really hate it when you see these batty women thrashing there micra all around lorries on islands and stuff, giving them no space what so ever, sitting in there blind spots, Then there the innocent hard done by motorist when the lorry squashes them!



Feel better now

To be honest I thought that too... left hand drive lorries are bound to have a much bigger blind spot, so sitting in it is just asking for trouble. My instructor went over it in my pass plus too

I agree that some kind of motorway training should be compulsory when you pass, because some people clearly hae no idea what they're doing, you see them nearly every day

[MissSportyGT]

I agree it is common sense everyone knows they have blindspots why some have a big sticker 'If you can't see my mirrors, i can't see you'.

I always find on a motorway if your nice to Lorry drivers there really nice to you apart from the pervy ones me and my friend had hassling us on way to swindon lol.

My next door neighbour had a really bad crash with a lorry but lucky no one was badly injured but she still wont drive on motorways anymore.

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[Rob Himself]

[Truck geek mode]
Same applies to normal trucks, but is even worse on foreign trucks. Basically jsut re-iterating what A KIRK said - just be aware of their lack of awareness.

If you want, I can supply endless documents on truck safety

[/truck geek mode, and goes back to creating spec sheets for 520bhp trucks....]

[Ethel]

Useful thread.

1. Unless it's sunny and dry with perfect visibility put your lights on.
2. If you see a lorry indicate to pull out, let them.
3. Move out well before you overtake so the driver has a chance of seeing you before you enter their blindspot, it also means you can build your speed up to pass quickly.
4. Don't assume the driver has seen you just because you can see their mirrors, but if you can't see the mirrors assume there's no way they can see you.
5. Always think about escape routes (how you can avoid a collision) when driving and be extra wary of large vehicles on junctions and roundabouts - if they have to react quickly to avoid a collision they won't have time to notice you.
6.Don't be intimidated by Mondeo Man tramming down the outside lane, if he has to slow to a legal speed so you can overtake safely so be it.

[*Raz*]

Yes, it is common sense, but how many drivers these days have common sense? Thats not aimed at lorry drivers thats in general!

Im just telling you what my mum said, dont take it that I have 'no common sense!' !! I ALWAYS check my blindspot in any situation, if its not on the motorway, if its just coming off a roundabout I ALWAYS check. Im always really aware when I drive past cars on the motorway too! It doesnt have to be lorries, you get some cars that dont check and they come pull out nearly causing! In fact that happened to me and Jammy a few weeks back where one car was moving into the middle lane rather closely infront of us, while another was moving from the right hand lane into the middle! They got SO close, its only that one of them noticed! And we were behind that so that could have been awful!!

People just take too many risks now a days, are in too much of a hurry and are lazy.

[Rob Himself]

Useful thread.

1. Unless it's sunny and dry with perfect visibility put your lights on.
2. If you see a lorry indicate to pull out, let them.
3. Move out well before you overtake so the driver has a chance of seeing you before you enter their blindspot, it also means you can build your speed up to pass quickly.
4. Don't assume the driver has seen you just because you can see their mirrors, but if you can't see the mirrors assume there's no way they can see you.
5. Always think about escape routes (how you can avoid a collision) when driving and be extra wary of large vehicles on junctions and roundabouts - if they have to react quickly to avoid a collision they won't have time to notice you.
6.Don't be intimidated by Mondeo Man tramming down the outside lane, if he has to slow to a legal speed so you can overtake safely so be it.

As an IAM driver, I agree with you entirely, in particular #5 - drive defensively, and plan ahead for any situation.

Number 6 always makes me laugh - I always think to myself "Your BMW/luxury saloon is worth about 30 grand. My Mini's worth about a tenth of that. So RAM IT AND WAIT!!"

[RobJaxon]

They shouldnt be allowed out of the slow lane on the motorway. That would solve most problems.

[mini93]

so say a slow lorry fully loaded to the top is trying to climb a hill...other lorrys shouldnt move over to pass it?? as such some lorrys are going to miss there time slot....eeer or maybe not

[panelbeaterpeter]

Lorries shouldn't even be allowed on the motorway full stop, IMO. Freight should be moved by trains as it always used to be. It wouldn't clog up the motorways and ruin the road surface. Only problem is there aren't as many railway networks as there used to be, so a few more tracks would have to be laid.

[minimender]

They shouldnt be allowed out of the slow lane on the motorway. That would solve most problems.

How about cars being banned from lanes one and two, that would do it as well !!!
I've driven both left and right hand drive artics over the years and there is a blind spot but it's only a problem when cars overtake and then sit in the blind spot just ahead of the front wheel. They disappear from view and then don't appear again so you wait just in case you missed the fact that they may have nipped into lane three whilst you were looking ahead for a few seconds. But no they are no where to be seen, surely they can't still be there ? it's been half a mile and I've been indicating for a while so I'll edge out slowley.....and they still sit there!!! what do they expect me to do??
If you can't completely overtake the truck then don't go past about half way, you can sit there all day as the driver can see you.
I once had a cyclist who put himself in the cycle bay at a set of lights but he was too close to my truck and although he was directly in front of me I couldn't see him. Luckily I spotted him when he mounted his bike to set off when the lights changed otherwise I may have killed him.
Blindspots are not a problem as long as people keep a safe distance from the truck, if you are within six feet of a moving artic then you are in a danger zone and should be aware that the driver may not have seen you.

Sit just behind or alongside a truck in heavy rain and the driver cannot see you through the rain spotted mirror and the heavy spray, just be aware and help make truckers jobs a little easier. It's a long day staring through mirrors looking for the idiot who comes up the inside when your turning or the one trying to beat you across the roundabout forgetting that an artic needs more space, or the one that parks just behind in the blind spot when you've stopped to reverse into a factory, or the one that squeezes past at the lights and then sits there trying to turn right holding you up, or the one thats lets you get halfway past on the motorway then speeds up to 55mph so you have to either slow down to let him go or indicate and just pull back into the slow lane cutting him up, etc,, etc,, etc....

rant over

[minimender]

Lorries shouldn't even be allowed on the motorway full stop, IMO. Freight should be moved by trains as it always used to be. It wouldn't clog up the motorways and ruin the road surface. Only problem is there aren't as many railway networks as there used to be, so a few more tracks would have to be laid.

How do we get the goods from the factory to the railway?
Next day parcels would become next week if you are lucky parcels
How would we get petrol to the petrol stations?
How would we get goods to the supermarket twice daily?
How would we get building materails and plant to sites?
How would we move oversize loads (over 12 feet high / 8 feet wide) around?
How would we get goods from railheads to factories and shops?
Think of the emmisions from huge unrestricted railway diesel engines
Railways are very slow and unreliable, they take days and sometimes weeks to move goods across the country pumping clouds of black diesel smoke into the atmosphere where as trucks can do it in hours.
Modern trucks are quiet and have very low emmisions.

The pace of modern would be much slower if we relied on the railways, I know because I was there when we had to, I remember when parcels would take weeks to arrive because they were stuck in a siding somewhere waiting for a train to be made up before movement could be considered, those were the times before motorways were built and a 200 mile trip was an adventure not just a morning out.
I could go on and I agree that our roads are clogged up with lorries but they are not there for the fun of it at around 7 miles to the gallon, they are there to supply the demands of our modern way of life.
This argument has been going on as long as I can remember and I was an artic driver for 39 years after having six years on the road with my father as a trailer boy. A trailer boy is a drivers mate who applies the brakes on the trailer via a big lever in the cab on the passengers side before the days of air brakes on lorries.
I don't think the traffic problem will never be resolved in our lifetime.