Hi all, hoping you can help
I had a small collision with a truck yesterday:
Dashcam.
At the time, it looked like just my mirror had been folded in, and no damage to the truck. The driver of the truck took their exit on the roundabout and I continued on my way too.
I have since inspected a bit closer and there is a small dent in my car, dent, and the mirror housing is broken. Been quoted about £500 to repair both, which is ridiculous, but I can’t really fork that out right now. I know it’s a long shot, but could anyone help me identify the truck? Or perhaps the yellow truck behind? Hoping they might have footage/noted the plate. I’ve done some digging and tried to get in contact with SONOTRI, but as yet no luck.
Thanks for looking, I realise it’s all a bit fartetched. I would really appreciate any help.
JSmith
I think you’re chances of tracing a Sonotri lorry are slim . They are a continental firm French or Italian , and all left hand drive ( possibly contributing to the bump ) .
Looks like a bulk food powder tanker. And Sonatri have got loads of them. Probably several hundreds? They won’t all be in the UK and there is likely only a few tens in the UK any day?
If there are no visible reg plates or fleet numbers in the video, I think you’re on a loser.
You could try contacting them through their group website. They may be able to go through their records and work out who it was. But would they? Would they go to that much trouble to enable you to make a claim against them?
Sorry.
Edit. They do I believe ship unaccompanied trailers on the ferries, so it could be a UK unit pulling their trailer.
But without any unique I.D. you’re not likely to get far.
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Assuming you’re the video car.Why didn’t you hold back and wait for the truck to clear the turn like the Audi behind did.As stated Rule 187 Highway Code.At best it’s a 50/50 claim anyway while I’d put all the blame on you. 
That dent certainly doesn’t look to have been HGV related to be honest. It looks to low, on a “narrow” part of the car.
It’s more a crease where the door has been opened on to a small post, or caught when parking.
id think you were on to plums trying to trace the truck for the reasons mentioned above but on a positive note,you at least now know never to drive in 1 of a trucks blindspots and the consequences of doing so,especially left hookers.enlighten your famiiy and friends and save them a similar fate.
your easy way to work this out is…if you cant see the drivers face,then he cant see you.
the truck has stolen a foot of your lane to get the trailer round his own lane .
Thanks to rigsby and Franglais for your thoughtful answers, I appreciate you trying to help.
Carryfast, on this junction (roundabout from A38 north to join the A50), holding back to let trucks in the left lane go would mean the middle lane never actually being able to access the roundabout, as it is tight for gaps and a nearly constant stream of trucks in the left lane. No other truck in the years of this commute has needed to drive like this.
mardybum, I assume I also caught the wing mirror on the same low post?
dieseldog999, thanks for input, although I would strongly suggest you practive your length estimation.
I thought it was a bit risky coming to a truck forum asking for help as a car driver, so thanks again rigsby and Franglais for being helpful.
To be honest you’ve not got a prayer of claiming from that as theres no proof as to that truck hitting and thus insurance companies wont entertain it. Hard enough to get them to when its obvious.
Cost seems a tad steep, but would go see a dent specialist company as they might be able to pull it and buff the paint for less. Paint looks essentially intact.
Don’t know what your insurance excess is, but by the time you paid that for the claim it’d hardly be worth it esp as your insurance would rise next year regardless of fault as soon as you claimed (you’d have to declare it for 5 years if claiming off them).
Know the roundabout in question (Toyota Island) and its stupidly laid out - think the person designing that was a blind surveyor. Hate it with a passion.
Whilst this is no help to the OP, and purely an observation, this is a problem with road layouts over vast swathes of the country…though the road in question appears to have enough room.
Typical example, they’ve done extensive works on the A45 dual carriageway as it passes along the southern outskirts of Coventry, two roundabouts in particular (one by the police station, and the one by the Peugeot garage) they’ve made alterations to make three lanes at the roundabouts (with the outside lane being right turn designated IIRC), not necessary but also all three lanes are now only wide enough for cars or vans at best and when you come up to these with a lorry, generally in the nearside lane as most lorries are going through with that really high kerb on the nearside a lorry driver has no option but to take some of the centre lane to make the turn.
Taking more than your lane in some places elicits quite aggressive or dangerous (for them) actions from some car/van drivers…for what they forget is that when someone picks a fight with a lorry only one vehicle is likely to come out of it relatively unscathed.
Thats just one example, there are similar ‘improvements’ all over the country and if anything with each new alteration scheme they make things worse, i wouldn’t mind so much if space was an issue such as where buildings or pedestrian access come right up to the road, but in almost all these cases it would have been simple to have added another yard to the arc space on the nearside and things would be safer for everyone.
The other factor is that cars have now become larger and especially wider, and there are plainly many people driving cars which are far too large for them to cope with (you watch them in a car park, despair is the only word for what one witnesses) and increasingly car drivers, large German cars the worse by miles, appear to have little or no spacial awareness and once their bonnet is passed its as if the rest of the vehicle is forgotten in their quest to assert themselves.
I’m sure i’m not alone in having to take evasive action for these individuals who cannot keep a car in their lane every day of the week, multiple times some days.
This is not to excuse people at the wheel of lorries who can’t control their vehicles by the way, its a general observation that planners need to up their game as well as drivers of all vehicle types.
