Silliest excuse you have heard at an accident

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS THE UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUM (INTERACTIVE)
21

‘i couldn’t see where i was supposed to get in to drop the pallets off, so i stopped in this small layby to go and have a look , i got back in the truck and drove off , i didn’t see the car only height barrier at the entrance to the retail park until it came into the cab and nearly took my head off’
damage - new cab required for DAF LF 18 tonne
christian salvesen northampton day driver delivering to the nissan dealer (now ford) riverside retail park NORTHAMPTON.

‘the truck in front of me turned and i had to swerve to avoid him and ended up in the crash barrier’ ( this after a strange exact circle appeared on the bumper a few days before) this was on the western arm M25.
a few weeks later he wrote the same vehicle off by driving it up the arse of a stationary 44t , on the M25 ,

damage 1 written off experimental DAF LF alison auto 18 tonne rigid (my favourite)
and 1 irate traffic manager telling his boss that i told you this geezer was a liabilty as he doesn’t sleep and to take him off nights

chriastain salvesen northampton night vor driver 2002

‘i drop trailer in green area ,no problem OK?’ - had missed the entrance for caterpillar desford drove up a lane tried to turn around and had reversed n/side trailer wheels into a ditch , but thought it would be ok to abandon it there, this on a saturday morning on a mobile phone

damage- had to send a proper driver to desford from northampton to find out what the heck was going on as the original was lost in translation

christian salvesen day artic driver around 2003

‘they didn’t show me how to drive it and i couldn’t stop it from driving off the side of the truck’ - this driver had gone and started up the mini dumper , drove it out into the yard , stopped it , got off, pulled down the ROP’s , got back on it reversed it onto his truck , reversed it onto the neck then whilst manouvering it about on the neck , reversed it off the side.
damage - 1 badly damaged Terex mini dumper (luckily an undamaged driver), and an unhappy customer , not one of my subbies , i refuse to use them , but it was our customers haulier. his only problem was that the dash cam on our subcontractors vehicle was running and saw the whole thing ,including the fact if he’d moved his ramps he could have done a straight reverse, we did used to ask if the driver was happy to load himself, now we dont , unless we know the driver

i wont name the company ,

tony

22

I was sitting in a safely, legally parked Transit with the keys in my pocket in a quiet village cul-de-sac writing a note to somebody. Almighty noise from my right. A Mini that had just passed in the opposite direction came back past, look of horror on the driver’s face, being pushed by a Skoda Octavia. The Mini hit the opposite kerb and stopped, the Skoda climbed sideways off the front of it taking out the front corner of my truck, took off at speed across two front gardens, climbed over a rockery and trees, demolished a porch and came to rest embedded in a house with smoke pouring out and engine still revving. Emergency services were called, then in front of a first responder, a paramedic, two ambulance crew, 7 coppers and a fire crew the elderly driver admitted his was an automatic, on passing me he’d met the Mini, pressed the wrong pedal and accelerated instead of braking. All 3 motors written off, and thousands of damage to the house. 3 drivers breathalysed, scene measured up, Skoda driver reported for driving without due care.
Open and shut case, put in my claim and waited for the payout. I chased it up, my insurer told me the old guy was now denying responsibility - why?

Because if I hadn’t been parked there it wouldn’t have happened —

They walk amongst us.

Bernard

23

Was at a roundabout years ago looked right no car. Bmw came winging round corner and caught bacl of trailer. Was a right off.

Guy said he was on eccys so was a bit dazed.

Police came and breathalised us.

Insurance phoned and on way to hub all be it a bit late.

Pre drug test kits obviously but he was out jos banger

Only thought was i wish that was me as it was a saturday nightshift.

24

Mini went into the back of me at a stop sign. Excuse: I didn’t think you’d stop. I havnt been driving long.

25

cgscott:
Was at a roundabout years ago looked right no car. Bmw came winging round corner and caught bacl of trailer. Was a right off.

Guy said he was on eccys so was a bit dazed.

Police came and breathalised us.

Insurance phoned and on way to hub all be it a bit late.

Pre drug test kits obviously but he was out jos banger

Only thought was i wish that was me as it was a saturday nightshift.

In English ?

26

robthedog:

cgscott:
Was at a roundabout years ago looked right no car. Bmw came winging round corner and caught bacl of trailer. Was a right off.

Guy said he was on eccys so was a bit dazed.

Police came and breathalised us.

Insurance phoned and on way to hub all be it a bit late.

Pre drug test kits obviously but he was out jos banger

Only thought was i wish that was me as it was a saturday nightshift.

In English ?

Who’s Jo

27

An old coach operator from the village took a bus load of pensioners out for the day, driving to the coast in heavy stop start traffic, he felt something, he stopped and got out, relit his pipe, sucked and said,

“how do you normally stop when I’m not here?”

28

Wheel Nut:
An old coach operator from the village took a bus load of pensioners out for the day, driving to the coast in heavy stop start traffic, he felt something, he stopped and got out, relit his pipe, sucked and said,

“how do you normally stop when I’m not here?”

sorry that one made me laugh im going to have to remember that if i ever get run into in the back

29

I’ve got 2 examples, both occured in France…

  1. I was driving an Iveco 190-38 back in '89. Running national roads as we all did back then. A woman driving a car decided to overtake but came back in too early and my passenger side wheel made quite a mess of the side of her car.( No wheel nut covers on it back then). Luckily the car behind had an English teacher in it and she translated. The French woman insisted that she wrote on the insurance form the fact that “She couldnt overtake me properly because I was going too fast for her car”.

  2. Heading into Boulogne to catch the ferry back to Blighty and a local gendarme was directing traffic on a roundabout. He waved me on so I was going around the roundabout when I felt a bump. Looking in the nearside mirror I saw a Renault estate Police car partially hidden between the rear of the cab and the trailer. I got out half expecting to be arrested but fair play to the gendarme directing traffic he said…“No problem, fault of the policeman” Had to go down the station to make a report in front of the inspector. Both of us were breathalysed (Neither of us had alcohol in our system) and the chief asked the police driver his side of the story. He said, " I thought the lorry was turning right" (That would have put me into a small housing estate). A couple of months later the office received a letter saying no further action would be taken and did we want to persue damages for the trailer !

30

I was sitting in the passenger seat of a LHD F10 just down the road from Highbury corner eating a kebab and reading the paper when a 740 Volvo in Jewish Racing Gold tried to squeeze between me and the cars stopped at a red light, he scraped the nearside of his car from just behind the front wheel to the back on my bumper and bottom step.

I jumped out, he jumped out and told me I’d pulled away as he was coming past and hit him, I told him to FRO, he threatened me with the police, I told him to do what he wants and got back in my lorry to finish my kebab.

The old bill turned up so I got out and waited until he had spoken to the other bloke, he came to me and told me that I was being accused of driving into the car as it passed me, I asked the copper to find out exactly where I was sitting when I was supposed to have hit the car, the copper was puzzled, but I insisted, so he asked the bloke who of course pointed to the “driver’s side” and I then opened the door to show the copper that there was no steering wheel or pedals on the side I was sat in when the damage occurred.

My presence was not required any further at that point as there was nothing but a bit of gold paint on my bumper and step, the other bloke was still there when I’d finished reading the paper though, the copper was doing a lot of pointing and Volvo man did not look very happy at all.