It is very sad case of event that has happened. I had initially thought that how come several trucks have collided,someone hasn’t being paying attention. But there again,could a tyre blow out of the leading truck cause the ramifications of the RTC? Or,quite possibly,a truck driver reacted to a car driver that had cut him/her up
Captain Caveman 76:
I nearly had an accident today on the m1 through the roadworks. A car in lane 1 decided they wanted to be in lane 2. I was in lane 2 overtaking a line of cars. They pulled into my braking space, without indicating, then braked! I managed to slow down and avoided an accident. I showed my displeasure at his moronic driving by flashing my lights at him, and recieved the old coffee shaker in return.
Now, if there had been a collision as a result of my avoidance action, who would have been at fault?
does that not persuade you to get a dash cam?
There is footage on youtube of bus driver avoiding a car driver causing an accident. The initial reaction is to steer away quickly from the offending vehicle,but the bus driver ends up colliding with innocent motorists.
One of the comments from a truck driver from the states,said that they are instructed not to steer away from the offending vehicle,even if it means colliding with them. I agree with that. I had recently experienced an RTC with a boy racer,taking a risk from a side street. I didn’t panick,he collided with the bus sending him sideways
Unfortunately - even if the incident was caused by a car cutting up a truck etc - the rest should have been able to stop.
If we take note of the average stopping distances quoted by the highway code we would all have plenty of space in which to stop if the ■■■■ hits the fan ahead of us, but we don’t leave enough space. From what I see on the roads truck drivers are terrible for this. SO are many other groups of drivers it just seems to be the way it is.
As from November this year all new trucks MUST befitted with collision avoidance and emergency braking systems - this will go a long way towards solving the problem. In not too distant years we will have autonomous trucks - that’ll help too.
Meanwhile - we all need to get a sense of self preservation and drop back. According to the highway code at 50mph our average reaction time means we travel 15 metres (about 3 1/2 car lengths) before we even start to brake. At 60 mph about 18 metres (4 1/2 car lengths) before we even hit the brake pedal.
I know some will laugh at a mention of the highway code but when it comes to stopping as the ■■■■ hits the fan ahead I think it is perfectly relevant. To take a gamble on whether or not we will need to hit the brakes is a pretty big gamble. I’ve always been ■■■■ at gambling and always lose … so I try not to gamble.
K27:
One of the comments from a truck driver from the states,said that they are instructed not to steer away from the offending vehicle,even if it means colliding with them. I agree with that.
Thing is, people will argue with the quoted stopping times in the Highway Code, saying things have improved, brakes, tyres etc.
But, the times you quoted Shep, are ‘thinking’ or ‘reacting’ times, and the human body hasn’t improved yet.
waynedl:
Thing is, people will argue with the quoted stopping times in the Highway Code, saying things have improved, brakes, tyres etc.
But, the times you quoted Shep, are ‘thinking’ or ‘reacting’ times, and the human body hasn’t improved yet.
The stopping distances are probably laughably old fashioned; however, I’m fairly sure the government won’t reexamine them due to the “better be over cautious mindset”.
You can see people all the time getting up each other’s arses, particularly on motorways. I’m not sure why tbh, a specially hen you see how fragile trucks really are when they smack into a trailer at full pelt.
the maoster:
You’re making a whole load of assumptions before any post mortems are carried out fella.
Carry on driving like you do then, ime just trying to help you avoid being involved in these kind of accidents,5 trucks do not run into each other if they leave enough room for each other.
You don’t need to. I’ve managed to do 2 million miles in a truck without hitting anything and I’m increasing that at a rate of 1500-2000 miles a week. Did 450 miles last night without hitting anything…
Sorting accident statistics by road user group, lorries are 6 times less likely to have an accident than the next best group.
The one thing that hand wringers like you tend to completely ignore, along with many car drivers and cyclists is the laws of physics. A truck takes a certain distance to stop. If someone else who is not in your control makes a decision, takes an action and puts themselves in a position where you are unable to stop in time then there’s going to be an accident and probably a bad one even though you’ve done absolutely nothing wrong.
My philosophy is this, I keep a separation distance in front of my vehicle to suit the traffic situation. Bunching of trucks is sometimes inevitable predominantly due to inclines, roadworks or busy junctions, but I ease off a touch and maintain a separation distance if the traffic in front starts getting too close. Most sensible drivers (not just truckers) do the same.
The only truly brainless morons that drive trucks, are the ones that sit two foot from the truck in front when the truck in front is going bang on the speed limit (especially through motorway roadworks with cameras everywhere). They do this to try to intimidate the vehicle in front into going faster. For those so called ‘drivers’ I am afraid I have absolutely zero sympathy when they end up getting cut out of their cabs.
waynedl:
Thing is, people will argue with the quoted stopping times in the Highway Code, saying things have improved, brakes, tyres etc.
But, the times you quoted Shep, are ‘thinking’ or ‘reacting’ times, and the human body hasn’t improved yet.
Thinking and reacting time/ distances are irrelevant if the driver is unable/ unwilling to register that there is a potential hazard there in the first place. Plenty of youtube videos showing drivers that are ploughing on oblivious of what is happening ahead/ around them, there is no thinking time for those that don’t think, there is no reaction time for those that don’t react.
You see it frequently every day, especially from the higher vantage point of a HGV, 2/3 lanes of traffic with multiple brake lights showing yet still plenty of traffic (including HGVs) still driving hard towards them, it surprises me that there are not considerably more RTAs, so many pushing their luck (and everybody else’s) all day, every day.
Careful people, any more talk about close tailgating, will get some bright spark to invent a device that monitors your front and rear distances, and therefore your driver habits and possible safety…
Conor:
A truck takes a certain distance to stop. If someone else who is not in your control makes a decision, takes an action and puts themselves in a position where you are unable to stop in time then there’s going to be an accident and probably a bad one even though you’ve done absolutely nothing wrong.
That would only be the case in the event of a decent seperation distance being taken out by someone cutting in after overtaking for example followed by braking for whatever reason.In most other cases maintaining the required seperation distances is all in the hands of each individual driver themselves and no one else.
I was held up for 45 minutes today while they pulled a foreign truck out of the embankment on the A1 near Ferrybridge Wonder why he suddenly turned left off the A1 and ran up there? Sat nav error? fancied the view? or maybe fallen asleep? Nah
Conor:
A truck takes a certain distance to stop. If someone else who is not in your control makes a decision, takes an action and puts themselves in a position where you are unable to stop in time then there’s going to be an accident and probably a bad one even though you’ve done absolutely nothing wrong.
That would only be the case in the event of a decent seperation distance being taken out by someone cutting in after overtaking for example followed by braking for whatever reason.In most other cases maintaining the required seperation distances is all in the hands of each individual driver themselves and no one else.
… but when you leave a safe and sensible distance between you and the lorry in front - you can pretty well guarantee that some clown in a car will dive into the space.
Now, you have to brake to leave a ‘safe’ distance --------- and another car jumps into the gap ----- ad infinitum.
Next thing you know you’re practically going backwards!
the maoster:
You’re making a whole load of assumptions before any post mortems are carried out fella.
Carry on driving like you do then, ime just trying to help you avoid being involved in these kind of accidents,5 trucks do not run into each other if they leave enough room for each other.
do you know how the maoster drives then,if not then you are not helping him avoid accidents,you are not making sense,and yes hgvs are involved in accidents,we cannot avoid them at times,but I have also seen quite a few car drivers in accidents not involving hgvs,and they cause a lot of disruption,does not matter if we hgv drivers are professional or not but we are all human and humans do make mistakes
Woodpecker1:
Britain’s roads are becoming a nightmare with accidents involving trucks,were supposed to be professional drivers but you just know when see motorway closed on the overheads a truck or trucks are going to be involved,today 5 trucks on the M6 manage to hit one another on a motorway where everyone is traveling in the same direction!!! Result thousands of people end up having there day screwed just because professional drivers screw up again,the same with the M40 lastnight or the M1 Leicester yesterday morning,its the mentality of ime not letting that car infront of me when there joining motorways that causes some of the accidents then rely on your camera to prove they were at fault,for forks sake what does 2 seconds make to your day? Absolutly nothing but when you hit him and cause the accident it makes a huge difference to everyone else’s day,you can bet your life that accident at sandbach could have been avoided today if just one driver had proved he was the professional he is suposed to be,instead one driver may loose a leg and 2 are in hospital,5 trucks off the road costing thousands to repair and thousands lost in late deliverys drivers running out of hours people missing meeting flights missed,holidays delayed,not to mention the stress!!! And it all could have been avoided!!! Think about it Monday when your 2ft away from the truck infront
Thanks but I always leave a safe distance in front of me ,always ease off to let any vehicle safely join motorway /road I’m driving along ,but obviously I often see the type of driving you speak of ,be it ,trucks ,cars ,vans .
The only thing I can do is maintain my high standard of driving ,not drop to there level ,and hope that by witnessing my high / proffesional standard of driving that it wil make them sit up and take note ,think what there doing ,the dangers involved in tail gating and then raise there driving to my level , I won’t hold my breath though .
hmm, I drove back from kettering yesterday and one thing I did notice on the A14 was the amount of trucks who were adamant they were going to crawl past each other, a B&M truck who took about 3 miles to get by, the other driver refusing to knock his limiter down a click or 2.
I am lucky as I can remember the days when driver helped each other out none of this lets get my phone out/dash cam etc and post online.
What becomes very clear after reading some of these posts is that some drivers will blame others for them not leaving a safe distance.
Any LGV driver that travels too close is not being professional and that is part of the reason why truck drivers get such a bad name.
Another aspect is some drivers actually believe they are keeping a safe distance when in fact they are not.I have witnessed that so many times when training drivers who already hold an Lgv licence.
Then we get the ones that think they can travel more closely because they have a better view ahead!
Anyone who thinks the biggest majority always keep a safe distance are kidding themselves.
The carnage will continue as long as the ignorance continues.
albion1971:
Another aspect is some drivers actually believe they are keeping a safe distance when in fact they are not.I have witnessed that so many times
In many cases that seems to be the result of inability to judge speed differentials at a good distance.IE I’d guess that a large part of that type of example results in you either thinking why isn’t this idiot either preparing an overtake or backing off now to either pass or maintain seperation to the target vehicle ahead ?.Which ironically is a skill which is best learn’t in a much higher speed environment.IE dumbing down speeds just creates yet further dumbed down drivers.To the point where faster speeds,with better seperation distances,are ( would be ) safer than the present idea that lower speeds are supposedly the benchmark for safety.
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