I just heard a clip on the radio that the FTA are concerned about the number of side swipe incidents with foreign trucks on our motorways.
Geoff Dosseter of the RHA said that car drivers should take more care, give foreign trucks more room and be aware of foreign plates and livery.
As most car drivers field of vision is about 7 feet in front of them I doubt it will make much difference but if it stops one person hiding behind the blind spots it is good news.
Many drivers dont realise that it may be the truck drivers first trip to the UK. He may have come from the Baltic states and succesfully navigated 5 countries who all drive on the left to suddenly encounter more traffic and swapping sides as well.
I do see drivers who seem intent on hiding in blind spots and wonder if they are waiting for a big claim on the insurance
I wonder how many non lorry drivers know that the only sure way to tell where the lorry blind spot is located is to spot the kerb mirror above the door. When i pointed this out to my local advanced driving group - only 2 out of about 30 new this
I noticed a very simple solution on one of Tafts FHs a few days ago.
A sign on the bottom of the passenger door above step simply saying something like.
YOU ARE IN MY BLINDSPOT PLEASE MOVE
There are of course many potential BLIND SPOTS on all artics most of which are created/exagerated by poor mirror setting, windows full of junk, curtains across the window but above all poor driving, observation and anticipaion
When I was learning to drive a car, the instructor gave me a great piece of advice;
“Treat the area next to a lorry like a yellow box junction - Don’t go in if you can’t get out the other side.”
Some people seem to like sitting next to wagons on the motorway…maybe they think they are like those little fishes that swim next to a big shark for protection.
Wheel Nut:
I just heard a clip on the radio that the FTA are concerned about the number of side swipe incidents with foreign trucks on our motorways.
Geoff Dosseter of the RHA said that car drivers should take more care, give foreign trucks more room and be aware of foreign plates and livery.
The FTA have to do some old thing to justify their membership rates. The last thing i remember them on about was ‘foreign trucks’ should identify themselves ( rather than having no livery to indicate the trucks operator). Pity they don’t specify that to their own members !
hammer:
When I was learning to drive a car, the instructor gave me a great piece of advice;
“Treat the area next to a lorry like a yellow box junction - Don’t go in if you can’t get out the other side.”
I like that one.
On the subject of blind spots, I lost a bloody artic in one recently.
Coming off the M18, to join the A1(M) North, it must be something to do with the angle at which the slip road intersects with the main carriageway. Nothing in my mirrors, and as I’ve nearly been caught out there before, did a ‘shoulder check’’ and there was an artic about 3 feet behind my bunk. Rapid change of speed required.
Wobble:
Coming north on the 6 today…just by jctn 14 a car on its roof…100 mtrs down the carriageway talking to Mr Plod…you guessed it a foreign wagon!!
And from that you know the foreign truck driver was to blame? Amazing?
Few years ago a car drove into the rear corner of my trailer in Germany, 100% not my fault. We both stopped on the hard shoulder and the police arrived. A mate driving in Belgium and a car left it very late to take an exit, cutting in front of my mate and catching the corner of his unit. The car nearly flipped but Mick ended up pushing it sideways down the carriageway. Again the police arrived and got both vehicles on the hard shoulder.
It seems that if you had driven past either incident you would have been blaming us as we were the foreign drivers.
Wobble:
Coming north on the 6 today…just by jctn 14 a car on its roof…100 mtrs down the carriageway talking to Mr Plod…you guessed it a foreign wagon!!
So where did i say it was the wagons fault■■?
READ the post again
Driving through Paris on Thursday night the A4 / A86 was closed and all traffic was diverted onto a slip road, so from 6 lanes it went into 1 lane and from the other side was 2 lanes all trying to get into the one lane which was very frustrating. Beyond this was a set of temporary traffic lights letting about 4 vehicles through at a time
Eventually we must have caused enough of a hold up to wake the police and they came and coned bits of the junction off to stop people cutting in at the last minute. I nodded to one as he walked past. Just then there was a gap appeared so I set off. cruuunch I got out to find a Renault 5 wedged under my passenger side bottom step. The copper shrugged his shoulders and I did my famous Rene Artois impression You stupid woman, can you not see that the traffic is queuing for 2kms. You damage my truck although a slight paint scrape and a missing indicator lens seemed nothing compared to her Renault 5 laid in pieces on the Peripherique.
Of course it was my fault as I hit her but she was totally out of site between the Doblie mirror and the kerb view mirror.
I filled out the forms and got her to agree to my version of events. I cheated by using a flemish language accident report which she didnt understand although she did speak a leetle eenglish.
So Blind spot accidents can happen to LHD trucks even in France
ROG:
I wonder how many non lorry drivers know that the only sure way to tell where the lorry blind spot is located is to spot the kerb mirror above the door. When i pointed this out to my local advanced driving group - only 2 out of about 30 new this
Hmmm, I’ve noticed a number of RHD trucks with a look down kerb mirror on the drivers side, and a couple of drivers at my firm are having them fitted as well.
Along with the new fangled blindspot mirrors, we might as well start wearing parka’s with a roundel on the back, we’re starting to look like lambretta’s.
Ive always thought that car drivers need to be edjucated on blind spots I.E.
Signs on the passenger door stating that the Does the driver of this lorry know you are here & can you see him.
Also I dont know if its alredy been done, some driver awareness for car drivers.
I would like to see a set up where the car driver can sit in a staged lorry & physically see for himself how a lorry needs to postion itself on a roundabout, Blind sided reversing & the drivers veiw of the car next to him on the N/S.
They could be staged at shows or demos allowing people to just hop in the drivers seat & look around.
Last week I drove Zeebrugge - Basel - Strasbourg - Calais and in all that time only over took one slow moving car and in the event that I moved over to allow cars onto a motorway, none of them pratted about, they all got out of my way ASAP. Thursday night at 9pm I drove off the boat at Dover and had a 3hr drive to Oxford services and it was 3hrs of pure hell. I overtook about 15 slow cars, most of which sped up to stay neck and neck with me once I got half way past them, I got undertook by several cars on the approach to roadworks where I had to move over due to lane closures, it was just an awful experience and my thoughts at the time were that I would hate to be driving a LHD truck here as opposed to a RHD anywhere in western Europe. I really do feel sorry for foreign drivers having to try and make their way around in this country.
I noticed a very simple solution on one of Tafts FHs a few days ago.
cruuunch 
You stupid woman, can you not see that the traffic is queuing for 2kms. You damage my truck although a slight paint scrape and a missing indicator lens seemed nothing compared to her Renault 5 laid in pieces on the Peripherique.