Well, I expect he is in for a right slagging off in here although I will refrain from joining in as I have myself made this error when abroad, the only difference being that nobody got hurt as I realised my mistake before I had a chance to hit anything. More luck than anything though.
I wonder if anyone else would like to 'fess up to having found themselves driving on the wrong side of the road when abroad, even just the once?
Harry Monk:
Well, I expect he is in for a right slagging off in here although I will refrain from joining in as I have myself made this error when abroad, the only difference being that nobody got hurt as I realised my mistake before I had a chance to hit anything. More luck than anything though.I wonder if anyone else would like to 'fess up to having found themselves driving on the wrong side of the road when abroad, even just the once?
Yes Harry it happened to me once in Germany on a two way south of stutgart i pulled out of a t junc and continued on the left for a few hundred meters 
until i saw a car on the same side comin towards me only takes a second ehh.
Harry Monk:
I wonder if anyone else would like to 'fess up to having found themselves driving on the wrong side of the road when abroad, even just the once?
Hi HM,
I couldn’t 'fess up to that which isn’t true… I’ve never taken to the wrong side of the road when abroad.
IMHO, my mistake was even worse… once, after coming out of Dover Eastern Docks and negotiating the roundabout correctly, I headed up Jubilee Way on the wrong side of the road. 
A kind soul travelling in the opposite direction put me right by flashing his headlights at me!!
Mind you, I was driving an Italian registered (LHD) truck at the time, so it was kind of expected I suppose. 
I’ve done this several times. I’ve been round the roundabout by Culina in MK the wrong way twice and sometimes late night it’s a struggle to remember which side I’m supposed to be on. Only ever in this country though for some strange reason.
Only done it once, in the car when on leave FROM Germany, but no harm done.
Seems to be happening all the time now though. Our local offering:-
yep i confess… i did it 3wks ago after arriving back from germany(by plane ) i picked my car up in aberdeen and drove out the car park onto main road on the wrong side for maybe 20 yds then thought to myself GOD this roads changed in 2wks then it clicked i was on wrong side
Yeah I will put my hands up I have done it, but been lucky enough to realise before I caused a problem.
Harry Monk:
I wonder if anyone else would like to 'fess up to having found themselves driving on the wrong side of the road when abroad, even just the once?
I went to see my parents once, they live in quiet street next to the main road.
Next day I jumped into my car and started to drive. When I was almost next to the main road, the car turned and went to head - on crash with me.
I almost had a crash with my own cousin.
We laugh about it today, and she said that she learned that she’s driving too fast, as there can be always something unexpected arround the corner 
I also learned a few new French [zb] words when took the roundabout from the left just after left the Speedferries terminal in Boulougne-sur-mer. And once in Highlands i decided to park on the layby on the right and cut just in front of the oncoming car.
I don’t remember any more sins, father, but I regret them all and ask for forgivness
And just BTW:
article:
He was jailed for two years and banned from driving for two years.
Is it mean that he cannot drive while in jail, or that after his jail sentence will finish, he cannot drive for two more years?
Harry Monk:
Well, I expect he is in for a right slagging off in here although I will refrain from joining in as I have myself made this error when abroad, the only difference being that nobody got hurt as I realised my mistake before I had a chance to hit anything. More luck than anything though.I wonder if anyone else would like to 'fess up to having found themselves driving on the wrong side of the road when abroad, even just the once?
Yes guilty your honour.Years ago pulled out of a lay by on the left hand side of the road in Italy (shore of Lake Garda) and drove for about a mile on the left before a car coming the other way gave me all the lights air horns etc. and even then I thought what the zb is wrong with this zb idiot before realising and getting back over pdq 
Can honestly say that it scared me enough to have never done it since or look right at a junction or roundabout when you should be looking left.How many Brits abroad have pulled out into a road they ‘thought’ was clear only to get something plough through them from the left. But East Europeans and Turks in my experience of driving in Yugoslavia often don’t give a zb what side of the road they’re on or even wether they’re on the actual road at all like seeing a truck and a coach side by side both overtaking another truck on a single carriageway road on a bend as I came round it the other way and found enough room for us all to get through which more than made up for my zb up in Italy.
Just started TIR & took 24 hrs to load handball apples in one of Rothschild’s farms in Northern France . When they finished loading they all went out to the front gate to see me into the Route National I turned right outside the gate & gave 'em all a wave . I thought ‘What a great bunch - they are cheering me!’ But as I am going up the hill I see a truck bearing down on me & realized they were waving to tell me I was on the wrong side of the road…
I haven’t driven on the wrong side of the road abroad…yet! but I did get knocked down in France crossing the road and looking the wrong way. I was able to get up and walk away with a few bruises much to the disgust of an irate french farmer whose 2cv van seemed to have come off worse !
Trev_H:
I haven’t driven on the wrong side of the road abroad…yet! but I did get knocked down in France crossing the road and looking the wrong way. I was able to get up and walk away with a few bruises much to the disgust of an irate french farmer whose 2cv van seemed to have come off worse !
yep same here lol
i also went round a round about in france the wrong way lol
I think the sentence is a disgrace, the guy shouldnt have been jailed. Don’t see the point.
I could see the point if the guy had been driving way over his hours, could see the point if the guy had done a dangerous overtake, but there was no intent it was brain fade, an accident. A large fine, community service, banned for life from driving in the UK, but two years in jail its not as if its a deteriant because it was a stupid mistake, its not as if the streets are suddenly safer.
Think to many people these days see drivers as robots who are perfect all the time and never make mistakes, humans make mistakes that doesent seem to be taken into account these days, make a mistake as a HGV driver (which we all do and most of us are lucky no consequences) could see your self doing time for it.
See it a lot drivers making mistakes and its jail time, see some of them Police Camera Action programs someone with no licence in a stolen car doing 80mph in a council estate serve less time if they are even jailed, gotta usually get caught a few times before they chuck you in jail.
Fortunately never done this abroad,but it did happen once when I had got back from a trip.
Pulled out of a side street turned left onto a main road,no other traffic about,and I was on the wrong side of the road for quite a few yards before the penny dropped!
Yep guilty as well, pulling out the yard in London Colney and leaving the depot in Eindhoven .
Me too shortly after arriving back. I think you focus so much on getting it right when doing the opposite to which you are naturally used to that you stay focussed when you get back…
Funniest one was getting in a LHD hire car in Chambery after flying in, got someone else to pick the bags up while I organised the hire car before the other 150 plane passengers came and cholked the hire car desk up, ran off over and found the car, opened the door, got in, WTF wrong side DOH, no steering wheel here… quick look around to see who is watching (as you do) and swap over
Some years ago, I pulled out of Tebay in a lhd Scania. Realised I was on the wrong side when I got to the roundabout and thought something not quite right her
Kenny1975:
I think the sentence is a disgrace, the guy shouldnt have been jailed. Don’t see the point.
I agree, there is nothing malicious in it. Everybody makes mistakes at work. A supermarket worker might accidentally ring up a tomato as a potato. Nobody dies of it, true, but then lorry drivers aren’t paid such a vast fortune that we should be expected to fall on our swords for our faults.
A pink-haired middle-class lady who became confused and collided head-on with a car, killing a family would not serve a day in prison, but as the felon in question is both a lorry driver and a foreigner he ticks both of the public’s current “hate boxes” and he has accordingly been shafted.
There but for the grace of God etc…
I done it once in Portishead but never on the continent, yet. But I did walk out straight in front of an Amsterdam tram cos I was looking the wrong way, the good thing about that happening, is that the driver can bollock you in a language you understand.