.
Scared myself the other morning in the rain. Overtaking another wagon down A1 and aquaplaned, a lot. Sure some bum chutney escaped. Just lets you know you’re still alive. Gets the old heart beating a bit quicker.
In answer to the question, as a rule, no. No point being scared.
I remember talking to an old hand not long after I started in the industry. I told him that from time to time I worried about a blow out and the possible consequences. His response (and thinking about it, I agree) was that when you let things like that get to you it’s time to hand up your keys.
You can only do so much to negate every possibility, but worrying about it will distract you to the point of making more mistakes.
You can’t think like that, if you drive safe then you needn’t worry. Most jobs can be dangerous. I regularly drive a “high reach” FLT reach truck lifting pallets of stock anywhere between 200kg - 1200kg up to 11.5 metres high, a single 12kg box of chips (for example) falling from that height is more than enough to kill someone (makes a mess too). Fortunately most of us in whatever it is we do have good training and accidents are few and far between. Its the ones who flout the rules/regulations etc etc that put themselves and others in danger. If you’re aware of your surroundings then you can’t go far wrong. Mistakes happen though and in your case being a driver, just think how many truckers drive the roads on a daily basis compared to how many accidents there are. You would have to be pretty unlucky (or stupid) to be in a fatal one.
Drive safe.
only when its snowing.
A couple of years ago I was going up the A19 from the A168. Gale force winds, all the matrix lit up warning high vehicles etc.
My speed was 47mph on the cruise control and I was all over my mirrors watching the trailer in the strong winds.
I came over the brow of a hill when I noticed a car broken down in the live carriageway. I slammed on and tried to swerve around him but there wasnt enough time or space and I hit its right hand corner and sent it off road in a ditch.
Luckily no-one was in the car, but this shook me up for ages and ages and still makes me queezy.
Honestly don’t know what more I could have done to avoid it given the conditions. I had reduced my speed and was driving appropriately to the road conditions but still crashed.
The police, in their wisdom, decided to send me to court for Careless Driving and I ended up going guilty to get it finished with maximum deductions.
I think the magistrate acknowledged the circumstances with just 4 points and a £60 fine which could have been a lot more, but even so, I feel aggrieved that the Police decided to prosecute under the circumstances.
Would love for some more experienced drivers to put me right though…
bald bloke:
I’m not scared about myself crashing but what I never have and probably never will like is going around a right hand bend on an A road with a wagon coming the other way, I’m thinking if it wanders over my way I’m done for, I don’t seem to worry about anything else though.
I know what you mean. I was on the A39 yesterday between Minehead and Bridgewater. It’s bad enougfh during daylight but at night that is one very dark road, narrow and high banks clattering the mirrors in places. Doubt I averaged above 25mph on that road coming home last night, though plenty of folks decided to pass, recklessly IMHO, on solid double white lines approaching bends etc. Possibly late for the Bridgewater carnival 
coreysboys:
A couple of years ago I was going up the A19 from the A168. Gale force winds, all the matrix lit up warning high vehicles etc.
My speed was 47mph on the cruise control and I was all over my mirrors watching the trailer in the strong winds.
I came over the brow of a hill when I noticed a car broken down in the live carriageway. I slammed on and tried to swerve around him but there wasnt enough time or space and I hit its right hand corner and sent it off road in a ditch.Luckily no-one was in the car, but this shook me up for ages and ages and still makes me queezy.
Honestly don’t know what more I could have done to avoid it given the conditions. I had reduced my speed and was driving appropriately to the road conditions but still crashed.
The police, in their wisdom, decided to send me to court for Careless Driving and I ended up going guilty to get it finished with maximum deductions.
I think the magistrate acknowledged the circumstances with just 4 points and a £60 fine which could have been a lot more, but even so, I feel aggrieved that the Police decided to prosecute under the circumstances.Would love for some more experienced drivers to put me right though…
Well you shouldn’t have had your cruise control on for one.
Dieseldog66:
coreysboys:
A couple of years ago I was going up the A19 from the A168. Gale force winds, all the matrix lit up warning high vehicles etc.
My speed was 47mph on the cruise control and I was all over my mirrors watching the trailer in the strong winds.
I came over the brow of a hill when I noticed a car broken down in the live carriageway. I slammed on and tried to swerve around him but there wasnt enough time or space and I hit its right hand corner and sent it off road in a ditch.Luckily no-one was in the car, but this shook me up for ages and ages and still makes me queezy.
Honestly don’t know what more I could have done to avoid it given the conditions. I had reduced my speed and was driving appropriately to the road conditions but still crashed.
The police, in their wisdom, decided to send me to court for Careless Driving and I ended up going guilty to get it finished with maximum deductions.
I think the magistrate acknowledged the circumstances with just 4 points and a £60 fine which could have been a lot more, but even so, I feel aggrieved that the Police decided to prosecute under the circumstances.Would love for some more experienced drivers to put me right though…
Well you shouldn’t have had your cruise control on for one.
+1, and you hadn’t slowed down much, had you?
Dieseldog66:
coreysboys:
A couple of years ago I was going up the A19 from the A168. Gale force winds, all the matrix lit up warning high vehicles etc.
My speed was 47mph on the cruise control and I was all over my mirrors watching the trailer in the strong winds.
I came over the brow of a hill when I noticed a car broken down in the live carriageway. I slammed on and tried to swerve around him but there wasnt enough time or space and I hit its right hand corner and sent it off road in a ditch.Luckily no-one was in the car, but this shook me up for ages and ages and still makes me queezy.
Honestly don’t know what more I could have done to avoid it given the conditions. I had reduced my speed and was driving appropriately to the road conditions but still crashed.
The police, in their wisdom, decided to send me to court for Careless Driving and I ended up going guilty to get it finished with maximum deductions.
I think the magistrate acknowledged the circumstances with just 4 points and a £60 fine which could have been a lot more, but even so, I feel aggrieved that the Police decided to prosecute under the circumstances.Would love for some more experienced drivers to put me right though…
Well you shouldn’t have had your cruise control on for one.
Blind brows,bends,fog they all come under the rule never travel at a speed faster than that which you can pull up in the distance you can see to be clear in front. 
Next time it might be a broken down/stopped truck.
I know all that CF but A19, national speed limit road, little traffic, Sunday morning. Who slows down to 20 or 30 clicks in those conditions on what is effectively a motorway when they come up to the brow of a hill, just in case someone has broken down just over it?? Sometimes ■■■■ just happens. Circumstances conspire to cause an ‘accident’. To then face prosecution when you were already clearly defensively driving due to the conditions seems really unfair and unreasonable.
Driving has never scared or worried me, it’s my way of chilling out and has been since I got my first license for a bike. I’ve had ‘oh ■■■■’ moments like everyone else but outside of that it’s one of the few jobs where you can sit on your arse listening to music and get paid.
What does worry me in my old age is handballing. My bones feel it now so I try to stick to trunking 
As was said above, if you reach a point of being predominately fearful in your job then its time to either get the fear sorted or change the job. You should try NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming), bit like hypnotherapy on steroids, it helped me get over my fear when I decided to take my pilots license. I’m not belittling your concerns as stress is still a prime killer, so a wise man goes for the options.
coreysboys:
I know all that CF but A19, national speed limit road, little traffic, Sunday morning. Who slows down to 20 or 30 clicks in those conditions on what is effectively a motorway when they come up to the brow of a hill, just in case someone has broken down just over it?? Sometimes [zb] just happens. Circumstances conspire to cause an ‘accident’. To then face prosecution when you were already clearly defensively driving due to the conditions seems really unfair and unreasonable.
They (rightly) won’t buy that as a defence in those circumstances.If you hit something that’s stopped in front of you for whatever reason and you say you didn’t see it in time to stop you’re toast.Simples.It doesn’t matter what class of road it is it’s all about making sure that you’ve got enough room ahead to stop within for the speed which you’re running at.As I said in this case it was a car with no one in it.Next time it could be a car with someone in it or a broken down truck.One will probably mean a prison sentence and the other a high chance of not surviving the resulting accident,at least with the average euro cab over.
Harry Kyng:
Driving has never scared or worried me, it’s my way of chilling out and has been since I got my first license for a bike.
^ +1.
120 mph on the autobahn thinking what happens if there’s blowout who cares probably won’t know much about what happens next anyway so might as well run it up to 165 mph. 