Every day this week I’ve seen the end result of a foreign hgv hitting a car on the motorway. This apears to be a regular thing that happens nowadays.
My question is, back in the days when British hauliers traveled into Europe and beyond,did our lads cause as many accidents as this lot, or am I being anti Eastern European?
Definitely not, on both counts.
DieselDemon:
Definitely not, on both counts.
ditto !! but traffic in uk is so much worse!!!
legin66:
DieselDemon:
Definitely not, on both counts.ditto !! but traffic in uk is so much worse!!!
Have you ever been round the Periferique when it’s busy?
I know on the open road it’s much less busy traffic wise, but the towns and cities can be as bad.
Anyone fancy starting a sweepstake on how long it takes Orys to turn up? 
Harry Monk:
Anyone fancy starting a sweepstake on how long it takes Orys to turn up?
Orrys■■? Do tell!
Now that you’ve mentioned Orifice, he used to live on here, don’t see much from him at all these days.
Is he ill?
I have covered many miles on foreign motorways and have never seen a British truck in a side swipe accident. But I have also never watched a British trucker try and reverse into a parking space as badly as Eastern European drivers do. I am not being anti foreign drivers, but we have side swipe accidents in my region almost hourly at times. At one time the other day, I listened to our radio and there were five side swipe accidents on going in our region. The standard of driving is poor in the majority of cases. (Being drunk doesn’t help!!) We never had this many accidents when there were French, Dutch, German drivers coming over here.
Bang on the money there, extrucker. 
DieselDemon:
Bang on the money there, extrucker.
Ditto
Lets not forget a lot of these drivers are employed by UK hauliers with the motto " JUST GET ON WITH IT " ploughing round the country giving UK drivers a bad name 
BIG AW
PS glad is friday
One of the main reasons that this happens a lot in the UK is that British people can not drive a car, many of them drive if they got their license free with their cereals.
None of them has been trained and tested on the Motorway unlike the rest of the continent.
And yes I have to agree that the standard of some of our East European colleges (incl. Eastern Germany in there) are not always where they should be.
But somebody here mentioned the Périphérique and I would think the same about the A4 North of Milano, if that amount of traffic was around London, it would be blocked for a year non stop.
I must admit I have side swiped 2 cars in the UK (or was I side swiped?) when I was driving with a left hand drive in the UK:
One was on the M1 near Leeming Bar, woman in Peugeot 205 try to turn of while I’m are normal in the left line going straight ahead. Her reply was “I didn’t see you" … 
Listen Miss Prim, what did you just try to overtake■■?
Second was in Carlisle, on a roundabout waited for the traffic lights on the left hand lane to turn left.
The lights changed and I pulled slowly away when I heard a crunch, and saw on the left hand site a Mini Metro trying to climb in the Metal fencing.
Woman was in the second lane but realised that she wanted to turn left, so that is what she did.
In the reconstruction the Police found out that even if I had a RHD truck, I wouldn’t been able to see the car creeping in front.
So its not all Black and White.
Side swipe accidents happen in every country and its not always the truck being in the wrong.
Cars who:
Are you reffering to European or East-European drivers ■■
I never had a problem driving a left ■■■■■■ In Britain…
'tis chaos on the roads around here in Poland thats for sure, picking your way through the carnage, heavens knows whats going to happen when the snows arrive.
I have noticed a couple of things that I try to take care with when driving back in the UK. The car drivers do the most un-expected things, they do not overtake very quickly on motorways, quite often hanging in the overtaking lane not really actually overtaking. Also if I signal to pull out to overtake into a space, that space is often closed down by someone speeding up as if I may have offended their manhood in someway. I had an Asian bloke in Keighley show down in the middle of a street last year and choose reverse for some reason, so best policy for me is to expect a British car driver to do anything at anytime.
I think that coupled with the appalling driving standards of Eastern and Central Europeans is the root cause.
Talking to a shunter at a site today and he informed me the record had been broken thursday for longest time taken to back on a bay. 32 mins it took a polish driver with 3 helpers, and its not even hard. I have done it blind side before and only took 1 shunt and on in less than 2 mins. I find not all but most of them are CRAP, don’t get me wrong there is alot of crap british drivers out there as well, but they would not be trusted to go international. 
Everyone knows that east euro drivers have always been suspect going back at least into the 1980’s when I spent loads of time driving amongst them on long holidays with the car in Yugo the only ones worse were the Turks running through the place 
.The only difference is now here is that it’s not considered pc to raise the subject and they’re driving on mostly motorways.Whereas there then it was mostly single carriageway roads.There were often trucks,cars and coaches in ditches which was the only way to survive when you were met head on by a truck overtaking another truck and ometimes a coach trying to overtake them both on a single carriageway road. Which is a scenario that I can remember having to get out of the way of personally and it’s only because there was enough room at the side of the road which is why I’m here to tell the story.
Carryfast:
Everyone knows that east euro drivers have always been suspect going back at least into the 1980’s when I spent loads of time driving amongst them on long holidays with the car in Yugo the only ones worse were the Turks running through the place
This is my favourite part of driving in Poland by far, single carriage roads trucks always on the limiter, lines of cars overtaking into oncoming traffic, it is by far the biggest buzz in driving here, I did think when I came to live here with my Western head on how dodgy this all seemed, but once i joined in, it is the most fabulous place to drive. Give me Poland to Croatia for a road trip any day, not Bradford to London, thats just the worst.
All Middle East, Bugaria, and Yugo drivers know that the Turks where one of the best drivers in difficult circumstances.
They where proper mechanics, truck driver, Caterer and doctor all in one.
Used them in Bulgaria for security, many Dutch companies liked them for the more risky long distance, as their security was very good.
Park up with them, give respect and you have freinds for live.
If you ever drove in Eastern Turkey about 30 years ago, you know why they where excellent drivers.
Also the old East-Block drivers where extreme trained. The likes of Deutrans, Hungarucamion,etc. didn’t let anybody out of there or he was an good driver and mechanic
Times has changed, and not always for the better.
I’ve seen loads on the M25. I always give the sods a wide berth.
People dont ■■■■ about in europe, everyone is alot more pushy but no one takes offence because its the done thing and it works.