I drove the old fashioned way today; Didnt use cc, listened to engine rather than watching the rev counter, wasnt bothered with counting gearchanges and all the other SAFED bs but found my concentration was better…
I saw Washy Jr this morning, and not far behind was a Samworth lorry…with black ribbons hanging from wingmirrors…very sobering.
Here’s the aftermath of the truck I jackknifed at 50mph, believe me there was no time to gradually accelerate out of it, within a quarter of a second I went from travelling down the road in a straight line as per usual, to wondering whether I had five or ten seconds left to live.
Don’t ever get complacent, don’t ever think this is something that only happens to other people less able than you would be my advice.
As luck had it, I came out without a scratch, and I have tended to drive much slower on wet roads since that memorable day.
bald bloke:
rob22888:
matt3903:
Anyone listening to Jeremy vine?As expected people criticising us lorry drivers.
Same in the comment sections on all the newspaper websites. Fact of the matter is, the inconvienient truth is that there are a lot of idiots in our proffesion who drive like prats, giving us all a bad name. We all know car drivers are just as guilty and probably more, but they aren’t responsible for up to 44 tonnes and when we crash it tends to be a lot more devestating.
This is the cruise control generation… its a great function and 99% of us use it but not quite so many responsibly. A lot of drivers seem to prioritise keeping cruise control set over maintaining a safe stopping distance because actually using the pedals is so much of a chore.
What a load of rubbish if I get too close I either (a) overtake or (b) pull back and maintain a safe distance, I don’t tail gate anyone.
Well i wasn’t saying that everybody does it, but quite obviously some do.
Its a pretty regular occurance to see a fellow lorry driver get too close to the arse end of a slower moving vehicle when lane 2 isn’t clear, sometimes resorting to bullying tactics towards lane 2 traffic in order to pull out at the last minute rather than just slowing down for a bit and waiting for a safe opportunity to pass. Its bollox like that which gives us a bad name.
I’ll hold my hands up and say that I have been guilty of cruise control laziness myself in the past, but learnt the error of my ways. I only ever use it on quiet stretches of road.
bjd:
bonnie lass:
In our prayers and in our thoughts, our deepest condolences and sympathies to the families and freinds of the deseased, and all those who were injured and who just happened to be there during that devastating timeMy thoughts are with the family and freinds left to cope, lets all stop think and learn a lesson from this imm sure the anatomy of this accident will throw loads of factors but i would bet speed will be a factor less speed more hast take care out there everyone …
It will undoubtedly have left many people stunned at what has happened, everyone is someones kin relative ,friend etc. I was not there at the time & will not speculate on what may or maynot have been the cause of this tragedy. Something could just as easily happen to anyone of us at any time when we are out on the roads, when you see the results of a horific accident like that, it kinda makes you think !
Drive safely everyone
bjd:
lets all stop think and learn a lesson from this im sure the anatomy of this accident will throw loads of factors but i would bet speed will be a factor less speed more hast take care out there everyone …
The police are investigating the Rugby club bonfire. What does that tell you, don’t light fires near the motorway and we can all carry on as normal? Its also been mooted about recently about increasing the motorway speed limit to 80 mph.
What does that tell you, don’t light fires near the motorway and we can all carry on as normal?
was thinking about that today as i travelled along the m62 and there was a fire blazing no more than a 100 metres away from the eastbound side.
personally im pretty knocked for six about the amount of deaths on our roads the last week and has been posted else where it could of been any of us i know im guilty of being complacent…
Let’s be honest, the quality of driving has gone down accross all drivers.
I see bad lorry/bus/motorbike/car drivers everyday.
Still drivers tailgating on the M5 yesterday afternoon, some people never learn! 
bigvern1:
Still drivers tailgating on the M5 yesterday afternoon, some people never learn!
Thats because I am invincible and it will never happen to me 
Muckaway:
I drove the old fashioned way today; Didnt use cc, listened to engine rather than watching the rev counter, wasnt bothered with counting gearchanges and all the other SAFED bs but found my concentration was better…
quote]I do believe that less engagement with the actual driving element of a vehicle leads to accidents and modern day vehicles do so much for you and that applies to cars as well. My formative years were spent with my old man in an Albion Clydesdale and a vague memory of a Commer
before that. There was that much more driving to be done that it was harder to zone out, now it’s almost point in the right direction and let the truck get on with the job for you. There just feels like less connection with the whole process these days.
The above comments were not relating to anyone’s driving on the M5 as we don’t yet know what the cause was.
you were lucky Harry!
bigvern1:
Still drivers tailgating on the M5 yesterday afternoon, some people never learn!Hiya…i think the 2 second rule is tailgateing…i had a defensive driving sesion at shell… The examiner said how close can you drive i replied two motorway lamp posts around jct7/6 m6… he said the rule was 2 seconds…the next time i was going down the m6 at 60mph i found the lamp posts was 4+ seconds
i thought the 2 second rule was stupid…let me say i thought my distance was only border line safe
at 4 seconds…i did pass on the corse it was many years ago…2 seconds is maybe ok for a car
but no chance in a truck
John
research has found that the 2 second rule only works for cars up to 50mph, above 50mph it needs to 4 seconds and that’s in perfect conditions.
Harry Monk:
Here’s the aftermath of the truck I jackknifed at 50mph, believe me there was no time to gradually accelerate out of it, within a quarter of a second I went from travelling down the road in a straight line as per usual, to wondering whether I had five or ten seconds left to live.
Don’t ever get complacent, don’t ever think this is something that only happens to other people less able than you would be my advice.
As luck had it, I came out without a scratch, and I have tended to drive much slower on wet roads since that memorable day.
Glad to see you’r still here Harry 
Being an ex class one driver I often have to put our point across when I hear mainly car drivers berating lorry drivers for their standard of driving, however over the last few years I have to admit I’ve seen some pretty poor examples in heavies, some I’ve been involved with but mostly I’ve observed the likes of pulling out into traffic, changing lanes without giving other road users enough warning or consideration, going through red lights and mobile phone use of course but hey everybody seems to disregard that one!
What really annoyed me today was a so called proffessional driver acting like a novice. I was driving along a back road that was impeded by having parked cars on both sides so narrowing the lanes, at the end was a small roundabout, a tanker was just turning this to enter the lane I was on and expecting him to wait where the parked cars began, as you would, I was rather disturbed to see him pull out and carry on, surely he could see me and that there wasn’t enough room for both of us, well on he came, I got over as far as I could having slowed right down, heard my nearside mirror hit something but was concentrating on missing this other maniac which by then something must have enterted the grey matter and he started to brake but never stopped. By then I was at the roundabout and stopped only to see him dissapear in the mirror.
Yes I was a bit dissapointed at this stage to say the least but when you consider I was driving less than 30 in a Fire Appliance, okay I didn’t have the lights going or bells clanging but road etiquette seemed to have gone right out the window, I hope he felt a tool, I would have if I’d done the same. I won’t mention the company name but if you can work it out its the same forename as the little curly haired girl that sang ‘On the good ship lolly pop’! I think from now on I’ll just keep quiet when someone moans about ‘Wagon drivers’. At a time when they need the public’s backing instances like this don’t help.
One last point, emergency services don’t call them Road Traffic Accidents anymore, they are Road Traffic Collisions as they feel its never an accident but somebodies fault and that’s what they look for thesedays. Franky.
Mike-C:
bjd:
lets all stop think and learn a lesson from this im sure the anatomy of this accident will throw loads of factors but i would bet speed will be a factor less speed more hast take care out there everyone …The police are investigating the Rugby club bonfire. What does that tell you, don’t light fires near the motorway and we can all carry on as normal? Its also been mooted about recently about increasing the motorway speed limit to 80 mph.
they will have trouble investigating the bonfire at the rugby club as there wasn’t one only a firework display
wildfire:
Mike-C:
bjd:
lets all stop think and learn a lesson from this im sure the anatomy of this accident will throw loads of factors but i would bet speed will be a factor less speed more hast take care out there everyone …The police are investigating the Rugby club bonfire. What does that tell you, don’t light fires near the motorway and we can all carry on as normal? Its also been mooted about recently about increasing the motorway speed limit to 80 mph.
they will have trouble investigating the bonfire at the rugby club as there wasn’t one only a firework display
I wouldn’t doubt you. I’m just repeating what our news said.
found out today that one of the samway drivers was covering for the normal driver who was having a couple of days off, neadless to say the normal driver is feeling guilty for having the time off, he’s been told by friends (and please don’t think i am being insensitive) that it wasn’t his time to go. when your numbers called its called and it wasn’t his turn…
Mike-C:
wildfire:
Mike-C:
bjd:
lets all stop think and learn a lesson from this im sure the anatomy of this accident will throw loads of factors but i would bet speed will be a factor less speed more hast take care out there everyone …The police are investigating the Rugby club bonfire. What does that tell you, don’t light fires near the motorway and we can all carry on as normal? Its also been mooted about recently about increasing the motorway speed limit to 80 mph.
they will have trouble investigating the bonfire at the rugby club as there wasn’t one only a firework display
I wouldn’t doubt you. I’m just repeating what our news said.
i heard it too they seem to be getting a few facts wrong.
I agree with much of what you say Franky but I would have thought that the emergency services would have better things to do with their time than play with semantics. Collisions they may be but that doesn’t mean some of them may well not be accidents too. Not to be accidents suggests that they were caused deliberately. Very few would come into that category but many would come into the realm of a simple ,mistake, like losing a cyclist momentarily in a blind spot, or an unavoidable occurrence like a bee or a wasp entering a window or a sudden sneeze. I realise that this type of foolishness comes not from the blokes like you but those more senior and as such does not matter too much, but perhaps a lot more time than is justified is used simply finding someone to blame. Finding a cause, OK, but the need to blame at any cost in time and effort is wasteful.
A little further up a poster cited the limiter as preventing a driver from accelerating out of a jack-knife. A jack-knife is caused when the rear wheels on the unit start to slide sideways and the momentum of the trailer pushes it further out of line. Accelerating would only increase that tendency and, until they produce tractors with front wheel drive (plainly silly of course without a lot more weight than an engine over them), the only chance to avoid a drive wheel slide as it starts is to leave the pedals well alone and steer out of it. This is possible but highly unlikely given the speed that this normally happens compared to normal reaction time.
On the subject of the Samway driver who should have been in the fatal cab. Many years ago I worked with a friend who refused to drive a load of asphalt blocks to Scotland on a Friday night. Another colleague who was much older with no kids left at home volunteered for the overtime and duly left with the load. At Chester le Street for a reason no-one ever devined he crossed over the centre and flipped. His remains were spread over a large area of the road with the blocks and the fibreglass of the Mk 1 Atki cab. My friend suffered guilt from that for many years after and, for all I know for we lost contact years later, carried it to his own grave. I would urge anyone who knows this driver to persuade him away from any such feelings.
Mike-C:
wildfire:
Mike-C:
bjd:
lets all stop think and learn a lesson from this im sure the anatomy of this accident will throw loads of factors but i would bet speed will be a factor less speed more hast take care out there everyone …The police are investigating the Rugby club bonfire. What does that tell you, don’t light fires near the motorway and we can all carry on as normal? Its also been mooted about recently about increasing the motorway speed limit to 80 mph.
they will have trouble investigating the bonfire at the rugby club as there wasn’t one only a firework display
I wouldn’t doubt you. I’m just repeating what our news said.
Taunton RFC are holding a Firework Extravaganza on Friday, 4th November 2011.
Gates open at 7.00pm with a sparkler zone, a wide assortment of tasty hot food, and our bars serving refreshments.
It will be a dazzling night of family fun!
Entrance is just £15 for a family ticket (2 adults 2 child) or Adults £5 Child £3.50 (under 16 years). To book in advance, or for more information, please call the club reception on 01823 336363.
This event is very kindly sponsored by Alan and Mary Smith, Landlord and Landlady of the very popular Racehorse Public House.
Date: Friday, November 04, 2011