on my 2nd week at my new job i think i have blown my chances . i was on a dual carrageway in the out side lane and needed to turn left 500 yards ahead , i had just came off a roundabout and was doing about 20mph , i indicated left looked in all my mirors and started to move over , only problem was a car was in my blind spot and i clipped his back end and spun him in front of the truck (like on the youtube vid with the car and lorry) . he was ok no cuts or bruises he was toltally fine, but i bent the front wing front door and rear door of the car and also dented the bottom bumper of the truck. i rang the police and got them out but before they came i got the driver of the car to move onto the side and i also moved over onto the gravel/grass as much as i could, and to make things worse a blue tipper truck hit my wing mirror which then swung it round smashing the front winscreen ffs! i am now waiting to see what happens on monday
has anybody here had any bad experiences. thing that has fustrated me the most is that this was something that really should not have happened , i have been in some right crap tight/borderline impossible places in the last 2 weeks and been alright not stressing or hitting anything and something like this has happened on a straight road going so slow aswell
Don’t know how long you’ve had your licence but I was taught to close off the nearside when passing the exit before mine. Most guvnors will give you a chance but you seem to have made a basic error that needs to be corrected. You might find it easier to keep to the left lane at all times on roundabouts.
i know thats why its fustrated me because its a basic error , only reason i was in the 2nd lane was because the traffic was blocking the roundabout on the first so i went in the 2nd to avoid more tailback.
Sorry to hear that, the main thing is no one was hurt and accidents will happen. Dont let it dent your self confidence too much mate its only metal at the end of the day if your boss is a good bloke he will know it was just a mistake and that you wont do it again. Good luck
depends whether the person you sit down and talk too has been there and done it and knows the score[ex driver] or some suit who hasnt,i just hope its the former and your alright
44 Tonne Ton:
Don’t know how long you’ve had your licence but I was taught to close off the nearside when passing the exit before mine. Most guvnors will give you a chance but you seem to have made a basic error that needs to be corrected. You might find it easier to keep to the left lane at all times on roundabouts.
That’s not really good avice. Have a bump whilst doing that (and its more likely) & when fault is looked at, you weren’t even driving in accordance with the highway code.
This issue has previously been discussed at some length on TN.
Edit: for clarity, I’m refering to when taking exits past 12.00
I hope you don’t lose your job over it, I think most drivers have had minor bumps now and then I know I had a minor in my first couple of weeks of my first fulltime job. Don’t dwell on it to much and learn from it and put it behind you.
al_P:
i have been in some right crap tight/borderline impossible places in the last 2 weeks and been alright not stressing or hitting anything and something like this has happened on a straight road going so slow aswell
Ain’t that the way it always happens, you get in out of the worst drops you can imagine and then you have a bump doing an easy manouvre.
44 Tonne Ton:
Don’t know how long you’ve had your licence but I was taught to close off the nearside when passing the exit before mine. Most guvnors will give you a chance but you seem to have made a basic error that needs to be corrected. You might find it easier to keep to the left lane at all times on roundabouts.
Seen that sort of thing happen on A40 Wolvercote Roundabout. Anyone who knows it will agree the lane markings appear to be setting up an accident…
Bit late for this incident but you really need to concentrate to begin with, it comes naturally eventually. When you are driving along, keep an eye on the red, yellow, green car, out of sight suddenly, ask yourself where has it gone?
2 lane motorway, white car overtaking, slow vehicle in front, not seen white car yet, check again, check till it has either returned behind you, or overtaken you…
I am not being clever here, just allowing for idiots more, eventually you learn to accommodate them all
There is no such thing as a blindspot, there are places that you cannot see from the driver’s seat, but if you look at what’s going in and coming out of these areas you will not get caught out, something like this is bound to knock your confidence, but take the ‘glass half full’ view, you will never do it again now you know how easy it is to get it wrong
When you drive a right hand drive on the continent, you spend more time looking in the mirror that looks down the side of the cab than you do looking out of the windscreen at first, just in case some sneaky little Frenchman has lined himself up with your wheelnuts ready to get a big Audi sign down his doors, it’s the same with a left ■■■■■■ in Britain, after a while it becomes second nature and you can change lanes without waiting for the bang
Commiserations on the accident, chin up and put it down to experience.
May have already been said but when moving form lane two to lane one, if you aren’t 100% sure there’s nothing there, just move over very slowly in portions whilst indicating then if there’s something there, they will have time to take avoiding action or you will clock them in the curb mirror and have time to abort.
Wheel Nut:
Bit late for this incident but you really need to concentrate to begin with, it comes naturally eventually. When you are driving along, keep an eye on the red, yellow, green car, out of sight suddenly, ask yourself where has it gone?
2 lane motorway, white car overtaking, slow vehicle in front, not seen white car yet, check again, check till it has either returned behind you, or overtaken you…
I am not being clever here, just allowing for idiots more, eventually you learn to accommodate them all
Very good advice, Malc, especially when driving a left ■■■■■■ in Anglia, or indeed one of those wacky RHD vehicles ower t’water (…er basically what newmercman has already said if I’d read his post )
LHD on Coventry by-pass v. slow traffic - stop start, had to get over to the right before roundabout. Looked in mirror, Corona truck slowed down & flashed me out. Lovely…whacked a lady in a volvo on my blind spot! Many years ago.
Another thing to watch out for are people pulling trailers behind their cars, little fold up caravans and the like, had a couple of close escapes with them things, you see the car go past and start moving over, check the kerb mirror and WHOA, swing back in to your lane quickly and hope nobody notices
Something I do when letting someone in a lorry out on his/her (see I can do PC ) blindside is, when they have a car in their blindspot, I don’t hang back straight away, I’ll get my unit alongside their trailer until the car has past them, then I drop back and let them out, that way if they haven’t seen the car they won’t sideswipe it right in front of you, I never used to think about it until a LHD nutted a car just before Toddington Services once, it was right in front of me and the car got a major tank slapper on, they went across all three lanes, up the bank then back out into the central reservation, I was really lucky not to hit them, since then I make sure it can’t happen again
thought i would update you : i lost my job as i was still on my assesment time but i think there where other reasons to do with the company aswell . i was a bit gutted at first but tbh it was not the best job in the world anyway as some of the units should not have been on the road at all . but ill say no more and just keep looking for another job
As a few have said, CONCENTRATION…and take yr time…in an artic u constantly need to be aware of your surroundings…front,rear,offside and especially the nearside when in towns…there will always be some ■■■■ on a pushbike/moped that u may not see till he’s laid out under yr axles and learn to read the situation ahead long before u get there and to be able to change it so that it works in yr favour. A good’un is if yr in a town approaching a roundabout and the roads are busy, if it’s d/c,sit yrself between the 2 lanes…bugger all the horn blowing behind…u need that room more than them so take it…i do!! You’d be surprised how many actually dont and make it harder for themselves. Anyway,it will come eventually and u may end up like me…can reverse an artic ok (in the dark!!) but jump straight into the car to back it outta the space…pathetic…until i remember where i am Newmercman reminded me of a near miss i had years ago when i hadn’t been on the road long…trying to impress the boss with quicker journey times etc etc. I was coming down the M4 one night and was rapidly catching the truck in front…checked my mirror,box rigid coming past me so i let him go,stuck the old indicator on and began to pull out…didn’t realise till the very last second that it was a W&D without the bloody box on the back,just an empty trailer…couldn’t see the marker lights cuz they were halfway under the chassis. I wondered wot all the bloody rattleing was, obviously not his ‘under-slung tail-lift’ but empty bloody trailer!! You may see this as ‘simple advice’ or ‘teaching granny etc’…i am by no means the greatest driver on the roads, after all my experience going through the weights and ending up on class 1’s for the last 3 years, i consider myself a relative ‘newbie’ Sure, i had 21 years on 17/18 tonners so i can put a rigid anywhere…it’s a doddle…but artics need respect and a lot more room!! Good luck anyway
I hate rigids. The odd time i have to drive one of those ropy underpowered DAF’s they feel like they are going to fall over. They turn like a barge and the rear overhang seems to have a mind of it’s own . Horrible things.
. i was on a dual carrageway in the out side lane and needed to turn left 500 yards ahead , i had just came off a roundabout and was doing about 20mph , i indicated left looked in all my mirors and started to move over , only problem was a car was in my blind spot and i clipped his back end and spun him in front of the truck (like on the youtube vid with the car and lorry) 
