A driver on the firm I worked for a few years ago, returning off night trunk in the early hours of the morning on the M1, there’s a car parked on the hard shoulder with the bonnet up, no sign of the driver, when he was only a few yards from the car the driver appeared at the front of the car looked him strait in the eye and stepped out in front of him, he had no chance to do anything with a lorry on his outside and impossible to stop he hit him sending him under the front wheels what was left was thrown up into the drive axle wheels where it wrapped itself round the wheels a couple of times ripping the mud guard off, (sorry to be so graphic) not a pretty sight I can assure you, as I used to be a fireman. After the inquest It did turn out in the end to be suicide, our driver was in a terrible mess for a long time after, and I don’t think he will ever forget it, we didn’t think he would come back driving but he did get his nerve back for driving. All I ask is don’t make light of these incidents, over the course of year I’ve known three or four drivers this has happened to and it affected them so badly they never came back to driving. Just be aware this does happen.
the maoster:
Bit of a conundrum isn’t it? Op, imo you did the right thing instinctively. That word instinctive is quite important here as it’s in our genetic make up to avoid killing another human being, hence we instinctively swerve, instinctively brake etc to avoid the big taboo. Of course you can be trained not to act instinctively, but why would you want to?
As a bit of an aside I try to ease across when something is on the h/s and as ex recovery believe me it is appreciated when you do. I tend to straddle lane one and two now since some “hero” who’d been sat a foot off my back bumper once saw me moving out as his chance to undertake me! No accounting for idiocy eh?
I would like to ask all those who state categorically that they go into lane two when passing something on the h/s if they also move into lane two of a d/c when passing a vehicle in a layby? If not, why not?
Firstly in most cases a lay by is designed as an off road refuge for parking with allowances made in terms of clearance and space to reflect that.Whereas a hard shoulder is just a marked off part of the carriageway designed for emergencies.‘Emergency’ in that case being the foreseeable issue of people needing to work around a broken down vehicle with ( very ) limited amounts of clearance and seperation from passing traffic,compared to that available in a lay by.Having said that there are certain types of lay by where moving into lane 2 is also a good idea just as in the case of parked vehicles on motorway hard shoulders.
It’s probably more a case of common sense not training in resisting making what could be the admittedly very unpleasant issue of being involved in a suicide,much worse by causing a potentially more serious situation in the form of a major traffic accident by trying to avoid the inevitable.
I nearly hit the exact same fella today! He was with a silver Focus on the hard shoulder, as I approached and was no more than a truck length away in lane 1, he walked from the passenger side round to the drivers and crouched down next to the front wheel, almost as if he had a puncture. The focus was right on the white line so he was pretty much sat in the carriageway. Suddenly he seemed to trip over his feet and fell backwards into the lane, ending up on his backside in the middle of lane 1! All the time he was staring straight at me.
I didn’t even check my mirrors, I pulled the wheel hard over and managed to just miss him. I also slammed on my brakes and ended up doing 25 MPH in the middle lane, much to everyone’s annoyance behind me. I was fortunate as I was pulling an empty container skelly trailer, I’f i’d been fully loaded I would have either killed him or lost control and crashed.
My blood ran cold as I thought about what happened, I plodded along, pulled into Knutsford services and rang 101, who put me onto the police. I assumed the guy must have been drunk, but after seeing this thread I can only assume he was deliberately trying to kill himself.
I’m still shaken up about it now. I haven’t heard about any accidents on that stretch of the M6 today, I can only assume the police picked him up or he decided to go somewhere else.
got shivers reading this, I’m still a bit head ■■■■■■ to having a beer in stockyard. So glad it wasn’t only me sorry but it has eased the head
I was running at 41 tonne with steel sleepers on he’d of been in pieces had I not swerved. Feel unprofessional to for even doing such a manoeuvre but now I’ve had time to think I was dam lucky. Traffic was too bad to move over and a truck on the over take I always try to move over in these situations it seems he was getting himself ready to die.
What time was it? Mine was about 1048 pulled into knutsford at 1053 and parked on the yellow boxes legs wobbling no ■■■■■■ was making me move! Office gave me full support tonight to, no harm done managed to save his life etc more mine to save IMO and happy I did what I did.
Hope it never happens to anyone!
Just checked my phone and I rang 101 at 10.59, so not long after you. I spoke to the Cheshire police operator and gave the details, as she tapped the info into her computer her voice suddenly changed and became more urgent, maybe she saw your earlier call on the screen and realised it was something serious?
I’m still a bit shaken up but im ■■■■■■■ annoyed. I feel sorry for the guy if he feels he needs to end his life but why drag me into it? I don’t want to kill anybody. He must have done it to more helpless truckers other than just us two.
When I got back to the yard it was almost treated as a bit of a joke by the other drivers. Maybe a bit of a “close shave bravado”- making light of a bad situation to try and deal with it better. Office staff didn’t seem to care, but I’ve at least reported it so it doesn’t come back to bite me later on.
IMHO - this bloke is trying to claim on a life insurance policy. I.e top himself but make it look accidental. What a prize ■■■■■■■
Why force his issues into the life of some completely innocent driver and possibly ruin theirs.
Reading the above I think you both did brilliantly and I can only hope to have the same skill and awareness you both did at the time if the worst happened to me.
The life insurance thing could be possible, the way he fell over backwards looked very staged to me, plus he was watching me from quite a way off- like he was choosing the right time to get infront of my lorry and not give enough time to take avoiding action.
He’s a massive ■■■■■■■ for doing what he did, but I guess if you’re in the frame of mind where you want to top yourself then you probably aren’t thinking straight anyway.
I can’t stop looking at this topic today! Can’t imagine how u guys feel! This bloke clearly has no idea what damage he could of caused! Anything could of happened!! He could of ruined so many peoples life’s on that motorway and there family’s!! I’m sorry guys can’t imagine how your feeling!
I once had a similar situation, a Somalian refugee escaped from a prison type van (not a very secure one) on the M1 by leaping through the window he had just kicked out, I was doing 60mph ish (faulty limiter ) and the van had just passed me, I saw the bloke hanging out of the window and at first thought it was kids mucking around, so I slowed down expecting to be pelted with eggs or similar, all of a sudden the bloke was cartwheeling down the inside lane of the M1, I had no time to do anything but stamp on the middle pedal, by the time I stopped the bloke was close enough to the front of the lorry that he went into my blind spot, but it never fazed him as he was off and running by the time I got out to have a quiet word with him
I asked the ‘security’ blokes why they never stopped when he started playing up and they told me they were ■■■■ scared of getting a good hiding, after seeing the bloke running away after tumbling down the M1 for a couple of hundred feet at 70mph, they had a point I suppose
Glad you’re ok. First class bit of driving there fella.
The bloke is probably oblivious to how close he came to death.
Having worked on recovery you really do see people who I swear have no idea how much danger they are in. Kids roaming about busy A roads and Motorways.
I’ve just got off the phone to Cheshire police, the police were sent and the guy had gone! Now I’m more ■■■■■■■ ■■■■■■ off, according to the 11.01 report that I’m guessing is the poster in the thread they had no other reports about him. Their main concern was the fact he was staggering, and without any more info or a reg he’ll go unpunished which really boils my ■■■■■■■ ■■■■!!! I rang for the hope he’d at least been picked up but no and they suspected him being drunk due to description not necessarily a suicide attempt.
I’m actually speechless now, doubt I’ll sleep much tonight to.
Well done to you both - none of us KNOW what we would do in those circumstances, but you both saved a life today. I hope THAT is what you can remember when you get the shivers. Respect to you…
Ollie / Lanky. Thank you both for the calls. Whilst I can’t discuss particular aspects of this incident, WE (The police generally) do appreciate your calls. It always amazes me about the number of people who see an incident, but for many reasons don’t call 999.
It must be a real low point in your life to want to step out in front of a truck. We all have self preservation inbuilt into our psyche so to ignore it must take some doing.
I think most peoples natural reaction would be to swerve - even if there is other traffic to your offside. Luckily, most of us will never have to face the test.
I always move over when I see vehicles on the HS, even if it’s only a few feet. Almost always, any vehicle following behind me doesn’t despite me signaling and making the reasons clear for me doing so.
Hopefully this thread will encourage others to start giving stationary vehicles a bit more thought when passing.
Traffic Rat, am I right in thinking this is your area?
I’ve also had a similar fright. At the time of the A2/M25 Darenth interchange upgrade I was heading north for the tunnel off the end of the M 25 in the road works. The lorry lane was next to the barrier/railings and I was blocked into this lane by traffic in the lane to my offside. It was dark and fairly busy. Traffic was moving at whatever the set limit was at the time , so either 40 or 50mph. A road worker in hi-vi was walking towards me keeping close to the barrier, when possibly less than 50 yards in front of me he slipped and fell over. Luckily for him he didn’t go through the barrier onto whatever was some thirty? feet below and also somehow I missed him. I suppose he had the bigger fright.
You have 3 choices to make in a split second, 1 swerve right and possibly take out an innocent motorist, swerve left and probably injure or kill yourself when you go down the embankment or hold your line and brake.
Instinct will have ya swerving with a possible catastrophic out come, but holding ya line and braking will see you ok, it’s called self preservation.
If it’s you ■■■■ up, like not seeing the stationary traffic in front of you, well that’s different, then it’s acceptable to swerve left and take ya truck down the embankment so you don’t take out an innocent motorist when you hold your line and plough into the back of the queue!
It was years ago but…
I drowe down the road and some prick on a car jump out on my way.
Of course. I tried to avoid collision and swerve cross the pavement and hit the fence.
Conclusion.
Guy said to the police that he is just a witness and seen me losing control over my vehicle.
I got fined and lost my licence for 6 months!
Will I swerve again? No!
Should you? No!
Why?
Who ever would be driving next to you will try to swerve aswell or will be pushed by your trailer
in to oncoming traffic and that could cost many and many lives.
