Was held up with two separate ones yesterday & to see one a day isn’t uncommon, but my record was to see 4 separate ones in a day, 1x m1 2x m25 1x m20
Can anyone top that?
I can’t top that but do see it on an all too regular basis. What always occurs to be is how do these flip flop firms get insured to do UK work and how much does it cost [emoji44]
I’ve driven a lot of LHD here in the UK I can tell you that it’s easily done (pulling out in someone) purely due to blind spots and the majority of cars that find it somehow soothing to sit in them…
Don’t get me wrong I’ve not had a bump in one but I can see it from their perspective
Some proportion of blame has to fall on the car drivers not being made aware of the blindspot or just plain ignorance to the hazards around them.
Always taught my wife and kids about left hookers (taught me lads about all hookers, left right, ■■■■■■■■■■■ etc), and how to watch out for foreign plated vehicles as chances are they are sitting on the wrong side and sometimes they may not have a clue where they are going. This advice has also be extended to include Stobart vehicles.
To be fair half the time I’m in the wrong lane without a clue just winging it so my heart goes out to foreign drivers navigating our sceptic isle. That’s providing they aren’t driving like ■■■■■ watching a laptop.
The only reason it’s so common in the UK is because we have some of the thickest car drivers in Europe who think nothing about sitting in blind spots of trucks. 99% of people who get side swiped have only themselves to blame. It’s not a coincidence that most of the cars involved are 1 litre crap boxes. On most free flowing motorways during the day the safest place for cars to be is in lane 3 going with the flow of traffic, regardless whether it’s 70 mph or 90 mph. All spread out, completely relaxed and no more than a few seconds spent passing a truck.
The idiots who drive a car at 55-60 mph and are constantly surrounded by trucks are brain dead morons. I don’t understand the mentality of all the tight arses who can’t afford the fuel for their car risking their lifes for the sake of a few quid.
I came across one accident Thursday on the anti-clockwise M25 Near J26, the penny didn’t drop why the skid marks where so wide, until I passed the scene and saw a mondeo broadside of an ee truck and the car driver strapped to a stretcher
maurice:
The only reason it’s so common in the UK is because we have some of the thickest car drivers in Europe who think nothing about sitting in blind spots of trucks. 99% of people who get side swiped have only themselves to blame. It’s not a coincidence that most of the cars involved are 1 litre crap boxes. On most free flowing motorways during the day the safest place for cars to be is in lane 3 going with the flow of traffic, regardless whether it’s 70 mph or 90 mph. All spread out, completely relaxed and no more than a few seconds spent passing a truck.The idiots who drive a car at 55-60 mph and are constantly surrounded by trucks are brain dead morons. I don’t understand the mentality of all the tight arses who can’t afford the fuel for their car risking their lifes for the sake of a few quid.
100% the right answer only in the UK and Ireland do people get on the motorways and think they are out for a Sunday drive, on the continent the cars get on the motorway and straight up to the speed limit. Not like the idiots here who sit up the backside of lorries and even worse are the clowns who refuse to leave the middle lane come up behind a lorry reduce their speed and sit there until the lorry pulls back in, in most cases preventing another lorry overtaking, the majority of congestion in the UK is self inflicted by a lack of knowledge on how to use the motorways.
In defence of the LH drivers on the continent when you indicate to overtake on a 3 lane motorway the cars will generally move over for you, unlike here where the indicator can be illuminating the inside of the car and still they sit there
Left Hand Driver sign is always missing…theres your problem.
Jokes aside, i think a lot are caused by inexperienced drivers, got their licence by what ever means possible, and headed over the blighty as a way to become rich…well a lot richer than in their own countries. The other reasons are not using their mirrors constantly as a professional driver should, i treat it as a big responsibility, a killing machine even, and it needs lots of concentration, no matter how experienced…i have driven LHD and RHD both here and abroad, and LHD certainly needs more concentration, but when foreign driver come here, after being used to LHD, then drive a RHD, its possible to get the sides wrong with regards to where to look, and it only takes seconds for something to happen…but there are way too many foreign vehicles having accidents, and many are very serious with a loss of life, or serious injury…but i feel that not much can be done about it.
I assume it’s a problem elsewhere, judging by the posters about truck blind spots in Belgium, it also happened in front of me in Italy the truck was overtaking a car though and then I assumed the car sped up as they do so the truck went to pull back in behind it and in front of me, but he did it too early or the car slowed down again and the truck clipped it and round it went.
Of course being Italy the following traffic didn’t stop just turned the hard shoulder into an extra land leaving me, the other truck and the car stranded in lane 1. 
Now although some car drivers seem to have an annoying ability to sit in the worst possible place when beside a LHD truck, it does come down to the truck driver to know what is or might be there. We’re supposed to be the professionals and we are likely to know more about the problem of visibility than a car driver.
Found this on the ROSPA website
In 2016, 267 people were killed, 1,017 seriously injured and 6,212 slightly injured in road accidents involving HGVs that were reported to the police in Britain. Of these, 9 people were killed, 37 seriously injured and 381 slightly injured in road accidents involving foreign registered left hand drive HGVs.
Therefore, 3.3% of deaths in accidents with HGVs (and just under 1% of all road deaths) involve foreign registered left hand drive HGVS, as do 3.6% of serious injuries and 6.1% of slight injuries.
I don’t know the exact figures for LHD trucks in the UK each year, but apparently there are about 4000 trucks using Dover each day, and there are the one that use Eurotunnel and the other UK ports. Over 80% of the trucks using UK ports are foreign registered, so that give some idea of how many LHD trucks are on the UK motorways each day, especially in Kent and the South East.
I had one about 6 months ago on the M42/M6 merge.
I’m in lane 3 for M6 south and he’s in lane one for the M42, he decides he wants the M6 last minute and turns right hard skipping lane 2 completely and straight into the side of me in lane 3.
The bloke (BG) didn’t speak a word of english so couldn’t get any details until the police came and they said these EE lot are causing mayhem most days for them.
muckles:
I assume it’s a problem elsewhere, judging by the posters about truck blind spots in Belgium, it also happened in front of me in Italy the truck was overtaking a car though and then I assumed the car sped up as they do so the truck went to pull back in behind it and in front of me, but he did it too early or the car slowed down again and the truck clipped it and round it went.Of course being Italy the following traffic didn’t stop just turned the hard shoulder into an extra land leaving me, the other truck and the car stranded in lane 1.
Now although some car drivers seem to have an annoying ability to sit in the worst possible place when beside a LHD truck, it does come down to the truck driver to know what is or might be there. We’re supposed to be the professionals and we are likely to know more about the problem of visibility than a car driver.
Found this on the ROSPA website
Advice and information - RoSPAIn 2016, 267 people were killed, 1,017 seriously injured and 6,212 slightly injured in road accidents involving HGVs that were reported to the police in Britain. Of these, 9 people were killed, 37 seriously injured and 381 slightly injured in road accidents involving foreign registered left hand drive HGVs.
Therefore, 3.3% of deaths in accidents with HGVs (and just under 1% of all road deaths) involve foreign registered left hand drive HGVS, as do 3.6% of serious injuries and 6.1% of slight injuries.
I don’t know the exact figures for LHD trucks in the UK each year, but apparently there are about 4000 trucks using Dover each day, and there are the one that use Eurotunnel and the other UK ports. Over 80% of the trucks using UK ports are foreign registered, so that give some idea of how many LHD trucks are on the UK motorways each day, especially in Kent and the South East.
We once sat and tried to roughly calculate this, the board said that 4600 trucks had USED the port the day before, it didn’t stipulate wether coming in or going out, just USED, so we halved that for coming in and as a guess we used 85% being foreign = 1955 x 5 ( less at weekends ) 9775 Monday to Friday , that was a guess, Ramsgate was open at the time, plus your other ports, there must be in excess of 12,000 foreign trucks in the uk at any one time.
I live near Dover so see a lot of cars v lhd vehicles locally.
Most happen on roundabouts and the vast majority of the cars involved are driven by locals and usually, but not always , women .
Seems that the car drivers have no perception of blind spots on trucks no matter whether LH or RH drive .
Having driven both LH and RH drive in this country and in Europe I have found that the layout of many of our junctions and roundabouts is very very poor and gives virtually nil visibility if in LHD vehicles especially commercial vehicles.
The problem of RHD in Europe is nowhere near as bad .
Lane discipline on the continent is much better except in a few cities and the cases of slow speed cars or vans mixing in with HGVs on motorways is very low .
Sent from my SM-G903F using Tapatalk
Grumpy Dad:
muckles:
I assume it’s a problem elsewhere, judging by the posters about truck blind spots in Belgium, it also happened in front of me in Italy the truck was overtaking a car though and then I assumed the car sped up as they do so the truck went to pull back in behind it and in front of me, but he did it too early or the car slowed down again and the truck clipped it and round it went.Of course being Italy the following traffic didn’t stop just turned the hard shoulder into an extra land leaving me, the other truck and the car stranded in lane 1.
Now although some car drivers seem to have an annoying ability to sit in the worst possible place when beside a LHD truck, it does come down to the truck driver to know what is or might be there. We’re supposed to be the professionals and we are likely to know more about the problem of visibility than a car driver.
Found this on the ROSPA website
Advice and information - RoSPAIn 2016, 267 people were killed, 1,017 seriously injured and 6,212 slightly injured in road accidents involving HGVs that were reported to the police in Britain. Of these, 9 people were killed, 37 seriously injured and 381 slightly injured in road accidents involving foreign registered left hand drive HGVs.
Therefore, 3.3% of deaths in accidents with HGVs (and just under 1% of all road deaths) involve foreign registered left hand drive HGVS, as do 3.6% of serious injuries and 6.1% of slight injuries.
I don’t know the exact figures for LHD trucks in the UK each year, but apparently there are about 4000 trucks using Dover each day, and there are the one that use Eurotunnel and the other UK ports. Over 80% of the trucks using UK ports are foreign registered, so that give some idea of how many LHD trucks are on the UK motorways each day, especially in Kent and the South East.
We once sat and tried to roughly calculate this, the board said that 4600 trucks had USED the port the day before, it didn’t stipulate wether coming in or going out, just USED, so we halved that for coming in and as a guess we used 85% being foreign = 1955 x 5 ( less at weekends ) 9775 Monday to Friday , that was a guess, Ramsgate was open at the time, plus your other ports, there must be in excess of 12,000 foreign trucks in the uk at any one time.
Ball park figures
300,000 lgv UK reg.
12,000 lgv visiting.
So 2.5% of lgvs are visitors.
They are in 3% of accidents.
So are they more dangerous?
We haven’t taken mileage into account. Will a foreign truck do more distance than an average UK truck. Remember our domestic fleet is both artics and local deliveries.
Given the estimations and assumptions we’re making I can’t see any sore thumbs here.
Sent from my GT-S7275R using Tapatalk
Franglais:
Grumpy Dad:
muckles:
I assume it’s a problem elsewhere, judging by the posters about truck blind spots in Belgium, it also happened in front of me in Italy the truck was overtaking a car though and then I assumed the car sped up as they do so the truck went to pull back in behind it and in front of me, but he did it too early or the car slowed down again and the truck clipped it and round it went.Of course being Italy the following traffic didn’t stop just turned the hard shoulder into an extra land leaving me, the other truck and the car stranded in lane 1.
Now although some car drivers seem to have an annoying ability to sit in the worst possible place when beside a LHD truck, it does come down to the truck driver to know what is or might be there. We’re supposed to be the professionals and we are likely to know more about the problem of visibility than a car driver.
Found this on the ROSPA website
Advice and information - RoSPAIn 2016, 267 people were killed, 1,017 seriously injured and 6,212 slightly injured in road accidents involving HGVs that were reported to the police in Britain. Of these, 9 people were killed, 37 seriously injured and 381 slightly injured in road accidents involving foreign registered left hand drive HGVs.
Therefore, 3.3% of deaths in accidents with HGVs (and just under 1% of all road deaths) involve foreign registered left hand drive HGVS, as do 3.6% of serious injuries and 6.1% of slight injuries.
I don’t know the exact figures for LHD trucks in the UK each year, but apparently there are about 4000 trucks using Dover each day, and there are the one that use Eurotunnel and the other UK ports. Over 80% of the trucks using UK ports are foreign registered, so that give some idea of how many LHD trucks are on the UK motorways each day, especially in Kent and the South East.
We once sat and tried to roughly calculate this, the board said that 4600 trucks had USED the port the day before, it didn’t stipulate wether coming in or going out, just USED, so we halved that for coming in and as a guess we used 85% being foreign = 1955 x 5 ( less at weekends ) 9775 Monday to Friday , that was a guess, Ramsgate was open at the time, plus your other ports, there must be in excess of 12,000 foreign trucks in the uk at any one time.
Ball park figures
300,000 lgv UK reg.
12,000 lgv visiting.
So 2.5% of lgvs are visitors.
They are in 3% of accidents.
So are they more dangerous?
We haven’t taken mileage into account. Will a foreign truck do more distance than an average UK truck. Remember our domestic fleet is both artics and local deliveries.
Given the estimations and assumptions we’re making I can’t see any sore thumbs here.Sent from my GT-S7275R using Tapatalk
What about EE drivers in UK registered trucks and not just blaming European LHD
nomiS36:
I can’t top that but do see it on an all too regular basis. What always occurs to be is how do these flip flop firms get insured to do UK work and how much does it cost [emoji44]
Flip flop here. I can get full european cover at very reasonable rates, even covers me for the good old UK funnily enough.
The cause of these collisions is the ■■■■■ standard of UK drivers…
AndrewG:
nomiS36:
I can’t top that but do see it on an all too regular basis. What always occurs to be is how do these flip flop firms get insured to do UK work and how much does it cost [emoji44]Flip flop here. I can get full european cover at very reasonable rates, even covers me for the good old UK funnily enough.
The cause of these collisions is the [zb] standard of UK drivers…
It’s lack of common sense, arrogance and a sheer lack of understanding of the Highway Code, hazard perception is non existent for the majority of drivers, lane discipline is a farce.
Prime example is joining a motorway or motorway chicken, where in the Highway Code does it state that a truck driver on the motorway MUST slow down and give way to adjoining traffic, this goes for truck drivers too not just cars, just because they drive a truck they assume we are all one big family, not if they come flying up the slip expecting everything to clear a path for them, and worst of it is, when you’ve slowed down or moved over to let them out because they aren’t easing off they sit in the first lane at 53mph giving it their all.
Grips my ■■■■
To be honest in this day and age it shouldn’t be an issue.
We have a hire rigid in at the moment I went out in the other night. It has a monitor and reversing camera, it also has a camera on the nearside that constantly shows the side view down the truck when the ignition is on. You would never not know there is a vehicle in the indicators spot on that side.
These types of systems could and can have cameras on both sides, could even be linked to swap left or right camera with the use of the indicators. Same as it swaps to rear view when selecting reverse.
Side sensors that detect something at the side of them and give an audible alarm and visual alarm like out front and corner sensors system fitted.
Newer vehicles even have industry spot warnings with sensors that usually illuminate a warning triangle in the wing mirrors.
Then there is the system we are supposed to be getting fitted at some point for the next level of Fors. A 360 degree View around the truck camera system.
It’s about time systems like that were made compulsory and the companies that supply and fit external systems were regulated as to cost to make it cost effective for all company sizes.
Very simple solutions to a lot of problems but no legislation to make it happen, they could insist all new trucks have to be fitted with these safety systems for a start at least.
That would cut down on a lot of these types of accidents.
^^^^^ Absolute ■■■■■■■■.
We don’t need more electronic gadgets, CCTV OR camera’s. We are spied on enough, we need drivers that can stay off their phones and focus their miniscule brains on driving a lorry properly.
simcor:
To be honest in this day and age it shouldn’t be an issue.We have a hire rigid in at the moment I went out in the other night. It has a monitor and reversing camera, it also has a camera on the nearside that constantly shows the side view down the truck when the ignition is on. You would never not know there is a vehicle in the indicators spot on that side.
These types of systems could and can have cameras on both sides, could even be linked to swap left or right camera with the use of the indicators. Same as it swaps to rear view when selecting reverse.
Side sensors that detect something at the side of them and give an audible alarm and visual alarm like out front and corner sensors system fitted.
Newer vehicles even have industry spot warnings with sensors that usually illuminate a warning triangle in the wing mirrors.
Then there is the system we are supposed to be getting fitted at some point for the next level of Fors. A 360 degree View around the truck camera system.
It’s about time systems like that were made compulsory and the companies that supply and fit external systems were regulated as to cost to make it cost effective for all company sizes.
Very simple solutions to a lot of problems but no legislation to make it happen, they could insist all new trucks have to be fitted with these safety systems for a start at least.
That would cut down on a lot of these types of accidents.
You start installing ■■■■ like that, drivers become attendants relying on technology, I’ve got a 16 plate DAF XF, it has Lane Departure, Adaptable Cruise Control and AEBS, yes I have them but I’m not reliant on them, drivers should be aware of their surroundings, looking ahead, thinking for other drivers, but they don’t they are complacent, foot on dash, phone to their ear, FaceTime, Facebook, selfies.
^^^ spot on Beaver and Grumpy Dad, and as mentioned above by the usual lads the bloke in the lorry is supposed to be the professional, and doing your best not to obliterate errant cars driven by non-professionals is part of the lorry driver’s world, always has been and always will be.
I would also dispute the idea of a blind spots, with modern mirrors there are no real blind spots on motorway type roads, assuming that is that the mirrors are correctly set…and many arn’t by a long chalk…and the mirrors and windows kept clean as best one can.
The only time a side swipe is more understandable is those rare occasions when a lorry on the inside lane goes for the middle lane at exactly the same moment as car or van moving over to the same spot from the outside lane