A lot of parallels between this and the bus on the M5 with mechanical problems a truck went into the back of.
Those BBC headlines make it out that he shouldn’t have been on cruise control. I hope the truck driver has a good lawyer and puts judge & jury (?) straight on that one and 6.6 seconds before he braked, I’d be getting my legal team to double check those calculations too.
Two previous fatals involving minibuses that I can recall both laid majority of blame on minibus drivers both of whom went to jail.
- The faulty minibus that broke down on the A42 in the fog (circa 1999) & got rammed by a truck.
- Then there was the female minibus driver on the A1 at Thornhaugh, passing the garage, she was clipped by a truck coming out of the services, pulled up partly in lane 1 a bit further up, another truck came trundling along, 6.6 seconds, he must have had 20 mins! hit the minibus, fatals & she served porridge.
PS. All lane running on the M1 soon j28-j31 - any one fancy breaking down in that or meeting a 5.5mph minibus?
TTX boy:
5.5 MPH In lane 1,why didn’t he pull over on to the hard shoulder ■■?
Depends on how long he had been driving at 5.5 mph. He was obviously negligent by proceeding to take the coach onto the motorway despite there being an obvious serious fault, however the truck driver should also have seen and avoided the coach as others did.
Cruise control is fine, but does take away the natural reaction of lifting off the throttle when you see a situation you aren’t sure of.
In this instance it seems that if you believe the reports the truck driver neither braked or swerved to avoid the minibus until it was too late.
Which means he just wasn’t paying attention, something which is all too prevalent in driving standards today.
Unless he was behind another truck he would have seen the minibus way ahead and should have been able to avoid it
Even if it was ahead of him and slowed suddenly he should have hit the brakes.
Yet it seems he didn’t.
Both are at fault, unless the truck driver had limited visibility and even that will be a difficult one to argue as a professional driver should not put himself in that position.
Jamieg:
TTX boy:
5.5 MPH In lane 1,why didn’t he pull over on to the hard shoulder ■■?Depends on how long he had been driving at 5.5 mph. He was obviously negligent by proceeding to take the coach onto the motorway despite there being an obvious serious fault, however the truck driver should also have seen and avoided the coach as others did.
Cruise control is fine, but does take away the natural reaction of lifting off the throttle when you see a situation you aren’t sure of.
In this instance it seems that if you believe the reports the truck driver neither braked or swerved to avoid the minibus until it was too late.
Which means he just wasn’t paying attention, something which is all too prevalent in driving standards today.
Unless he was behind another truck he would have seen the minibus way ahead and should have been able to avoid it
Even if it was ahead of him and slowed suddenly he should have hit the brakes.
Yet it seems he didn’t.
Both are at fault, unless the truck driver had limited visibility and even that will be a difficult one to argue as a professional driver should not put himself in that position.
+1
cliffystephens:
Just as well have been stationary…
The fact is if something is established as being stationary ahead on a motorway such as in the case of mechanical failure and you run into it that’s a case of driving too fast to stop in the distance you can see to be clear ahead.Let alone allegedly not seeming to have even braked at all.The idea that running into a stationary vehicle isn’t a case of dangerous driving is a mindset which too many drivers seem to be under the illusion of. 
Carryfast:
cliffystephens:
Just as well have been stationary…The fact is if something is established as being stationary ahead on a motorway such as in the case of mechanical failure and you run into it that’s a case of driving too fast to stop in the distance you can see to be clear ahead.Let alone allegedly not seeming to have even braked at all.The idea that running into a stationary vehicle isn’t a case of dangerous driving is a mindset which too many drivers seem to be under the illusion of.
And if you read the report many other drivers saw the hazard and took avoiding action so why didn’t this driver?
The bus driver would have a full bus licence as he was in a vehicle designed for more than 16 people so he is classed as a professional driver. It’s shocking the amount of car drivers and the seemingly growing number of professional drivers who don’t seem to know how to drive on motorways. At what point would any sane person realise that all these vehicles are going past and sounding their horns while you’re travelling at walking pace and not think to move on to the hard shoulder.
m1cks:
Carryfast:
cliffystephens:
Just as well have been stationary…The fact is if something is established as being stationary ahead on a motorway such as in the case of mechanical failure and you run into it that’s a case of driving too fast to stop in the distance you can see to be clear ahead.Let alone allegedly not seeming to have even braked at all.The idea that running into a stationary vehicle isn’t a case of dangerous driving is a mindset which too many drivers seem to be under the illusion of.
And if you read the report many other drivers saw the hazard and took avoiding action so why didn’t this driver?
The bus driver would have a full bus licence as he was in a vehicle designed for more than 16 people so he is classed as a professional driver. It’s shocking the amount of car drivers and the seemingly growing number of professional drivers who don’t seem to know how to drive on motorways. At what point would any sane person realise that all these vehicles are going past and sounding their horns while you’re travelling at walking pace and not think to move on to the hard shoulder.
Maybe he was moving that way. At 5mph that’s going to take some time.
Unless the coach came to an abrupt halt and the truck driver was checking his mirrors as it did I don’t see how he can avoid a portion if not significant portion of the blame.
Horrible situation all round and a lesson we should all learn from.
Jamieg:
TTX boy:
5.5 MPH In lane 1,why didn’t he pull over on to the hard shoulder ■■?Depends on how long he had been driving at 5.5 mph. He was obviously negligent by proceeding to take the coach onto the motorway despite there being an obvious serious fault, however the truck driver should also have seen and avoided the coach as others did.
Cruise control is fine, but does take away the natural reaction of lifting off the throttle when you see a situation you aren’t sure of.
In this instance it seems that if you believe the reports the truck driver neither braked or swerved to avoid the minibus until it was too late.
Which means he just wasn’t paying attention, something which is all too prevalent in driving standards today.
Unless he was behind another truck he would have seen the minibus way ahead and should have been able to avoid it
Even if it was ahead of him and slowed suddenly he should have hit the brakes.
Yet it seems he didn’t.
Both are at fault, unless the truck driver had limited visibility and even that will be a difficult one to argue as a professional driver should not put himself in that position.
Agree with the above.
From the report in the article, others had taken avoiding action, the fact that from what is reported suggests he didn’t makes Me wonder if his mind was fully on the job at hand.
eddie snax:
Jamieg:
TTX boy:
5.5 MPH In lane 1,why didn’t he pull over on to the hard shoulder ■■?Depends on how long he had been driving at 5.5 mph. He was obviously negligent by proceeding to take the coach onto the motorway despite there being an obvious serious fault, however the truck driver should also have seen and avoided the coach as others did.
Cruise control is fine, but does take away the natural reaction of lifting off the throttle when you see a situation you aren’t sure of.
In this instance it seems that if you believe the reports the truck driver neither braked or swerved to avoid the minibus until it was too late.
Which means he just wasn’t paying attention, something which is all too prevalent in driving standards today.
Unless he was behind another truck he would have seen the minibus way ahead and should have been able to avoid it
Even if it was ahead of him and slowed suddenly he should have hit the brakes.
Yet it seems he didn’t.
Both are at fault, unless the truck driver had limited visibility and even that will be a difficult one to argue as a professional driver should not put himself in that position.
Agree with the above.
From the report in the article, others had taken avoiding action, the fact that from what is reported suggests he didn’t makes Me wonder if his mind was fully on the job at hand.
^^^
The truck driver will almost certainly be convicted. If the prosecution can show other vehicles (and cars would tend to be travelling quicker than the truck so have less time to react) were able to avoid the collision, unless the truck driver can offer a very good reason why he did not see the minibus, he’s stuffed.
It’s wrong to speculate, but it does look as if his attention wasn’t entirely on the job in hand.
Very sad.
I’m sure that I read a report somewhere that the bus driver crossed the chevrons from the Pontefract sliproad back onto the M62. If that’s the case and without going all TNCSI here my guess would be that he (the bus driver) was maybe a little distracted by a number of pretty young females on board, found himself in the inside lane which goes off to Ponty/Cas, panicked, hit the brakes and swerved across at the last minute.
I felt at the time that there was something amiss about the whole accident, it just didn’t seem to fit the normal scenario, and whilst it may be scant consolation to all parties involved my gut feeling is that the lorry driver will be cleared of blame.
the maoster:
I’m sure that I read a report somewhere that the bus driver crossed the chevrons from the Pontefract sliproad back onto the M62. If that’s the case and without going all TNCSI here my guess would be that he (the bus driver) was maybe a little distracted by a number of pretty young females on board, found himself in the inside lane which goes off to Ponty/Cas, panicked, hit the brakes and swerved across at the last minute.I felt at the time that there was something amiss about the whole accident, it just didn’t seem to fit the normal scenario, and whilst it may be scant consolation to all parties involved my gut feeling is that the lorry driver will be cleared of blame.
That would be a totally different scenario to the one which the prosecution is saying.The details seem to be saying that the mini bus was established in lane 1 travelling very slowly and didn’t cross into the path of the truck at slow speed.
The only way that your description would be correct is if the truck driver is being deliberately stitched up by the prosecution side who’ve altered the details as to how the mini bus came to be in front of the truck with a 50 mph speed differential.
That scenario would though explain how vehicles behind would have seen the situation developing and had time and space to react whereas any vehicle that was too close to such a lane change wouldn’t.While as I’ve said at the start assuming that such an accident did result from a late lane change that would then bring into to question the road layout and signage which puts the direction signs to close to the junction and actually on the chevrons.So the establishment would have a motive to stitch up the driver in such a case to divert blame from themselves.In which case has that previous report which you’ve referred to been suppressed and got rid of as part of the plan.
At the risk of agreeing with Carryfast, that is the premise on which the local news is reporting the events. The mini bus was travelling very slowly in lane 2, lane 1 being the slip road of junction 32, and the lorry driver should have had enough time to react and change course. The prosecution attest that the lorry driver neither changed course or adjusted his speed.
If you travel at 5.5mph on a busy motorway the chances are extremely high you will be hit from behind at some point.
Todays update.
the maoster:
I’m sure that I read a report somewhere that the bus driver crossed the chevrons from the Pontefract sliproad back onto the M62. If that’s the case and without going all TNCSI here my guess would be that he (the bus driver) was maybe a little distracted by a number of pretty young females on board, found himself in the inside lane which goes off to Ponty/Cas, panicked, hit the brakes and swerved across at the last minute.I felt at the time that there was something amiss about the whole accident, it just didn’t seem to fit the normal scenario, and whilst it may be scant consolation to all parties involved my gut feeling is that the lorry driver will be cleared of blame.
No mention of a lane change merely that the coach slowed to a crawl and other vehicles avoided it honking their horns. Except the truck which hit them without braking or changing direction.
From the evidence so far including one of the passengers both drivers are at fault. The coach driver for continuing to drive a faulty vehicle and the truck driver for not paying attention
skipman:
Todays update.
The more I read that, the more I think that He( Mr Ollerhead ) is being prosecuted with the wrong charge, to Me it appears to be driving without due care and attention, not causing death by dangerous driving.
Other vehicles avoided the coach but Mr Ollerhead was driving the lorry on a cruise control set to 52mph, and drove straight into the back of the bus, shunting it 50 yards along the road into a crash barrier.
To Me, that’s shouts not paying attention.
The women described how they could smell burning when the minibus got on to the A1.
They said they forced the driver to stop to check his vehicle but once the journey continued and the minibus moved on to the M62, it slowed to a crawl.
Now that is dangerous, and I don’t even need hindsight to realise that
IMO the Mini-bus driver has received very good council - and the lorry driver hasn’t.
Stupid old man
I would expect ollerhead to be treated leniently…even if he is found guilty
commonrail:
Stupid old manI would expect ollerhead to be treated leniently…even if he is found guilty
Why? Because he shares the same profession as you?
Why do people always believe drivers are whiter than white just because you do the same job as them. Whatever the wrongs of the bus driver, the truck driver didn’t see the bus or take any action when other drivers managed to. If he had been paying attention then maybe this young girl would be happily married by now.
eddie snax:
The women described how they could smell burning when the minibus got on to the A1.
They said they forced the driver to stop to check his vehicle but once the journey continued and the minibus moved on to the M62, it slowed to a crawl.Now that is dangerous, and I don’t even need hindsight to realise that
Dangerous, how exactly? To give some context it is shortly going to be possible for HGV’s to drive at 50mph on single carriageways. Horses, cyclists and carts can also use single carriageways, and of course pedestrians. In this case (the M62 crash) the HGV was apparently doing 52mph.