Right then the other night travelling southbound down the M6 got to where the M55 filters onto the M6 and as im sure many of you know is four lanes at this point.
I was in lane 3 trying to make my way over to lane 2 and eventually lane 1, But as there was a car in lane 2 roughly half way down the length of my trailer i just had to sit tight with my leftie flashing.
So there i am wondering what Mr/Mrs courtious observant car driver is going to do
i.e. is he/she going to put his/her toe down (plenty of room up ahead for him/her to go forward and for me to pull in behind safely) or option B, ease off and let me pull in in front of him/her (yeah right like that would ever happen) or option C, pull over into lane 1 as there was no one there eitherā¦
Well obviously decision making wasnāt his/her strong point coz he/she just sat there looking at the pretty orange lights flashing down the side of my lorry.
well eventually he/she got the message and after what must have been approaching a minute by now he/she pulled over into lane 1 (hooray!!)
So after a good scour of my n/s mirrors (making sure muppet 1 wasnāt replaced by muppet 2) and a look of lanes 2 and 3 ahead started to filter my way gently into lane 2 (I like to take my time with lane changes coz that is how i was taught and i see no reason to change)
I get half way into lane 2 all is well and then all of a sudden a kind of gentle thud followed instantly with a grinding sound
What the hell was that!!.. Eyes shoot to mirrors (as i was looking forward at time of noise)
and i seeā¦
NOTHING!!!
no cars in front or on either side of me nothing!!
Just then i catch sight of the red roof of a small sports car pulling over onto the hard shoulderā¦ Oh FFS where the hell did that come from!!!
SO anyway i pull over onto the hard shoulder check sheās alright look at the grinding job i done on her car (honda civic coupe) with my front wheelnuts swap details and off on my not so merry way
I asked her couldnt you see the big thing with orange flashing lights coming gently and gracefully into lane 2 as you were obviously changing from lane 1 to lane 2 as we hit?? (as i was halfway into lane 2) and do you know what her reply was??..
āI was driving along IN MY OWN LITTLE WORLD when all of a sudden a lorry hit meā !!!
Says it all really doesnāt it
Dont think you where in the wrong, as you say M55 joins M6 S/bound it is four lanes, two lanes M6 & two lanes M55 slip, as you go over M55 you are in M6 lane 1,as you continue about 300 yards you end up on lane 3 of 4 M6, but if you look at broken white lines you should stay out in lane 3 till broken white lines return to the normal broken white lines,āie short gapped lines back to normal gapped linesā , if that makes sense to you,then you should then indicate left as you are now in lane 3 of 4 of M6 & anyone who now passes you on inside is undertaking which is as you know illegal.So if she ignored your left signal & tried to get passed on inside she was lucky to get away with just a damaged car, i have seen a lot worse at this junction.
āI was driving along IN MY OWN LITTLE WORLD when all of a sudden a lorry hit meā
count as āDriving with Undue Care and Attention?ā She may have been paying attention in her world but she sure as hell wasnāt in the world the rest of us are in.
paul@midway:
I bet she blamed you though when explaining the damage to her spouse
Yeah and iāll bet her spouse was sat next to her when she was on the phone to my gaffer sobbing her heart out saying that i just drove into her without warning and she thought she was going to die
Coffeeholic:
Just another thought, wouldnāt this
āI was driving along IN MY OWN LITTLE WORLD when all of a sudden a lorry hit meā
count as āDriving with Undue Care and Attention?ā She may have been paying attention in her world but she sure as hell wasnāt in the world the rest of us are in.
My sentiment exactly m8
Dafman:
Donāt forget to write down on the claim form what she said.
Oh i did dont you worry bout that i basically wrote it as i wrote it on here but with diagrams road conditions weather traffic everything
FNG, not having a go at you, but I believe there is case law on this, a Truck driver was done for bumping a car, and the Editor of T&D was called as an expert witness, and made some passing remark about Rule 36 of the RTAct, Give way to the right.
However the problem is who moved first into lane and says they moved first. Itās one persons word against the other in that āI started to move first, they didnāt notice meā How does a judge decide who moved first as he wasnāt there?
Invariably unless one side comes across as unbeleivable or gives poor evidence he will say I canāt decide between the two so 50/50
However it rarely gets to Court anyway, it costs between Ā£1500 and Ā£5500 to run a simple claim to court depending on whether there is PI or not. So often it just aināt economical to go that far to get 50/50.
144: Being overtaken. If a driver is trying to overtake you, maintain a steady course and speed, slowing down if necessary to let the vehicle pass. Never obstruct drivers who wish to pass. Speeding up or driving unpredictably while someone is overtaking you is dangerous. Drop back to maintain a two-second gap if someone overtakes and pulls into the gap in front of you.
i had this happen to me on the A40 coming out of London.
The guy was undertaking me and i couldānt see him as he was in my blind spot.
It was found that i was to blame!
Mark
Courts take a very simple view of it. You moved into their lane and struck them. You either didnāt look which was negligent or didnāt see them which implies negligence.
It was an accident! These things happen. But I would consider contributory negligence on the part of the car driver. Big truck with indicator flashing left. Mirror (okay, she was in your blind spot), signal, manoeuvre.
144: Being overtaken. If a driver is trying to overtake you, maintain a steady course and speed, slowing down if necessary to let the vehicle pass. Never obstruct drivers who wish to pass. Speeding up or driving unpredictably while someone is overtaking you is dangerous. Drop back to maintain a two-second gap if someone overtakes and pulls into the gap in front of you.
brit_mark:
i had this happen to me on the A40 coming out of London.
The guy was undertaking me and i couldānt see him as he was in my blind spot.
It was found that i was to blame!
Mark
You r at fault .
the insurance company WILL FIND YOU AT FAULT
reef,
unfortunately, no matter what the curcumstances were, wether she moved into the lane after youād already started your manauver or not, you can gaurantee that after the obligatory rangling between insurance companies, she will get paid out in full from your companies insurance as if it was totally your fault!
insurance companies will always bang the drum at first, āweāre on your side, weāll fight your caseā but when push comes to shuv, itās all about money and the cheapest option will allways be, to pay out and bump your companies premium up next year, rather than getting involved in any court action.
where the hell did that come from!!!
Its not smelly ā¦i got a magic tree and everyfing 