…that your supposed to give way on a slip road to traffic on the main carriageway, and not use your fancy executive saloon to try and push a 40 ton lorry out the way
Was coming into London yesterday via the blackwall tunnel, traffic was abit heavy as I came past the last slip road but the cars were filtering well, except one who decided he had to beat em all and come down the middle, he was getting closer and closer to the side of my truck and I thought “you get any closer mate your gonna hit me in a minute” then I felt a slight bump and horns blaring, stupid zb had only gone and done it hadn’t he.
Well I couldn’t stop at the tunnel so decided to carry on to the A13 where I was heading as there was a bus lane there we could sort it out, expecting him to follow me, but he turned off at the A1206!! I pulled over to inspect the damage, just a few light scuffs on the arch but I called the boss and reported it along with the reg number, just to cover my own back, good job I did because ten minutes later I got a call back, bloke had been on the phone saying I’d driven off!!
I was told to stop on the A13 and wait for him to catch me up so I could take photos of the damage, twenty minutes later he still hadn’t arrived despite saying he was only up the road but apparentley they had got his details so I went on my way.
Hopefully he won’t be stupid enough to try it on with the insurance as our trucks are fitted with insurance cameras, mind you I still can’t believe how someone would just drive their car into the side of a big red truck rather than holding back and waiting for a space
I cannot believe the risks some drivers take sometimes, when I was doing my training the amount of times a car driver tried to squeeze past me when a dual carriageway turns into a single again or when I was sat at a junction that I was turning right at, this junction has a lane to turn left and a lane to turn right there is a bollard in the road so it makes the turn right quite tight so you have to dominate but take most of the left hand lane up right indicator was on and they still squeezed past me I was getting that annoyed with them I said to my instructor I am going to get out and tell one of them to stop but a 7.5t pulled up behind me and blocked them. Some people think that the extra seconds that they can gain are so important to them and they push and push but the idiots only realise they aint going to make it when it is too late. What amazes me even more is they think they are in the right and you should of moved out of there way.
Unfortunately shiny exec cars arnt the only culprits,our own so called professionals can be seen
practicing this stupid move quite regularly, using their size to force their way in.If that
doesnt work they use the hard shoulder then give you the finger cos you are in their way.
What gets me though you would think even the most stubborn of people wouldn’t try it on in an impossible situation and now this guy is faced with a huge repair bill and increased premiums all because he wouldnt hold up for a few seconds, but then i guess that’s the only way to get to them is if it hits them where it hurts in the wallet
The driving standards in this country is fairly rubbish when it comes to basic knowledge, even worse when you factor in headstrong-commuter style driving (as I found out last night). But I can’t remember even going on a dual carriageway during my car driving lessons or test, let alone a slip road leading onto one. That was only about 5 or 6 years ago, so people who were learners 20 or 30 years ago are even more likely not to ever have been officially taught how to join dual carriageways/motorways safely. No excuse though, it’s all in the highway code plus you can use the very simple common-sense rule in the UK, which is to give way to traffic either on your right or coming from your right. That’s how I found out.
Sometimes its like playing chicken with on-slips only once have i ■■■■ it. That was with a tipper i had the feeling he was getting on the road even if he had to rip my cab off the chassis to do it. Trouble with onslips is that there is usually set of lights somewhere down the road and that makes them come on in groups of 5-6 cars and that can be hard to deal with.
merc0447:
Trouble with onslips is that there is usually set of lights somewhere down the road and that makes them come on in groups of 5-6 cars and that can be hard to deal with.
Or they put the lights on the actual slip so you get loads trying to join at once - I’m thinking M6s at J7
had a similar occurence on the north circular a few years ago. Driver tried to force her way in. I had no choice but to stop, but still she hit me, then tried to accuse me of hitting her. Her story soon changed when I explained that the truck was fitted with impact sensors and electronic monitoring device that recorded every event during my shift. It accually froze the data in memory about speed, braking etc, for 30 sec, before and after the impact senor was triggered. It showed that I was acctually stationery at the time of impact!
One up for in-cab technology!
I will admit that, when I am inside the M25, my driving becomes foar more aggressive, it has to be if you want to get anywhere. and of course it is the same for everybody else, so you need to beon your toes all the time.
Thursady I was delivering to a DIY store. to get to the back door, you need to reverse down the customer car park entrance and exit road, not a big problem as it is quite wide. I put my hazards on, my reversing buzzers, lights etc, waited until it was clear, then started to reverse. A several cars came to the entrance, saw what I was doing, and waited patiently for me, one woman who was in a hurry, pulled out of the car park right behind me and stopped. I stopped to let her pass me, but she stayed where she was, I signaled her to pass me, but no, I started creeping slowly backwards trying to give her a hint, no reaction other than to blow her horn, I now have about a dozen cars waiting patiently for me to move. I got out and waved to her to go past me, as she did, her windows were open, and i got the fowlest mouthful of abuse from her, and this with a car load of kids!
I had it happen to me on the A30 at Honiton a fortnight ago. I was travelling minding my own business past the Honiton turn off.
A mini with a woman driving, came hurtling down the slip road. I was almost at the end when I first saw her. I checked my mirrors to see a van almost alongside me. I had nowhere to go , so eased off the gas. It was too late for this woman to join, so she filtered in behind. Thgis followed…
I got to my drop at Yeovilton, the phone rings and it’s the boss.
“We’ve received a complaint about you forcing a woman off the road on the A30. You sped up when she tried to join the road, when you could easily have moved over. We are trying to build an image here and won’t tolerate bad driving”. I sasid hang on a bit, you weren’t even there and are taking the word of a ■■■■■■■ idiot over mine. Check the highway code to see who’s right.
He ain’t spoken to me since, and given me all ofthe ■■■■■ UK work. ■■■■■■■ PMT SUFFERING ■■■■■
I had a bloke in a silver Audi try to overtake me before the dual carriageway became a single one with double white centre lines. He only got half-way up the trailer length and I had no-where to go. Slowing down would not have got him in front (I think his accelerator was an optional extra) and it was unsafe to slam on. So he got a wonderful set of ‘go faster’ yellow stripes down his car when the oncoming traffic came into view.
In the post-collision conversation, he informed me that lorries are supposed to slow down for cars to enable them to get on their way
You just don’t get it Grayham, it was your fault, you were in this man’s way, he has important stuff to de & no scumbag lorry driving peasant should impede his progress
newmercman:
You just don’t get it Grayham, it was your fault, you were in this man’s way, he has important stuff to de & no scumbag lorry driving peasant should impede his progress
That sounds a fair assessment of the situation. Bear that in mind Grayham.
Poland road users are far behing India, Nigeria and some other “wild” country when it’s coming to filtering. They prefere to play a game of “who will back off last wins”.
Very typical is that when there is one lane, say to right turn, when cars are queuing, there is always bunch of idiots, who will skip the queue and try to force their way into the right lane just before the turn.
I was quite a busy teacher, as I was driving that:
15 years old Polish Fiat with bumpers, which were just a bars of metal, nothing more fancy. And they were indestructable, and were overlaping the car corners…
It was really nice, someone tries to push in, grate, guy gestikulates, we both stop, I politely ask if he want to call a police, as I have some things to be done in my car, and a small sum of money will come handy. Usually they were saying sorry and then we were driving away, or they were shouting at me and then I was driving away
I pulled over to inspect the damage, just a few light scuffs on the arch but I called the boss and reported it along with the reg number, just to cover my own back, good job I did because ten minutes later I got a call back, bloke had been on the phone saying I’d driven off!!
