What gets me is that as “professional drivers” we have to compensate for other road users lack of professionalism… almost as if its not their fault if they kill themselves, its ours because we should expect them to drive dangerously.
Theyre not professional drivers, afterall…
Lankytim:
What gets me is that as “professional drivers” we have to compensate for other road users lack of professionalism… almost as if its not their fault if they kill themselves, its ours because we should expect them to drive dangerously.Theyre not professional drivers, afterall…
Reminds me of what one trainee said to me -
I’m not driving for everyone else on the road
I think you can guess what my reply was 
as i said in my first post if i had hit the car i would of been in the wrong 
i can here the police officer now “as a professional drive you should anticipated what the other driver was going to do” wtf!!!
why do we have to be responsible for what other drivers do 
just love to know
peteandbrenda:
as i said in my first post if i had hit the car i would of been in the wrongi can here the police officer now “as a professional drive you should anticipated what the other driver was going to do” wtf!!!
why do we have to be responsible for what other drivers do
just love to know
Because as experienced drivers the anticipation of others should be greater especially as we drive for a living.
Remember - using a 5 speed manual gearbox as the benchmark - the average car driver did one test and the majority are still stuck somewhere between 1st & 2nd gear on the learning progression curve.
They have no desire to learn more or do not know how to learn more.
The average LGV driver is in 3rd or even 4th gear as the learning curve was re-introduced to them when they upgraded.
There is a good saying that is used and could be applied to this -
To the average driver ‘safe’ is not having a driving incident. To an advanced driver ‘safe’ is not being vunerable to a driving incident.
Yesterday evening on my way home I was in a queue just after the Holmesdale tunnel waiting to get onto the A10, I saw the opportunity to overtake a couple of cheap cars in front so I pulled into the other lane to excecute this manouevre, when this complete nobber in a 44 tonne Scania ( who obviously thought he owned the road) not reading the road ahead just stopped in time in a cloud of rubber and smoke, he was easily travelling in excess of 80mph’s. Then the cheeky pie eating, prostitute murdering, greasy Trucker tunc had the audacity to blast his horn at me. They should be banned from the roads.
Layby Larry:
Yesterday evening on my way home I was in a queue just after the Holmesdale tunnel waiting to get onto the A10, I saw the opportunity to overtake a couple of cheap cars in front so I pulled into the other lane to excecute this manouevre, when this complete nobber in a 44 tonne Scania ( who obviously thought he owned the road) not reading the road ahead just stopped in time in a cloud of rubber and smoke, he was easily travelling in excess of 80mph’s. Then the cheeky pie eating, prostitute murdering, greasy Trucker tunc had the audacity to blast his horn at me. They should be banned from the roads.
That would be funny if it wasn’t so tragically true as to how we are perceived.
ROG:
peteandbrenda:
as i said in my first post if i had hit the car i would of been in the wrongi can here the police officer now “as a professional drive you should anticipated what the other driver was going to do” wtf!!!
why do we have to be responsible for what other drivers do
just love to know
Because as experienced drivers the anticipation of others should be greater especially as we drive for a living.
We can only do so much anticipation though.
If we pass the queue at 90K’s, they’ll pull in and brake hard 15’ in front of us.
If we pass the queue at 30K’s, they’ll pull in and brake hard 5’ in front of us, etc.
The only way we aren’t going to get cut up like this is if we stop and don’t move until the queue disperses, as if we’ve got time for that.
Usually we see something to alert us, anticipate what’s about to happen and start braking (crossing fingers, arms, legs, toes, eyes etc) praying that we’re going to stop in time.
Most of the time, we manage it.
Once in a while we just don’t get any warning, or any chance and then …
Simon:
ROG:
peteandbrenda:
as i said in my first post if i had hit the car i would of been in the wrongi can here the police officer now “as a professional drive you should anticipated what the other driver was going to do” wtf!!!
why do we have to be responsible for what other drivers do
just love to know
Because as experienced drivers the anticipation of others should be greater especially as we drive for a living.
We can only do so much anticipation though.
If we pass the queue at 90K’s, they’ll pull in and brake hard 15’ in front of us.
If we pass the queue at 30K’s, they’ll pull in and brake hard 5’ in front of us, etc.
The only way we aren’t going to get cut up like this is if we stop and don’t move until the queue disperses, as if we’ve got time for that.
Usually we see something to alert us, anticipate what’s about to happen and start braking (crossing fingers, arms, legs, toes, eyes etc) praying that we’re going to stop in time.
Most of the time, we manage it.
Once in a while we just don’t get any warning, or any chance and then …
Hence the bit in blue 
Or might expect to happen before a clue is given
I see a lot of trucks driving a few feet off cars rear bumpers so maybe they all think we can stop that close?
newmercman:
‘…In my opinion the biggest cause of bad driving is due to an almost total lack of visible Police presence…’
I suggest that it’s a major contributory factor: Roadspaces now commonly present an arena for regular Mad Max ‘free-for-alls’ where generalisations of gender/age/type of motor/time of day are no longer an indicator of where the next ‘up-yours/who cares’ dangerous muppet will appear.
For all the good it would do, I’d submit a poll to re-introduce plod’s presence in lieu of toothless/unrespected HATO’s into our highway workplace. But I conclude that there’d be little point.
(No offence to HATO’s …but they simply aint plod)
Layby Larry:
Yesterday evening on my way home I was in a queue just after the Holmesdale tunnel waiting to get onto the A10, I saw the opportunity to overtake a couple of cheap cars in front so I pulled into the other lane to excecute this manouevre, when this complete nobber in a 44 tonne Scania ( who obviously thought he owned the road) not reading the road ahead just stopped in time in a cloud of rubber and smoke, he was easily travelling in excess of 80mph’s. Then the cheeky pie eating, prostitute murdering, greasy Trucker tunc had the audacity to blast his horn at me. They should be banned from the roads.
not you as well have you got something against scania’s lol
couldn’t of been me wrong time of the day
and i was only doing 75 mph hadn’t started pedaling 
Happy Keith:
For all the good it would do, I’d submit a poll to re-introduce plod’s presence in lieu of toothless/unrespected HATO’s into our highway workplace. But I conclude that there’d be little point.(No offence to HATO’s …but they simply aint plod)
Quite right we’re not, we were never introduced to replace the police as I have said time and time again! So there is no offence taken. I will be the first to admit that I want to see more not less police, my job is traffic management not crime prevention, so it’s pretty unfair saying we’re toothless when we have all the powers and legislation to allow us to the job we’re trained to do. We haven’t got any more powers than that because hey, we’re not the police! 
Surely a HATO could grass up a driver he sees driving dangerously to the old bill and be used as a credible witness?
Id image a trained HATO would be seen as a more reliable witness than average joe bloggs and would be taken more seriously by police.
The Highway Man:
‘…we were never introduced to replace the police as I have said time and time again!..I will be the first to admit that I want to see more not less police, my job is traffic management not crime prevention…hey, we’re not the police!..’
Utter respect, Matey.
In the evidently profound absence of traffic crime prevention Plod, our road-borne society is being neglected by our political masters. Meanwhile, all the mainstream parties prefer to give millions each day to Brussels rather than promote social order other than by (cynical?) exploitation of camera technology.
The price that we subsequently pay is the abuse that numpties in their umpteen guises heap upon law abiding & respectful road users.
Sad conclusion: The way ahead is down?
Lankytim:
Surely a HATO could grass up a driver he sees driving dangerously to the old bill and be used as a credible witness?Id image a trained HATO would be seen as a more reliable witness than average joe bloggs and would be taken more seriously by police.
Adding bureacracy is surely retrograde: What’s wrong with having plod? …aren’t we worth it any more? …or is this anti-terrorism leeching us white whilst we’re told how much ‘…it isn’t affecting our effectiveness as a country…’ …becuase I reckon we’re bound for the plug-hole if this cynical free-for-all is permitted to continue
I’m sorry to say I had the Red Mist a few months back on the A34/M4 split Southbound.
This ■■■■ is a Celica decides he wants to cut in at the last minute when there was no room to do so. He must have been a foot from my bumper. I gave him the lights and horn and just got the “finger” in return, well that was it.
Lights go to red (I’m driving a MAN TGA 26.440 with the flat floor) and I’m out of the passenger door and over to mateys car in a split second. I gave him a right going over, and he too locked his door. These people need a good kicking to get the message, because I bet they drive like that ALL the time.
I was also at the magic roundabout in Hemel once driving a FM400. This guy decides to overtake on the inside and then shoot in front of me and the car in front. All I saw was his roof. Slammed the brakes on, and shot out of the seat and hit my head on the overhead shelf. It hurt like hell. It’s a good job I didn’t catch him as I would have lost my job because I had every intention of hurting him.
Got to the depot and called the Police, only to sit on the phone for EIGHT minutes on hold. Had to hang up in the end. There should be a special number for truck drivers to call if they have a bellend cause a near collision. I’m sure a visit by plod would re-educate them.
Lankytim:
Surely a HATO could grass up a driver he sees driving dangerously to the old bill and be used as a credible witness?Id image a trained HATO would be seen as a more reliable witness than average joe bloggs and would be taken more seriously by police.
At the end of the day I wish it was that simple, some forces look down their noses at us and treat us with disdain. Not all though, we are classed as another member of the public, I’ve phoned the police before when I’ve been on duty following a foreign LGV weaving all over the road from hard shoulder to lane 3 and back again watching cars swerve all over the place. I’ve given a running commentary as we went. 40 minutes later the police finally catch up, the driver was told to pull in at truck stop and take a break, nothing else was done, so why should we bother when no action is taken! 
same thing happen yesterday at Meadowhall, inside stood for meadowhall exit, Woman in middle lane tried to leave motorway slamed brakes on in front of his truck, one nice crushed car
The Highway Man:
Happy Keith:
For all the good it would do, I’d submit a poll to re-introduce plod’s presence in lieu of toothless/unrespected HATO’s into our highway workplace. But I conclude that there’d be little point.(No offence to HATO’s …but they simply aint plod)
Quite right we’re not, we were never introduced to replace the police as I have said time and time again! So there is no offence taken. I will be the first to admit that I want to see more not less police, my job is traffic management not crime prevention, so it’s pretty unfair saying we’re toothless when we have all the powers and legislation to allow us to the job we’re trained to do. We haven’t got any more powers than that because hey, we’re not the police!
But how dificult would it be to fit traffic monitoring cameras to your motors, then later on this could be used to follow up bad driving incidents by the police.
Plod has verifiable video evidence, to use to issue fixed penalties or bring prosecutions.
This would help traffic managment, in the long run. Thus fullfilling one of your remets.
Just make sure you erase it if I [zb]up