Truck driving question

[Mercury00]

Trucks are limited to 56mph, and they like to do 56mph wherever possible. So your speed of approximately 60mph was more likely 54mph based on 10% speedometer error, and that probably annoyed the driver.

[SSBB]

We weren’t there and won’t have all the details so can’t say for certain. However, you’re likely to have been driving fairly sedately if an HGV is attempting an overtake. Slow to let them pass, or accelerate up towards the speed limit and let them back in behind you, in my opinion. No point hanging around on dual carriageways mixing with HGVs, just puts you in danger.

[scorcher]

Personally I wouldn’t be hanging around thd indicated 60 mph mark annoying hgvs. Get up to the 70mph speed limit and get on out their way.

[911hope]

Mercury00 said:

Trucks are limited to 56mph, and they like to do 56mph wherever possible. So your speed of approximately 60mph was more likely 54mph based on 10% speedometer error, and that probably annoyed the driver.

And that gives him the right to tailgate a car of course.

[NortonES2]

Any reason why you didn't accelerate upto 70?

[911hope]

SSBB said:

We weren’t there and won’t have all the details so can’t say for certain. However, you’re likely to have been driving fairly sedately if an HGV is attempting an overtake. Slow to let them pass, or accelerate up towards the speed limit and let them back in behind you, in my opinion. No point hanging around on dual carriageways mixing with HGVs, just puts you in danger.

There are lots scenarios where is is necessary to be careful with HGV's on Motorways. They are a major risk factor.

Look out for these common traits.

Tailgating cars and each other.
Indicate and change lane (regardless of the car approaching at 20mph speed differential)
Long duration overtake attempts (once witnessed a 15 min attempt on 2-lane A14, before it gave up trying).

[911hope]

NortonES2 said:

Any reason why you didn't accelerate upto 70?

There isn't a requirement to do 70mph.

While it would be a good idea to get away from this idiot in the HGV, not doing so doesn't make it the car driver's responsibility.

[anonymous-user]

NortonES2 said:

Any reason why you didn't accelerate upto 70?

That particular area has had 5 crashes in 2 weeks due to people being eager to hit 70mph on exit of the average speed limit zone. I kept to 60mph to keep my wits about me and drive sensibly.

Edited by anonymous-user on Thursday 4th August 18:23

[CoolHands]

JenAGH67 said:

That particular area has had 5 crashes in 2 weeks due to people being eager to hit 70mph on exit of the average speed limit zone. I kept to 60mph to keep my wits about me and drive sensibly when others chose to be careless.

Looks like you’ve got it all covered then

[wazztie16]

If I'm reading the OP correctly, OP increased speed BEFORE checking their mirrors for vehicles attempting an overtake. This is not in line with how I was taught to drive, imagine it was a road with one lane either direction and a vehicle was attempting an overtake out of the NSL, motorcycle for example is a common one.

OP should really have seen the truck coming up by regularly checking their mirrors and allowed it to complete its manoeuvre, but that's in an ideal world.

[anonymous-user]

wazztie16 said:

If I'm reading the OP correctly, OP increased speed BEFORE checking their mirrors for vehicles attempting an overtake. This is not in line with how I was taught to drive, imagine it was a road with one lane either direction and a vehicle was attempting an overtake out of the NSL, motorcycle for example is a common one.

OP should really have seen the truck coming up by regularly checking their mirrors and allowed it to complete its manoeuvre, but that's in an ideal world.

Not really quite sure I’m grasping what’s being said here. I regularly glanced in my mirror. At first, The HGV had moved into the right hand lane seconds before exiting the average speed zone limit. (At the point where he was just behind me in the right hand lane was when I glanced again.) He was therefore in the right hand lane for a period of time trying to overtake as many cars as he could until he clearly got annoyed when reaching me. Whether that be because of the other cars behind him or not being able to successfully overtake due to the size of his vehicle I couldn’t tell you.

[anonymous-user]

911hope said:

NortonES2 said:

Any reason why you didn't accelerate upto 70?

There isn't a requirement to do 70mph.

While it would be a good idea to get away from this idiot in the HGV, not doing so doesn't make it the car driver's responsibility.

Thank you for this!

[stupidbutkeen]

JenAGH67 said:

NortonES2 said:

Any reason why you didn't accelerate upto 70?

That particular area has had 5 crashes in 2 weeks due to people being eager to hit 70mph on exit of the average speed limit zone. I kept to 60mph to keep my wits about me and drive sensibly when others chose to be careless.

I am amazed how people in cars can be accelerating so slow a lorry behind can even think about overtaking.
My bet is your speed was aprox 60 going by your speedo, lorry doing 56mph limited pulls out to pass ( so was catching up obv) has to pull back in behind yourself once you have noticed him going for the overtake and you speeding up, thus no need for lorry to overtake thus pulled in behind and you then slowed down again ( looking at 1-2mph adjustment).

Happens all the time and people just do it subconsciously.

[angoooose]

I was told that now we've left the EU, HGVs can now be limited to 60MPH rather than 90km/h.

[911hope]

wazztie16 said:

If I'm reading the OP correctly, OP increased speed BEFORE checking their mirrors for vehicles attempting an overtake. This is not in line with how I was taught to drive, imagine it was a road with one lane either direction and a vehicle was attempting an overtake out of the NSL, motorcycle for example is a common one.

OP should really have seen the truck coming up by regularly checking their mirrors and allowed it to complete its manoeuvre, but that's in an ideal world.

I didn't see a reference to mirrors in the original post.
There is nothing to suggest the timing of either vehicle's acceleration.

How did you come to this conclusion?

You could easily conclude the truck had no business trying an overtake, when it did not have the speed potential to be successful.

[MuscleSedan]

See this all the time at the end of dual carriageway 50 limits. Fools in 56 limited vehicles banging along flat out through the 50 who then get arsey when they are stuck in the outside lane with vehicles accelerating away in the nearside lane.

[911hope]

MuscleSedan said:

See this all the time at the end of dual carriageway 50 limits. Fools in 56 limited vehicles banging along flat out through the 50 who then get arsey when they are stuck in the outside lane with vehicles accelerating away in the nearside lane.

In general people behave badly when their mistake becomes clear.

Odd that people are happy to say sorry if they step on someone's foot in a shop, but not in a minor conflict on the road??

[wazztie16]

911hope said:

I didn't see a reference to mirrors in the original post.
There is nothing to suggest the timing of either vehicle's acceleration.

How did you come to this conclusion?

You could easily conclude the truck had no business trying an overtake, when it did not have the speed potential to be successful.

There's at least 2 references. And there's at least one reference to the OP increasing their speed as the lorry was approaching.

You need to look harder I think.

I believe the truck had every business attempting the overtake, if the driver is travelling faster than the OP.

On the other side, I believe the OP should've allowed the driver to complete the overtake as the safest course of action.

Just my thoughts.

Edit - Highway Code 168
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.

Hence OP had seen the lorry overtaking, potentially with a queue behind (it's quite common to have a queue behind a lorry these days, when the lorry is overtaking), and should've allowed the driver to complete their manoeuvre.

Edited by wazztie16 on Thursday 4th August 19:32

[911hope]

wazztie16 said:

There's at least 2 references. And there's at least one reference to the OP increasing their speed as the lorry was approaching.

You need to look harder I think.

I believe the truck had every business attempting the overtake, if the driver is travelling faster than the OP.

On the other side, I believe the OP should've allowed the driver to complete the overtake as the safest course of action.

Just my thoughts.

Edit - Highway Code 168
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.

Hence OP had seen the lorry overtaking, potentially with a queue behind (it's quite common to have a queue behind a lorry these days, when the lorry is overtaking), and should've allowed the driver to complete their manoeuvre.

Edited by wazztie16 on Thursday 4th August 19:32

Yes references to mirrors agreed, but there is nothing to infer the time of acceleration.

So the only facts that you know are lorry moves into L2 before the end of the 50 limit.
Lorry fails to accelerate faster than the car.
Lorry pulls in very close to car.

BTW Lorry was happy to block L2 at 56mph, holding up cars.

Your Highway code thing is interesting. Doesn't really apply well on a Dual carriageway.
Otherwise on a motorway cars in L2 would not be allowed to overtake cars in L1, due to cars in L3 overtaking it.
Obviously wrong.

What really happened,... Lorry thought it could overtake slow car, puller out to block L2, was wrong and failed, and pulled back in in too close.

Lorries do these stupid things all the time. I regularly see three lanes of lorries at 56MPH all failing to overtake on the M6, blocking 3/4 of the motorway.

[SSBB]

911hope said:

wazztie16 said:

There's at least 2 references. And there's at least one reference to the OP increasing their speed as the lorry was approaching.

You need to look harder I think.

I believe the truck had every business attempting the overtake, if the driver is travelling faster than the OP.

On the other side, I believe the OP should've allowed the driver to complete the overtake as the safest course of action.

Just my thoughts.

Edit - Highway Code 168
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.

Hence OP had seen the lorry overtaking, potentially with a queue behind (it's quite common to have a queue behind a lorry these days, when the lorry is overtaking), and should've allowed the driver to complete their manoeuvre.

Edited by wazztie16 on Thursday 4th August 19:32

Yes references to mirrors agreed, but there is nothing to infer the time of acceleration.

So the only facts that you know are lorry moves into L2 before the end of the 50 limit.
Lorry fails to accelerate faster than the car.
Lorry pulls in very close to car.

BTW Lorry was happy to block L2 at 56mph, holding up cars.

Your Highway code thing is interesting. Doesn't really apply well on a Dual carriageway.
Otherwise on a motorway cars in L2 would not be allowed to overtake cars in L1, due to cars in L3 overtaking it.
Obviously wrong.

What really happened,... Lorry thought it could overtake slow car, puller out to block L2, was wrong and failed, and pulled back in in too close.

Lorries do these stupid things all the time. I regularly see three lanes of lorries at 56MPH all failing to overtake on the M6, blocking 3/4 of the motorway.

Highway Code applies even on dual carriageways.