Drifting through lack of concentration....
Discussion
I was gently rolling my way back down to my house today, in my Saloon road car, from London - Southbound (or Westbound as the Police seem to like to call it) along the M3 motorway.
On board I had my 78 year old Mum - so I tend to cruise gently, hover around 65 mph, enjoy the ride - and stick mostly in lane 1 of a motorway - with the occasional foray into lane 2 to overtake an HGV.
Most HGV drivers are fantastic, on-the-ball professionals. I actually play with them (you) a lot more when I'm driving my modified, lifted Jeep - anything over 50mph in this is uncomfortable due to the drivetrain vibrations. So I'm well versed in my HGV cousins - professionally overtaking me, giving me lots of space, me flashing them in, and their safe return to lane 1 - with some kind of gesture of thanks via their lighting system.
It's unusual for me to see an HGV doing something bad.
However, today, as we approached one - won't name names - in front of me it slowly drifted from lane 1 onto the Hard Shoulder - moving almost completely onto the Hard Shoulder with the entire wheel track width - so much so that I was just expecting it to slow down, stop and display hazards with a problem or break down.
But no - it then suddenly yanked itself back into lane 1 - with an obvious big input 'right' into the steering wheel. And then continued along lane 1 as if nothing had happened.
I said to Mum - 'see that? He's either drifting off to sleep, or on the phone, or doing something else!'
Sure enough, as we passed the cab - the driver had a pen in his right hand, and a clipboard with documments in it resting on the steering wheel he was doing paperwork whilst driving!
So, the question is - should I have reported this to his employer? I didn't do so, thought about it, decided not to get involved.
What would you do? Should I have done?
On board I had my 78 year old Mum - so I tend to cruise gently, hover around 65 mph, enjoy the ride - and stick mostly in lane 1 of a motorway - with the occasional foray into lane 2 to overtake an HGV.
Most HGV drivers are fantastic, on-the-ball professionals. I actually play with them (you) a lot more when I'm driving my modified, lifted Jeep - anything over 50mph in this is uncomfortable due to the drivetrain vibrations. So I'm well versed in my HGV cousins - professionally overtaking me, giving me lots of space, me flashing them in, and their safe return to lane 1 - with some kind of gesture of thanks via their lighting system.
It's unusual for me to see an HGV doing something bad.
However, today, as we approached one - won't name names - in front of me it slowly drifted from lane 1 onto the Hard Shoulder - moving almost completely onto the Hard Shoulder with the entire wheel track width - so much so that I was just expecting it to slow down, stop and display hazards with a problem or break down.
But no - it then suddenly yanked itself back into lane 1 - with an obvious big input 'right' into the steering wheel. And then continued along lane 1 as if nothing had happened.
I said to Mum - 'see that? He's either drifting off to sleep, or on the phone, or doing something else!'
Sure enough, as we passed the cab - the driver had a pen in his right hand, and a clipboard with documments in it resting on the steering wheel he was doing paperwork whilst driving!
So, the question is - should I have reported this to his employer? I didn't do so, thought about it, decided not to get involved.
What would you do? Should I have done?
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