Lorries on wrong side of road.
Discussion
This is getting more and more common and dangerous.
I left home this morning and within 2 minutes had to take evasive action b/c of lorries going too fast in 30mph limit around bends at approx 50, needless to say they had to use the centre of the road to make it around the bends.
Do commercial HGV drivers have to maintain a standard or does it work like an ordinary PLG vehicle test where it's usually taken once in the drivers lifetime?
It's bad enough that car drivers standards have dropped but someone in charge of something so huge and potentially lethal to other people should really have some sense of responsibility, after all ....he is driving for a living.
I left home this morning and within 2 minutes had to take evasive action b/c of lorries going too fast in 30mph limit around bends at approx 50, needless to say they had to use the centre of the road to make it around the bends.
Do commercial HGV drivers have to maintain a standard or does it work like an ordinary PLG vehicle test where it's usually taken once in the drivers lifetime?
It's bad enough that car drivers standards have dropped but someone in charge of something so huge and potentially lethal to other people should really have some sense of responsibility, after all ....he is driving for a living.
I've also noticed a lot more lorries trying to use very small backroads these last few months and this is where I have noticed they try and drive flat out.
I guess it's the cost of fuel ....so they take the shortest route and try and make up time by going quickly?
If you see a foreign lorry, (like the one I saw turning into a residential area and getting wedged between the walls of 2 old listed buildings) it is usually down to the drivers satnav
I guess it's the cost of fuel ....so they take the shortest route and try and make up time by going quickly?
If you see a foreign lorry, (like the one I saw turning into a residential area and getting wedged between the walls of 2 old listed buildings) it is usually down to the drivers satnav
oggs said:
Great... another truck bashing thread begins 
Not another tuck bashing thread really.Had they not been trucks I'd have said cars wouldn't I? .....but I can't change the fact that it has been trucks and the odd bus doing this.
This is the point; if a car hits you at 40 - 50 mph your car is toast but if I was hit by a massive truck at this speed well, you wouldn't stand a chance.
Are you condoning this style of driving, presumably because you are a trucker?
I don't presume that all truck drivers are maniacs but the attitude of I'm big and can squash you get out of my way appears to be on the increase.
Kentish said:
oggs said:
Great... another truck bashing thread begins
Not another truck bashing thread really.OJ said:
Funny I nearly got taken out by an HGV doing this around a blind corner on the A10 at about 11 o'clock last night... Oh wait no it wasn't funny I nearly shat myself
Kentish.... as I said it begins I don't condone bad driving be it Lorry/car/ Motorbike etc....
oggs said:
Kentish.... as I said it begins
Not really a particularly truck bashing post, but it was a coincidence that this happened to me last night and someone has started a thread on it this morningTo be honest, there's a lorry park right next to Ely so day and night I'm exposed to an absolute plethora of underqualified, vodka laden eastern european truckers that have been at it for 12 hours straight.
There have been plenty of accidents where the truckers have pulled out onto empty roads at night and automatically gone 'left hand drive' until they take someone out coming the other way.
To be honest its the f
king silly ttting old bds that sit in a massive queue behind the trucks doing 35mph with two miles of empty straight ahead of them to overtake that I whinge about more oftenEdited by OJ on Wednesday 8th October 11:35
oggs said:
Kentish said:
oggs said:
Great... another truck bashing thread begins
Not another truck bashing thread really.OJ said:
Funny I nearly got taken out by an HGV doing this around a blind corner on the A10 at about 11 o'clock last night... Oh wait no it wasn't funny I nearly shat myself
Kentish.... as I said it begins I don't condone bad driving be it Lorry/car/ Motorbike etc....
I suppose a lot of factors may contribute to more lorries travelling at speed on backroads and through small towns and villages. They may be on fixed price contracts or have penalty clauses for late deliveries so I cna understand the issues involved.
Maybe as a nation we should be prepared to pay considerably more for things and our food so that commercial drivers can earn a decent living instead of being under pressure to be everywhere immediately?
Puff Puff said:
Trucks doing 50 in a 30 limit?
Can't say I ever come across that, I usually find myself gaining on a truck in a 30 limit rather than it driving away from me.
That's more common but I have observed an increasing number of lorries going through quite narrow roads at 40-50 and this is not so much an issue on a straight road but where a road narrows and bends it can be quite a sphincter spasm moment for someone in a small car coming the other way having nowehere to go except up the high kerb and onto the pavement. This morning tere were mothers walking their kids to school so it was not an option as an escape route so I had to just slam the brakes on and hope the person behind had quick reactions too. Fortunately I was doing just under 30 and so was the chap behind and he was a sensible distance behind me.Can't say I ever come across that, I usually find myself gaining on a truck in a 30 limit rather than it driving away from me.
Thudd said:
Buses are a bugger for this.
I nearly got rear-ended the other night when I had to stop to avoid a service bus taking me out as he carved onto my side of the road while cutting a sharp downhill corner at speed.
This is exactly what I'm talking about and yes buses are also guilty of this.I nearly got rear-ended the other night when I had to stop to avoid a service bus taking me out as he carved onto my side of the road while cutting a sharp downhill corner at speed.
It's even more important for a bus driver (who incidentally must know the road quite well) or an HGV driver to adjust their speed to their surroundings.
I don't condone driving too fast for the road conditions and environment by any type of vehicle but with a bus or HGV they have a much greater stopping distance and their physical size should something go wrong is far far more destructive.
Thudd said:
Buses are a bugger for this.
I nearly got rear-ended the other night when I had to stop to avoid a service bus taking me out as he carved onto my side of the road while cutting a sharp downhill corner at speed.
ditto on the buses, the driving standards of most are terrible! I nearly got rear-ended the other night when I had to stop to avoid a service bus taking me out as he carved onto my side of the road while cutting a sharp downhill corner at speed.
I was almsot taken out by a quarry truck when working as a courier, I ended up in a farmers field as the road was barely wide enough to get one vehicle down, nevermind a truck travelling at 30mph plus.....to be fair, the guy did stop however his reason was terrible "no-one ever uses this road" as a couple of cars came to a halt behind his truck.
Its funny this topic begins now, as recently I've started driving to college and back every day, one section of road is a quite wide B-road with a lot of blind corners, yet I frequently find that large trucks come hurtling round them taking up at least a quarter of my side of the road. I've only ever reay experienced it on that particular stretch too.
After experiencing this regularly and several near misses later, I was blessed with the chance of following one of these trucks which I got stuck behind. I found he wasn't even travelling that fast, maybe 35 or 40 maximum, (i'd drive at 45 or 50 on that road safetly) yet still cut every single bend, even when it would be impossible to see round the corner, even in a truck. Worse still, he didn't even need the extra space as there was a good foot or two between him and the hedges.
I despise driving on that road because one day, something is going to go wrong. Not bashing truck drivers, just wishing they would consider the damage a truck could do to a car going half that speed, do you not agree?
After experiencing this regularly and several near misses later, I was blessed with the chance of following one of these trucks which I got stuck behind. I found he wasn't even travelling that fast, maybe 35 or 40 maximum, (i'd drive at 45 or 50 on that road safetly) yet still cut every single bend, even when it would be impossible to see round the corner, even in a truck. Worse still, he didn't even need the extra space as there was a good foot or two between him and the hedges.
I despise driving on that road because one day, something is going to go wrong. Not bashing truck drivers, just wishing they would consider the damage a truck could do to a car going half that speed, do you not agree?
Louisa911 said:
Its funny this topic begins now, as recently I've started driving to college and back every day, one section of road is a quite wide B-road with a lot of blind corners, yet I frequently find that large trucks come hurtling round them taking up at least a quarter of my side of the road. I've only ever reay experienced it on that particular stretch too.
After experiencing this regularly and several near misses later, I was blessed with the chance of following one of these trucks which I got stuck behind. I found he wasn't even travelling that fast, maybe 35 or 40 maximum, (i'd drive at 45 or 50 on that road safetly) yet still cut every single bend, even when it would be impossible to see round the corner, even in a truck. Worse still, he didn't even need the extra space as there was a good foot or two between him and the hedges.
I despise driving on that road because one day, something is going to go wrong. Not bashing truck drivers, just wishing they would consider the damage a truck could do to a car going half that speed, do you not agree?
After experiencing this regularly and several near misses later, I was blessed with the chance of following one of these trucks which I got stuck behind. I found he wasn't even travelling that fast, maybe 35 or 40 maximum, (i'd drive at 45 or 50 on that road safetly) yet still cut every single bend, even when it would be impossible to see round the corner, even in a truck. Worse still, he didn't even need the extra space as there was a good foot or two between him and the hedges.
I despise driving on that road because one day, something is going to go wrong. Not bashing truck drivers, just wishing they would consider the damage a truck could do to a car going half that speed, do you not agree?
Certainly do!
You are right about certain roads, I guess the nature of the road may encourage the driving style somewhat (looking wider than it really is etc)??
Kentish said:
This is getting more and more common and dangerous.
I left home this morning and within 2 minutes had to take evasive action b/c of lorries going too fast in 30mph limit around bends at approx 50, needless to say they had to use the centre of the road to make it around the bends.
Its always happened, my dad spent 10 months in hospital in 1981 when an artic cut a corner and the trailer went over his car. It was a 3 lane rd, 2 lanes going up hill one lane down, lorry was coming down as dad was going up in the overtaking lane. Police said the lorry driver was doing no wrong as "its to be expected" that the trailer won't follow the lanes.. crap if he was going at a sensible speed i.e. one where he could follow the outside of the corner the trailer wouldn't have been onthe wrong side of the double white lines.I left home this morning and within 2 minutes had to take evasive action b/c of lorries going too fast in 30mph limit around bends at approx 50, needless to say they had to use the centre of the road to make it around the bends.
Kentish said:
This is getting more and more common and dangerous.
1.Do commercial HGV drivers have to maintain a standard or does it work like an ordinary PLG vehicle test where it's usually taken once in the drivers lifetime?
2.It's bad enough that car drivers standards have dropped but someone in charge of something so huge and potentially lethal to other people should really have some sense of responsibility, after all ....he is driving for a living
1.Not at present, under EC rules driver CPC (Certificate of Proffesional Competence)came into effect earlier this month for PCV drivers. This means that all existing drivers will have to attend 35 hours training within a 5 year period. There are potentially a wide range of courses they can attend to qualify so hopefully many will re-address issues such as defensive driving, attitude, H&S etc. The same scheme comes into effect next year for all LGV drivers. I can't wait to see how some Eastern European countries will comply with this directive!!1.Do commercial HGV drivers have to maintain a standard or does it work like an ordinary PLG vehicle test where it's usually taken once in the drivers lifetime?
2.It's bad enough that car drivers standards have dropped but someone in charge of something so huge and potentially lethal to other people should really have some sense of responsibility, after all ....he is driving for a living
2.Having driven both PCVs & LGVs for a living I could not agree more.
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