If cylists actually took notice of the indicators on the side of trucks waiting to turn left at traffic lights, Then that would reduce the number of fatalities and injuries every year by a huge amount..

But that's not actually what's happening in many of these cases.

Instead the truck either turns across the cyclist or passes ignoring fact that rear of vehicle (in London fatalities it's nearly always a construction tip/skip truck) will run tighter than front.

Too many of the drivers are simply not up to the task. Google the name Dennis p*** - perhaps the most egregious example but he is by no means alone.

The strange thing is that a professional drivers accident history is not officially recorded and any prospective employer has no way of knowing the standard of driver they are employing, i've always thought that accident history should be reportable and then available (linked to pro drivers digi card) to parties with justified interest.

This should apply to all people employed as drivers, whatever type of vehicle they control including cars, that way poor drivers become unemployable as they should be and those who pay peanuts to employ those monkeys lose out as uninsurable, win win all round.

You'd think that the bigger/better (not always the same) employers would allow trusted long term professionals to sit in on interviews too, but no instead interviews are often conducted by those who wouldn't know a real lorry driver from a bar of soap, and some driving assessments* are often little more than box ticking exercises where ironically some of the finest real drivers fail miserably and incompetent half wits pass with flying colours.

*where i work there is no box ticking, the assessments are completely (and rightly) based on driving and vehicle handling ability, as they should be.

All this needs international agreement (and equal standards of ability for test pass), otherwise people move countries to lose their history as ever was the case.

Too many of the drivers are simply not up to the task. Google the name Dennis p*** - perhaps the most egregious example but he is by no means alone.

Don't know why the swear filter took umbrage at surname p***. There's a link here to his history and killing of Catriona Patel tinyurl.com/7bwpb59 (link to Daily Mail).

If only you could rely on truckers using the indicators.

Bromp the ones you mention are not and never will be lorry drivers as long as they have a certain orifice, and its nothing to do with training, the employer has bought cheaply exactly what they paid for.

Indicators are all, the drivers responsibility does not end there, things such as setting up mirrors correctly keeping them and windows clean and last but not least using them correctly and actually controlling the vehicle not just attending the wheel.

Your post is telling though, you used your loaf, you saw the archtypical potential poorly driven lorry and kept yourself out of harms way as you (rightly) suspected it was driven by a chimp, and you lived to tell the tale.

Now i'm not saying it's your responsibility to drive these idiots vehicles for them, but then neither is it the good lorry drivers fault if some fool with a death wish insists on putting themselves repetitively or seemingly deliberately in the line of fire (and some do this continually, often the ones with video cameras attached to their helmets) despite the good drivers best efforts to protect idiot cyclists from themselves.

If a crunch comes the half wit at the wheel of the lorry walks away and nothing will ever change that imbalance.

Bromptonaut, Have you ever heard the saying "two wrongs don't make a right?"

well, In the on the road conflicts between a cyclist and a truck, two wrongs make a dead or injured cyclist.

Luckily you seem to be a diligent cyclist and you recognised the dangers of travelling up the inside of a truck and your still alive and well to tell that tale but, Many cyclists like Gordon Bennet has pointed out, They seem to leave their brain behind when they strap on that helmet cam.

As I often say, It is very easy to see the faults of other while completely ignoring our own.

I could tell many a tale of the cyclists I have come across in my time as a HGV driver and even when using indicators they still ride up the side at red lights and then sit in your blind spot where you can't see them. For a good HGV driver this is not soo much of a problem as they will be scanning that nearside mirror constantly while waiting for a green and will have seen that cyclist before they get into the blind spot and will know they are there but, For the chimps (as Gordon bennet called them) They won't be looking.

One company I worked for used to take a full size artic and a bicycle out to town centres and invite cyclists to sit in the driving seat and see just how it is for the driver to see the cyclist and where the blindspot is.

Before you brand all lorry drivers as incompetent, Remember we are not all the same.