The guy who taught me German many years ago at Siemens emailed me a few weeks ago, with a rant about a lorry which had tailgated him.
He had entered the road works on the Thelwall Viaduct, and was in lane 1, sticking to the 40 mph limit when a lorry came right up behind him and started to flash lights and honk horn. He stood his ground and the lorry eventually pulled out and overtook him, before pulling in sharply in an attempt to cut him up.
His email was just a rant to people, to let off steam, but I replied and told him he should report it to the police, as from experience they send out a warning letter. I was on the receiving end of such a letter 11 years ago, as a new driver when I performed an almost suicidal (and murderous) manouevre.
So he reported it to the police, and to my and his surprise they came out and took a statement. He has just emailed me again to say that the police had actually bothered to view camera footage of the area and had the incident on tape and were now prosecuting the lorry driver for dangerous driving.
At least Wigan police seem to be interested in motoring incidents other than speeding!
Result!
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Pdc
What a welcome heartwarming story. I won't discourage SWMBO from noting miscreants' reg nos any more - since she never used to do anything about it.
--
Terry
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I still think their (HGV) driving is better than most - it has to be.
But my closest brush with the other side happened on a roundabout - when a Petrol Tanker came haring through the outside lane (the lights had just changed) and cut over the lane where I was. If I hadn't looked in the mirror then we would have been underneath the lorry - maniac.
Somehow didn't get round to reporting it.
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That's a good result. Last time a lorry did it to me (also in a 40 limit at roadworks), I rang the transport manager at his company to complain, and followed it up in writing. Unfortunately I got fobbed off (though I hope the driver got a shot across his bows).
I've also rung the 'am I driving carefully' number on five occasions - one to report bad driving and four to say I thought their driver was excellent (and in one case the alertness of the driver had probably saved the life of a stupid driver in an Escort who had cut across him).
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Nice one!
I never fail to be amazed though at the lorries who tailgate each other. Every time I go on a trip I see at least two HGVs connected together by an invisible tow rope approximately 10 feet long. Doesn't the following driver realise who's going to get hurt if the HGV in front has to slam its anchors on..?
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What about the average car driver who over takes a lorry only to pull infornt as they can,t get any further up the road and invade the lorry drivers safe distance. You might be able to stop a car with ABS in a short distance but try it with a 44 ton lorry and it takes considerably longer.Who would be to blame if the there was a accident and the car driver ended up as a fatality having just pulled in ? As for tailgating what about the tailgating cars doing 85+ in the outside lane don,t they realise who's going to get hurt if the car in front slams its anchors on.
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My own experience is that HGV drivers are some of the best. Some of them do tailgate and do other bad things, but it's much much rarer than cars.
I have had a few very scary encounters with really dangerously driven HGVs, but mercifully they are pretty rare. I dread to think what the roads would be like if some of the wild roadhogs in cars got behind the wheel of a truck!
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When I'm on either the motorbike or pushbike, I'd rather it was an 'average' HGV behind me than an 'average' car driver.
I've picked up something from a friend recently... I start each journey with ten points, and deduct a point or half point each time I do something potentially dangerous/silly. If I get home scoring 7/10 I've done well. I find it really helps to focus the mind on improving my driving skills and I'd commend it.
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Marlot I'm OT on this but your point is an outstanding one and worthy of close attention by all of us, so I'll take the liberty of hi-jacking the thread (ducks for cover).
I ride (as everybody by now must be sick of hearing). Our little group always does a de-brief round the bar at the end of the day as to how the ride went, who did what, what could have been better, what should/should not happen next time etc. It's a salutary experience and we give each other no mercy.
We have learned that we ourselves are actually our harshest judges.
An excellent discipline I feel. Translating it into points is even better and I will bring that up with my mates next trip. Thanks.
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Ok, here's my tuppen'orth (shows my age!).
Friday before last, I was on the M25 clockwise, queueing for the M3 exit. As is usually the way, once we reached the sliproad, traffic suddenly speeded up. As I reached about 40, I'd got to the point where the link road bends pretty sharply. At that moment, I noticed in my mirror, an artic from a company I won't name (not that you'd recognise it) coming up at my rear at, I assume, 56 mph. It came up to around 5 feet from my back bumper (I wish I was joking) and hung there.
Now, bear in mind that visibility round the bend was perhaps 40-50 yards and there was a good chance of queuing traffic round the bend. I'm an experienced driver and I was terrified. There was no escape from the situation. I very gently eased off to increase the gap between me and the car in front. This clearly aggravated the driver, who came so close I thought he'd hit me. As soon as we went round the corner and the road widened (joined another sliproad) he passed me as closely as it was possible to do, then cut in front of me.
As I said, I have the odd mile under my wheels, and I spent the next five miles trying to work out what I did to cause this and what I could have done once he'd started to make it safer. All I can assume is that either I had annoyed him at some point on the M25 - if so, I don't know what I did; alternatively, he was just hacked off at having to queue on a Friday evening and I was the nearest target for his aggression.
Having seen the item at the head of this thread, I've now reported it to the Police.
I should add that my reaction was in no way helped by the fact that I was on my way to a final appointment with the psychiatrist for treatment following my accident last September when I was rear-ended on the Motorway.
My experience with lorry drivers is that they seem to be either magnificent (the vast majority) or truly abysmal, like this one.
V.
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Yes - good idea. I was "involved" in a similar system from about 30 years ago.
Only difference was start at 100 and "pass" was 85.
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