Lorry driver shunting car does not notice Clio

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Thu 18 Mar 2010 10:55
Lorry driver shunting car does not notice Clio - diddy1234

I just checked Sky News and there is an amazing (and horrifying) story of a Lorry driver driving along the A1m with a Renault Clio stuck across the front.

Aparently he didn't even notice.

I understand that the Lorry would have cruise control but how can the lorry driver not notice ?

I am asking as I cannot understand how it can happen and not be noticed.

Link

Note : you may need to highlight the link and copy and paste into the web browser to work. Sorry.

Link fixed - WKS

Edited by WellKnownSid on 18/03/2010 at 11:30

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Thu 18 Mar 2010 17:11
Lorry driver shunting car does not notice Clio - JH

I agree diddy, I don't see how the car cannot have been seen (it's on the BBC news website too). http://tinyurl.com/ydc9wlj

Can any lorry driver comment?

And yet the police don't seem to be traeting it as anything more than a minor collision!

JH

Edited by JH on 18/03/2010 at 17:11

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Thu 18 Mar 2010 21:01
Lorry driver shunting car does not notice Clio - Glaikit Wee Scunner {P}

Call the emergency services you northern chav.

And madam , press that thing in the middle of your steering wheel.

Blinking Nora!

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Thu 18 Mar 2010 22:31
Lorry driver shunting car does not notice Clio - R75

The clio is right in the blind spot, the road is wet and the truck is easily pushing the car, truck cabs are now very insular so you hear very little of the outside world. I can easily see how the clio went un noticed for so long. If it had been dry then it would have been a different story.

The next question is how it got there? You normally see that type of accident with left hand drive trucks, so was the car in the wrong by pulling into the front corner of the truck, or did the truck pull into the car? I suppose the Police will try to answer that one.

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Thu 18 Mar 2010 23:18
Lorry driver shunting car does not notice Clio - Andrew-T

If the 'blind spot' is big enough to hide a Clio with fore and aft lights on, something should be done to improve cab design. And if cabs are that well insulated against sound (I have no objection to warmth) that should be looked at too. I suspect someone's mind was not fully on the job - loud music, satnav, mobile phone, whatever.

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Fri 19 Mar 2010 08:36
Lorry driver shunting car does not notice Clio - b308

Its lucky it was wet. I suspect it may have been very different without the water acting as a lubricant on the road!

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Fri 19 Mar 2010 08:49
Lorry driver shunting car does not notice Clio - JH
b308, good point. Burst tyres, rims dig in, cab goes over Clio.... gulp :-(

JH
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Fri 19 Mar 2010 13:27
Lorry driver shunting car does not notice Clio - Tornadorot

Wouldn't be surprised if it was a severe case of road rage, going by some of the things I've read in the news recently...

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Fri 19 Mar 2010 18:07
Lorry driver shunting car does not notice Clio - Sofa Spud

although it's a horrifying and unbelievable scene, we only see a short video.

It's difficult to imagine that the lorry driver didn't feel there was something wrong even if he couldn't see the car, which seems unlikely.

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Fri 19 Mar 2010 20:54
Lorry driver shunting car does not notice Clio - Harleyman

What R75 said about the blind spot. I've seen that happen before, on the M1 a few years ago near attercliffe viaduct. Same result, car driver unhurt. It looks worse than it is.

Posters who haven't driven an artic should be aware that stopping one from maximum speed (56 mph) on a wet motorway requires a fair bit more distance than your Mondeo. I suspect the driver, once he was aware of the Clio, would have been careful NOT to swerve or do anything too dramatic in case it made things worse.

as to HOW it happened; it's a regular occurrence on a newly-wet motorway. Drivers forget that the rain has brought up several weeks worth of powdered tyre, grease, dust and whatever, fail to drive accordingly, and would normally end up facing t'other way on the central reservation or hard shoulder. Saw three suchlike yesterday. This car driver was lucky, actually; if he'd bounced off the middle of the trailer or suchlike he'd have ended up as a 4-wheeled pinball.

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Thu 25 Mar 2010 08:22
Lorry driver shunting car does not notice Clio - OG

I find it hard to believe the driver didn't notice, apart from the drag and the noise there must've been a lot of burning rubber.

What was he doing in the outside lane anyway?

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Wed 2 Jun 2010 06:39
Lorry driver shunting car does not notice Clio - pda

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/lancashire/10162158.stm

I thought some of you would like to see how this turned out.

Pat

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Wed 2 Jun 2010 08:19
Lorry driver shunting car does not notice Clio - oilrag

It doesn`t take much to spin a car around on a motorway.

I knew someone who was overtaking another car - he pulled in too soon and caught his rear bumper against the front bumper of the car he was overtaking. Apparantly it was just a light sideways contact, but his car was turned sideways and then he found himself going backwards - brakes locked - tyres howling and with great good fortune onto the hard shoulder - facing the wrong way.

This was in the old metal bumper days and his car showed no signs of contact. He said it was just the lightest of touches and his car was sideways.

I`m not commenting at all on the situation outined here. But rather suggesting it just needs the lightest, brushing contact on a cars rear quarter to spin it round at motorway speeds.

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Wed 2 Jun 2010 10:22
Lorry driver shunting car does not notice Clio - b308

Even more so as it was in the wet (fortunately!) which also reduces friction even further.

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Wed 2 Jun 2010 11:31
Lorry driver shunting car does not notice Clio - veryoldbear

The morals of the story are:

  • Be very careful about blind spots.
  • If you can't see their mirrors they can't see you.
  • Be doubly careful with foreign LHD HGV's

and of course:

  • Always wear clean underwear

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Wed 2 Jun 2010 14:44
Lorry driver shunting car does not notice Clio - skittles

find it hard to believe the driver didn't notice, apart from the drag and the noise there must've been a lot of burning rubber.

What was he doing in the outside lane anyway?

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These vehicles are designed to haul over 20 tons+ so a little Clio weighing what a ton or less would not cause it that much resistance especially if it was wet. As for the noise he might have had the radio on high, are we going to ban the use of music in vehicles now and the bonnet of the car was ahead of the driver so it was much lower then the rest of the car

What was he doing in the outside lane anyway?

Maybe he was turning off or the road was splitting or their was road works

New technology - as now fitted to top range cars - should prevent this happening in years to come, when eventually trucks get fitted with it

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