"you ****"

Mr Monster, as you called me a **** i think i shall reply to your post.

richie, sorry for doing this on your thread but he was horrid to me!

what did i say that was incorrect? i have reread my post and it seems all in order. In fact many people have suggested that while harsh i am completly correct.

if i am only suggesting the reality then why am i a ****?

do you want me to post "ohh, the nasty driver- he should have pulled over checked you were ok and bought you some flowers to say hes sorry"

wake up and smell the coffee, where do you live Narnia? i was commenting on the real world where the trucker doesnt give a to55 and thats life- nor will the cops because.... i wont bother why, i explained in my first post.

the day i get over taken by Aslan in an eight wheeler is the day truckers will let you in without being a **** about it. thats life.

its also highly likey that no one at the firm will care, time will tell and if this guy gets a result (appology for example) then i will be the first to say well done. but i doubt it, again- i did not design the reality of bosses who dont care but i feel i should be able to comment without insult.

Tiggs

ps-"Would the lorry driver been having a laugh and a bacon butty if Richies car had not gone over the kerb and bounced back into the path blah, blah, blah, blah...."

whats your point sunshine? if i see you fall on your butt by slipping on a banana i will laugh. if you slip on a banana, topple over a cliff, drown in the sea, get eaten by a shark and pooed all over the sea bed i wont laugh. and? so? what?

 

nor am i!!!!! im a lowly scaffolding boss who always gets sued!

 

lol- roy, i missed your post!

maybe the pretend bit should have been bigger!

still at least you held back from childish insults

Tiggs

 

Richie,

I think commenting on whether you were in the right or the wrong here is not the point. Most people would expect other drivers to be reasonably courteous and let you in to the carriageway in the situation you described.

I have worked as a transport manager for large Logistics company and based on this experience would suggest the following.

Contact the firm by phone and discuss what happened with contract/transport manager. Be reasonable and do not get agitated. Accept the point of law that states that technically you have to give way, but state that you felt that the driver's actions were perhaps over the top.

If this happened with one of my drivers I would not be able to take any kind of action against him, except hear his side of the story. If he denied it or claimed that he was right, then without any independent witnesses I would not be able to make any judgment on it either way, or take action against him. I would be in a tribunal in a flash.

On this occasion the driver may know he has been lucky and been able to blag his way out of it. However, if a similar incident should be reported, then a pattern will emerge which would lead me to be doubt his story. If the driver knows he has been reported he will know to be careful in future and may adjust his driving.

It will very much depend on how professional and ethical the company in question is and what type of person the transport manager is.

As a last resort phone the firm up, tell them that their driver put you off the road this morning, then tell them that you work for the Ministry of Transport and that they can expect a visit in the next week. This will **** them up if nothing else does.

Regards
IanF

 

Many more bacon sandwiches combined with your nasty attitude and you'll have a heart attack, Tiggs.

 

thats very witty mate- you look it up in a book of witty things?

instead of thinking up such side splitting post try reading mine- i never said i eat bacon, you appear to be confused with someone saying what may happen with someone saying what they do- dont worry my kids guinea pig makes the same mistake at times.

also what have i said thats nasty? please point it out now.

Tiggs

 

Tiggs,
think most people have missed you 'let's pretend shall we' bit, which seems to be causing some problems!

oh, and I'll have a bacon sarnie if you've got a spare on

 

markus,

perhaps, but as i said this:
"lets pretend shall we!....

im the supervisor of this trucker.."
did they also think i really was the boss of the bloke involved in this incident? muppets!

 

Guys

You may not like what Tiggs has said but lets be realistic hear 9 times outta 10 he's gonna be correct.

I bet lots of us have had similar things happen but one question RichieB...what do you drive? and how did the guy close the gap so fast that you didn't notice??

Sorry that's 2 questions but you get my drift...

Just asking

Mike





[Edited by RB170 - 3/22/2002 3:47:38 PM]

 

Oh at last some common sense here !!

I've been amazed at some (not all) of the comments I've been reading, and I'm probably going to upset a few with my comments.

To try to illustrate my point when I was a mere youth (this is totally true btw) I hit an old woman at a zebra crossing who stepped straight out in front of me giving me ZERO chance to do anything more than brake, swerve and reduce the impact. Although seriously injured she survived AND there were witnesses. Who's fault ? According to the law AND the highway code mine. Fortuntately although I was prosecuted they agreed to drop the careless driving charge and the judge was lenient on the other charges. The insurance co had a few bob to pay out in damages as well.

There is a big difference between driving morals and driving law, and although I clearly wasn't there you have no legal defence, it's arguable whether 4-5 car lengths is enough room and why did you not see the gap closing when you tried to pull out, was this other vehicle supercharged ?

Yep, the other driver may have been a complete t$sser but you've learnt now not to make assumptions. Would you have tried for the same gap in a mini ?

Also after being a regular passenger in a bus and an HGV I know who are the safer class of drivers on the road, what idiots they have to put up with and I give them the respect and the room they deserve. Hey, you can even do that AND have fun in your Scoob !!!!!!!

 

I knew I had to give way, and I did so to the truck in front of the *rse who ran me off. I had subconsciously checked the relative speeds of the traffic, adjusted my speed accordingly and was executing a SAFE move onto the carriageway.... Until this guy decided he was going to try to kill us. He knew there was no hard shoulder, and nowhere for me to go. There was bugger all I could do at that point. Like Tiggs says, there are nasty b*stards in this world. The fact that my wife was threatened like this makes it harder to accept.

The fact that he was laughing when we took his details says it all, doesn't it? We made no gestures of any kind to provoke this nutter.

Rich

 

EBRWRX,

prepare to be insulted for express the common sense view!

 

Just before anyone misunderstands I don't doubt that this other guy was a complete &rse + the situation is not the best start to the day.

I just never take chances with my life

 

NO...let's stop this right now. I have described the situation to the best of my ability. I did not take any chances with my life or my wifes. I simply wouldn't do that!!!!

Yes, I will take a prodigious amount of care with these F*ckers in future. You can count on that!!!! But I was certainly a victim. And I will make a complaint about this person, whether it comes to anything or not.

Rich

 

Tell you what. Post details of the truck and company plus their phone no. and we can all phone up to lodge a complaint against this tw@t. We have enough info to appear as if we were at the scene.
If one thing really infuriates me it's w@nkers that speed up to fill a space that you're trying to pull into. And if there's another thing, it's pig headed lorry drivers that refuse to drop below their limiters on the motorway.

He should loose his job for reckless driving and failing to stop after causing an accident - end of story!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

good idea

 

I don't want to destroy the thread by getting into a slanging match but I can't marry your last comment with your original quote. (Sorry I don't know how to do it properly so I cut + paste)

QUOTE

"There was a tanker alongside me, so I slowed down to pull in behind him onto the dual carriageway, indicating the whole time. The truck behind him had been 4 - 5 car lengths behind him as I had been coming down the ramp, so it looked a reasonable proposition to come in behind the tanker and blend in with the traffic."

Reasonable proposition ? - A Truck 4-5 lengths behind a tanker at 45-50 miles per hour is gonna do 1 of 3 things

1) Flash you when he sees you indicate to let you know you can pull in - in which case you acknowledge and go on your cheerie way

2) Refuse to back off because he's going uphill, accelerating (momentum is king) or thinks that braking is going to cause problems behind him - in which case you should have assessed the traffic conditions when you pulled onto the sliproad and prepared yourself for what he's likely to do

3) Be a complete 8rse and prevent you from coming in for the pure hell of it - in which case as he's got right of way there is bugger all you can do other than sit there and seethe.

This guy very obviously fits into category 3

One of the things I was taught early in driving life. It's not likely to be the idiot in front of you that will kill you (unless you are right up his 8rse), it is the idiot in front of him, beside or behind you.

[Rant mode off] Have a great weekend and don't take ANYTHING I've said personally, hopefully this is a board of free speech and opinions.

 

RichieB, can you post the details of the lorry so that us other poor b*st*rds in Kent can avoid the pr1ck???

Glad you are both ok, cheers MD.

ps didnt read all the posts cos I'm lazy.

 

Richie...Glad to hear you and your dear wife are ok, Right now lets get down to it, I drive for a big company (Royal Mail) and Our transport managers take a very dim view to this sort of driving, So my advice to you is hammer these ******* has hard as you can and if they are any sort of decent company they will kick his **** from here to cristmas, Did the vechicle have the 0800 number on it to report the bad driving??.... If you didn't get it mail me off line and i will get it for you because the department of transport take a very dim view on this, and lastly I hope your Scoob is ok.
Cheers
Colin

 

EBWRX

It's quite difficult to explain these things in a few short words on here, and very easy to pick holes in later. Whilst we all know the rules, these often don't stack up in the real world when there's traffic around.

The route I commute to work, if you waited for more than a 4-5 car gap, there ain't no way your getting onto the Dual Carriageway at all, not at all not for an hour at least. It's not like you can sit at the end of the slip road till the rush hour clears.

There has to be some give and take on the roads. Everything RichieB has said has been plain common sense no ?

Gary

[Edited by Gary Foster - 3/22/2002 11:17:09 PM]

 

EBR is my logging at home EBRWRX at work

I'm not disagreeing with what he is saying and he obviously had a horrific experience and came on here to see what our opinions were.

I think we've all expressed sympathy but my point is that there is no written law that says the truck should let him in. There is an unwritten law and this makes the truckdriver a complete rswipe, but you can't make a complaint on moral grounds to the OB, or expect too much sympathy from seasoned drivers.

But I did say it was nothing personal and I think I'm just trying to make a more general point that judging by a lot of the replies road awareness seems to be non-existent in far too many people.

[Edited by EBR - 3/23/2002 12:02:20 AM]

 

Sorry to hear about such a dangerous incident - glad you are both OK.

It sounds as though the cretin lorry driver deliberately accelerated so as to be on a collision course with your vehicle as you correctly-for-the-conditions merged with the flow of the traffic carriageway, forcing you to take emergency avoidance and leave the road.This could amount to the offence of Dangerous Driving if you had independent witnesses. Ignore the pedant(s) above who seem to delight in both their knowledge of the Highway Code and blaming you.The cretin's actions render their concrete application of the code immaterial. It is clearly illegal to attempt to deliberately drive a lorry into another vehicle on the road.

There should be no truck with the apologists for or perpetrators of this sort of behaviour, excuse the pun.

[Edited by zoog - 3/23/2002 7:58:32 AM]

 

Sorry if I offended you Tiggs, I can see why, seemed a fine post at the time..

So I appologise.

I am only on a flying visit this morning... looking after my daughter at the minute.

I shall respond more on monday if this is still going on.

So again, Tiggs I am sorry for calling you a **** and I am **** for calling you a ****

No offence was intended...

JGM

 

I've been in a similar situation where trying to merge from the sliproad on to a gap in slow moving traffic on the motorway,a truck sped up and filled the gap.Every time I sped up he did and every time I slowed down he did(the van I was driving is not much faster than a truck),all this while I'm driving on the hard shoulder!Eventually the traffic in front sped up sufficiently for me to accellerate into a gap but not before I'd driven about 1/2mile on the hard shoulder.This was all in a works van and when I returned to my depot I was confronted by a manager with the allegation that I'd pulled straight off the sliproad,cut the truck up,caused his load to shift and he'd had to return to his depot to reload it-the lying git.Fortunately my manager believed the treu version of events but it does go to show how awkward,dangerous and malicious some motorists can be(I don't just mean truckers).

 

I agree with the point about failing to stop and report an accident-the police do take this more seriously than if you report someone for breaking other highway laws(which you will normally get the standard "no ind witnesses"response).I have been told by an officer that the CPS in some counties are not responding to minor reported incidents without independant witnesses.

 

JGM

 

Name and shame mate as it could've been any of us that this could've happened to. The less w4nk3rz on the road, the better the world would be.

 

To the original post, and to the majority of replies, take it as far as you can without any cost to yourself. You have his employer and details, and the contracter he was driving for, report him. Claim he failed to stop after an accident, show the damage, create some if you like, just hassle and demand to know who the driver was, just make life difficult for him. For someone to create a lifethreating incident and then just laugh it off makes me really scared/mad. This guy wants his license removing.

 

As above , Don't leave it.