Article from a lorry driver who hit a cyclist

[Peter Armstrong]

Ps not that its a rule to pip on the way past but use of horn cos I know somones going to nit pick at that also

 

[Peter Armstrong]

And yes some people do need a pip of the horn like the bloody guy that got ran over for not knowing the truck was there! No its not rocket science, but thankx for pointing out the painfully bleeding ovious.

 

[lulubel]

So to complete a safe overtake one wants a large distance to the vehicle/person being overtaken & a high overtaking speed to minimise the amount of time the overtaker, overtakee & the oncoming car are all in direct road space conflict!

What do you call a high overtaking speed? 50mph? 60mph?

 

[Tigerbiten]

If u dont like a toot from a horn then dont ride on the road.

Got a spare anti-gravity unit ............. :P

My recumbent trike-trailer rig is ~3.5 meters long and ~1 meter wide and can easily hit speeds of +30 mph downhill.
I find that roads are so much safer to ride due to fact that most cycle paths are not designed/built for something so non-standard to use them.
I've underseat streering so no weight on my hand, so its dead easy to let go of the right handle bar to wave at traffic. My lefthand side ball and socket joint is locked to the left handle bar so it wont bounce off.
If I can see its safe to overtake then I will normally wave a lorry/bus passed from behind and once it's safely passed I will give it a thumbs up to show its safe to pull back in.
The thinks that helps the driver alot, both in showing that I know the lorry/bus is behind me and when its safe to pull in.
A lot of the time I get a flash of the indicators in thanks .........

 

[GrasB]

What do you call a high overtaking speed? 50mph? 60mph?

For what road under, what conditions?

 

[Tigerbiten]

What do you call a high overtaking speed? 50mph? 60mph?

I don't mind any traffic passing me with a 50-60 mph difference in speed as long as there is enough room so that if I need to move out a couple of foot due to a big pot hole, I won't get hit.
At speed for me this normally means the vehicle overtaking me is fully over the carriageway white line.

What I don't like is drivers with the mentally "I've got to overtake no matter what".
Then they either try and race you for a pinch point or they are the 3rd-4th vehicle trying to overtake in the face of oncoming traffic.

 

[mickle]

Horns on motor vehicles aren't suitable for 'use' on pedestrians & cyclists when you have a direct sight line to them unless it's an emergency. They are too loud & startle people which means the victim is more likly to fall over/off their bike

As for this low speed overtaking malarkey, what are you trying to do maximise the danger to all road users?!
Let me put this in context here - An overtake on a single carriageway is the the most dangerous legal manoeuvre one can do. A proper overtake puts two vehicles into a head on collision trajectory with a high closing speed. As one vehicle should be (almost) completely in the oncoming carriageway. With these high closing speeds, remember at a mear 30mph the closing speed is 60mph, the required distances are large & reaction times will typically be longer than normal as people try to work out what's going on. So to complete a safe overtake one wants a large distance to the vehicle/person being overtaken & a high overtaking speed to minimise the amount of time the overtaker, overtakee & the oncoming car are all in direct road space conflict!

Thanks for the driving lesson. Whats with the presumption that the overtaking vehicle has some kind of entitlement to get past? Whatever happened to patience?

 

[400bhp]

Thanks for the driving lesson. Whats with the presumption that the overtaking vehicle has some kind of entitlement to get past? Whatever happened to patience?

That's completely out of context Mickle - he's saying that if a vehicle is going to overtake, it needs to be done quickly and safetly.

 

[slowmotion]

Obviously, the lorry driver's story is one-sided but it has the ring of truth about it, doesn't it? It seems he ended up in the ditch trying to avoid the cyclist. He also showed concern for him after the "accident" (am I allowed to use that word or will the semantic nit-pickers crawl all over me?). Is it surprising that he does what he can to avoid a repetition?
Chapeau to him.

 

[growingvegetables]

A proper overtake puts two vehicles into a head on collision trajectory with a high closing speed.

Kinda hard to accord the rest of your post with anything like the respect it may be due, after that.

 

[avalon]

Sometimes accidents just happen, it may have been the fault of one or other of the people involved and most of the time a small error in judgement does not have such catastrophic consequences. We all make them, a wobble while reaching for the water bottle, swerving to avoid a pothole without looking behind first, driving around a bend a bit too fast and touching the white line.
Most truck drivers are well aware of other road users and are highly skilled at what they do. Unfortunately though, a lot of other road users are not aware of a trucks limitations in manouvering and stopping safely.

 

[Globalti]

My Dad killed a cyclist when I was about 13; it was an elderly man who was almost blind, almost deaf, had no lights or brakes and had been warned repeatedly by his family not to go out on his bike. He came straight out of a side road in front of my Dad's car, through the windscreen and died in my parents' laps, his neck gashed open by the wing mirror. The Police came and checked every single detail of the car, which was in first-class condition. They told my Dad that if there had been any defect he could have been prosecuted for manslaughter but in the end the coroner's verdict was that he wasn't to blame. He never spoke about it but would always flinch and brake when he saw cyclists coming out of side roads. That's why I am fanatical about keeping my own car clean and tidy and in good order.

 

[Drago]

He didn't hit a cyclist. He hit a chump on a bicycle.

I know that stretch of road well, and there is something about it that makes all users want to drive/ride like utter twonks.

 

[Peter Armstrong]

My Dad killed a cyclist when I was about 13; it was an elderly man who was almost blind, almost deaf, had no lights or brakes and had been warned repeatedly by his family not to go out on his bike. He came straight out of a side road in front of my Dad's car, through the windscreen and died in my parents' laps, his neck gashed open by the wing mirror. The Police came and checked every single detail of the car, which was in first-class condition. They told my Dad that if there had been any defect he could have been prosecuted for manslaughter but in the end the coroner's verdict was that he wasn't to blame. He never spoke about it but would always flinch and brake when he saw cyclists coming out of side roads. That's why I am fanatical about keeping my own car clean and tidy and in good order.

Thats horrible, im sorry.

 

[asterix]

nowt wrong with a driver sounding their horn to alert another road user to their presence... isn't this what horns are for?

this is what they seem to do when i was in turkey... every car would beep the car in front before passing them... took some getting used to, but maybe us Brits are too horn-shy.

Not so sure. When I was in the fast lane in my van some guy in a 4x4 Volvo used his horn to alert me of his presence. He kept his hand on the tit the entire time it took me to pass 4 artics. He may have had his lights on full beam too but because he was quite close behind I couldn't see his lights. I think I may have been preventing him from exceeding the speed limit by about 60mph since that appeared to be his desired speed when I let him by.

In France drivers occasionally bip the horn on quite rural roads when there is about one car every couple of hours. So long as they are a good distance away it's fine by me.