Article from a lorry driver who hit a cyclist

[Hitchington]

"As I got level with the cyclist he just turned right. Never looked, never put his arm up. If he’d looked, he wouldn’t have done it, but he just did it. "

I think this was the problem. No blame to a driver that hits someone who hasn't looked and signalled.

 

[on the road]

I think it's partly his fault, I've had lorries overtake me and straddle the white line but lorries are wider than cars so even they are straddling the white line they are still too close IMO. And also, maybe I can give him the benefit of the doubt because he's (probably) not a cyclist but once when I was driving there was a cyclist in front of me so I moved over to the second lane so that he had a lane to himself but he suddenly move over into my lane without signaling and without looking behind him but at least I wasn't so close to him that I couldn't react in time.

 

[GrasB]

Slowly driving past when committed to the overtake only succeeds in INCREASING the danger to all parties involved. My top 10 of the noticeable overtakes for their safety & my comfort level have all come from vehicles exceeding the speed limit (The top 3 by a considerable margin). I'd much prefer a motorist to commit to the overtake in a positive & robust manner than waft past taking 3 or 4 seconds longer than needed because they don't know what their gears & accelerator pedal are for.

 

[doug]

Was the lorry driver overtaking at a junction ?
Doesn't excuse the cyclist for not indicating and moving without checking behind, but would mean the driver is partly to blame.

The cyclist may have been turning into a driveway or bridleway which the driver may not have been aware of though.

https://www.gov.uk/using-the-road-159-to-203/overtaking-162-to-169

167

DO NOT overtake where you might come into conflict with other road users. For example

• approaching or at a road junction on either side of the road

 

[Dan B]

Slowly driving past when committed to the overtake only succeeds in INCREASING the danger to all parties involved. My top 10 of the noticeable overtakes for their safety & my comfort level have all come from vehicles exceeding the speed limit (The top 3 by a considerable margin). I'd much prefer a motorist to commit to the overtake in a positive & robust manner than waft past taking 3 or 4 seconds longer than needed because they don't know what their gears & accelerator pedal are for.

Especially in a brick-shaped vehicle, though, the faster you overtake the further out you need to be to avoid buffetting the cyclist with your wake. In a really big brick-shaped vehicle I would not be surprised if even the other side of the road is not far enough.

Edit to add: I'm not saying this is what happened here, as that would be pure speculation. I'm just making the genral observation

 

[Arsen Gere]

There's one part of this story that interests me, and I'm not sure if anyone else has noticed it:


So many large vehicles go flying past me when I'm on the roads, and it's bloody scary, even if they are right on the other side of the road. If you haven't got a problem with your hearing, you can hear a lorry thundering up behind you - I grip the bars and think, "Hold your line, don't look round," because I've found they pass closer if I look round - but if you're listening to music so loud that you can't hear a lorry approaching, you probably won't notice the horn either.

The local bus drivers around here are obviously well trained because they give you plenty of room, and they slow down when they pass you, but so many drivers seem to think they're driving well because they're on the other side of the road, when all they need to do to make your experience of being passed more comfortable and less terrifying is to slow down.

Correct me if I am wrong but the Spanish highway code states there must be a white line between the vehicle and a cyclist. So if you are in one carriageway on the left of the line nearest the curb they should be in the other carriageweay.

 

[VamP]

Slowly driving past when committed to the overtake only succeeds in INCREASING the danger to all parties involved. My top 10 of the noticeable overtakes for their safety & my comfort level have all come from vehicles exceeding the speed limit (The top 3 by a considerable margin). I'd much prefer a motorist to commit to the overtake in a positive & robust manner than waft past taking 3 or 4 seconds longer than needed because they don't know what their gears & accelerator pedal are for.

Conversely, the dithering start - then stop - then pull into you as oncoming traffic appears is one of my most hated types of overtaking, second only to deliberately aggressive passes.

 

[lulubel]

Correct me if I am wrong but the Spanish highway code states there must be a white line between the vehicle and a cyclist. So if you are in one carriageway on the left of the line nearest the curb they should be in the other carriageweay.

It's actually on the right here

The point is that it's much less unpleasant, in my opinion, to be passed by an artic doing 30mph on the other side of the road than one doing 50mph. (Yes, I know about speed limits. And how many lorries stick to them?)

I'm not blaming the lorry driver for the accident - the cyclist turned in front of him without any warning, and he did his best to try and avoid him, and that seems pretty clear cut to me - but his reaction to it is to try and make sure cyclists are aware of him, so they can avoid doing anything stupid. It doesn't seem to have occured to him to change the way he drives so that, if something similar happens in the future, he has a better chance of avoiding a collision.

He's putting the responsibility for cyclists' safety on the cyclists, whereas I was taught (as a bus driver) that it was my responsibility to anticipate the dangerous actions of other road users, and to avoid putting myself in a position where I had no chance of missing them if they did something stupid.

 

[RiflemanSmith]

Maybe. We haven't heard from the cyclist. There are always two sides to a story. Sounding his truck horn as he passes every cyclist is excessive.

This.
It is easy to get away with stuff if it can't be proved that you were at fault.

 

[400bhp]

Conversely, the dithering start - then stop - then pull into you as oncoming traffic appears is one of my most hated types of overtaking, second only to deliberately aggressive passes.

Yup, usually driving at 3/4 on you too (wing level with you).

 

[jayonabike]

It is easy to get away with stuff if it can't be proved that you were at fault.

Yeah thats it blame the lorry driver, it must be his fault, he's not a law abiding cyclist, whos every move on the road is perfect.

Only yesterday in my lorry, I had just turned left off a roundabout, in traffic, traveling at about 20 mph and a cyclist squeezed up the inside with inches to spare. He then pulled over to my right between me and the car in front, overtook him, weaved back into the left and went up the inside of 3 or 4 cars. No hand signals, didn't look behind, nothing. Complete idiot. If I had of squashed him, I'd of been arrested through no fault of my own, but then I'm a lawbreaking lorry driver.

 

[lulubel]

Crankarm's right, though. We've only heard one side of the story. And if the cyclist has no memory of the collision, he'll never be able to say what happened from his point of view.

I'm not saying this is true in the case of this lorry driver, but .....

I have noticed with some horn-sounding drivers that they seem to use their horn as an alternative to driving carefully - as in, "I'll drive like a maniac, but use my horn so everyone knows I'm there and can keep out of my way." It's probably a very easy mindset to get into.

 

[siadwell]

I have noticed with some horn-sounding drivers that they seem to use their horn as an alternative to driving carefully - as in, "I'll drive like a maniac, but use my horn so everyone knows I'm there and can keep out of my way." It's probably a very easy mindset to get into.

A bit like drivers who park anywhere, but it's OK 'cos they put their hazard warning lights on.

 

[Peter Armstrong]

I've not read the article yet but I have had trucks etc give me a quick pip of the horn to let me know they are passing, I find it helpfull.

 

[Peter Armstrong]

"Mr James now sounds his horn at every cyclist he passes, to warn them that he is there. He gets a lot of angry responses to this"

Why would people get angry? are they that stupid they dont reolise he is letting peopl know his presence.

Afterall that is what the "horn" is intended for, people seem to use it when they are pissed off, and therefore people take offence, but shouldnt