Nice HGV driver - doesn't see car.

[Riding in Circles]

I was waiting for a reply from Debian about blind spots and then reply....but GrasB beat me to it.

The fact of the matter is that all vehicles have blind spots, trucks since 07 have been fitted with mirrors to mitigate the risk of what happened to the women in the OP.

But please DO NOT try and speak for the driver (or any other person) in what they was thinking or might have done.

'were'

 

[Riding in Circles]

Thank you Ian

All those Yorky bars have affected the part of your brain responsible for grammar.

 

[dondare]

I was waiting for a reply from Debian about blind spots and then reply....but GrasB beat me to it.

Just how many truckies are there on this forum site, anyway?

The fact of the matter is that all vehicles have blind spots, trucks since 07 have been fitted with mirrors to mitigate the risk of what happened to the women in the OP.

But please DO NOT try and speak for the driver (or any other person) in what they were thinking or might have done.

No need to, they all seem to post here, eventually...

 

[Rhythm Thief]

I'm not being funny, but surely you don't necessary know how many near misses you had.

You do though, because every manoevre you make while driving a truck is carried out while you watch the mirrors and everywhere else you can see. If you've just missed something, it appears pretty quickly in the mirrors or in your field of view, usually flashing its lights and gesticulating angrily out of the window. Believe me, you know when you've had a near miss.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

You listen as well? Most of the rabid callers seem to be DM reading truckers .

I only listen when there is a cycling issue or HGV issue on .

I never, ever, listen to Radio 2. Radio 4 or my Ipod, or silence. Late night Radio 2 is just horrible.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

But not usually blind spots large enough to hide an entire car.

My Citroen 2CV - not a big car by any means - does. I can easily lose a car in the wing mirrors when it's next to my rear wheels. That's why I check over my shoulder before changing lanes.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

All those Yorky bars have affected the part of your brain responsible for grammar.

"Yorkie".

 

[Debian]

But please DO NOT try and speak for the driver (or any other person) in what they were thinking or might have done.

I wasn't.

I was merely commenting on the post I quoted below. So don't attempt to malign my post please.

Two years ago one of my drivers overtook a car on the M1 and after checking all his mirrors could not see the car anywhere and presumed the car had left the Motorway at the last slip road so moved over into the nearside lane. The car which was keeping pace with him in his blind spot was caught by his truck and was flipped round to the front of the truck.The truck driver caught sight of the car as it moved out of his blind spot and stopped.So it can happen.

You see what I did there? I took someone else's words and commented on them - I didn't presume anything or make anything up.

My Citroen 2CV - not a big car by any means - does. I can easily lose a car in the wing mirrors when it's next to my rear wheels. That's why I check over my shoulder before changing lanes.

You've answered for me here.

Your 2CV has blind spots so you check to make sure there's nothing in them before manouvering. The driver referred to in the post I quoted above by KEEF didn't, he assumed the vehicle had gone elsewhere and then manoeuvred. This is nothing other than careless, or even possibly dangerous driving.

The obvious thing to have done would have been to have slowed down, then, if the car was still in the blind spot it would get ahead and become visible.

 

[Browser]

The follow-up article I read stated that the lady driving the Clio had carried out some sort of unsafe manouvre entering the motorway, which is apparrently how/why she ended up where she did.
All vehicles have blind spots, short of fitting them with radar or all-glass top-halves you'll never get rid of that.
Here's an idea, invest a shedload of cash and put all of the heavy freight back on the railways, which are designed for carrying heavier loads than roads after all, and reduce the number of HGVs out there. Then all you'd need would be fleets of smaller 3.5-tonners doing local deliveries! Oh, hang on a mo, more 3.5-tonners? Maybe that's not such a good idea.........

 

[Origamist]

All vehicles have blind spots, short of fitting them with radar or all-glass top-halves you'll never get rid of that.

In this case a class VI mirror would have been sufficient.

Pic here: http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgu...mirror&um=1&hl=en&safe=active&sa=N&tbs=isch:1

 

[Riding in Circles]

"Yorkie".

That is spelling rather than grammar. I would explain the difference but as you are a truck driver......

 

[Riding in Circles]

I remember when I was a teenager there was a tractor unit where the cab was low down, almost level with that of a car driver.

What happened to that idea?

I remember that, the trailer projected over the top of the cab as well, quite aerodynamic if I remember rightly.

 

[dondare]

Here's an idea:- everyone stop buying so much stuff. I'm sure you don't really need half of it.

 

[Riding in Circles]

Here's an idea:- everyone stop buying so much stuff. I'm sure you don't really need half of it.

I have an idea, most stuff we buy we never use, so I am opening a virtual shop where you get to spend real money to buy virtual products which are then put in your virtual junk room, you can visit them any time on line and even part exchange them for new virtual stuff. So you can always have the most up to date virtual stuff around and you help the environment because they are not physically shipped anywhere.

£200 for a virtual ipod anyone?

 

[Rhythm Thief]

I remember when I was a teenager there was a tractor unit where the cab was low down, almost level with that of a car driver.

What happened to that idea?

You wouldn't have the forward vision to stop a fully freighted truck in time. Being so high up allows the driver to see situations developing a long way up the road and react nice and early.
This incident was, regardless of how many blind spots a DAF 95 cab has, a freak. In most similar cases, something will alert the driver to the presence of a car across their bows. It's just that in this case, something didn't. You can't extrapolate from one odd case to every truck in Britain.