Another victim of a foreign truck

Flying-High_2

Like RHD trucks can have a nasty blindspot when changing lanes to the right.. the Left hookers are even worse... There was a massive campaign at the a ports a few months back spelling out the dangers and trying to persuade the fitment of blindspot mirrors to LHD trucks coming in.......

bigjl

Gandalfthesecond wrote: »

Can you back that up with anything?

The Police don't have to respond to a request for help simply because it comes via a 999 call.

Somebody will be on soon saying I am wrong, but unless they have spent ten years attending 1 or 2 999 calls every week where the Police had refused to attend then I think it is safe that you can accept my opinion on that.

They do have targets regarding attendance in certain circumtances, this may cause confusion for some people, but if attendance is not thought needed then they don't attend, they may send a copper down the next day, or give you a call, but the most likely occurance is they will try to divert the call to the ambulance service.

I haven't seen anything that says you can drive and use your phone if you are dialling 999, not even the emergancy services are exempt from this law. Not saying they don't do it, but there is no exemption to the offence.

Foreign registered cars and vans are on a veritable crime spree in London, one hit an ambulance I was driving to a 999 call up ther !!!! on christmas day 3 years ago, he was traced a few days later, he was apparently arrested after crashing into a line of parked cars a mile or so away from where he hit us, they connected the two events when they noticed the yellow paint marks on the car, that and the fact that he left some parts of BMW at the scene of the RTC with my vehicle.

And, no, the driver or his insurance company didn't pay for any of the damage to any vehicles involved, and he went back to Lithuania.

shaun_from_Africa

I haven't seen anything that says you can drive and use your phone if you are dialling 999, not even the emergancy services are exempt from this law. Not saying they don't do it, but there is no exemption to the offence

There is an exemption clearly stated in the relevant legislation

Amendment of the Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986

2. The Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986(1) are amended by inserting after regulation 109—

“Mobile telephones

110.—(1) No person shall drive a motor vehicle on a road if he is using—

(a)a hand-held mobile telephone;

(5) A person does not contravene a provision of this regulation if, at the time of the alleged contravention—

(a)he is using the telephone or other device to call the police, fire, ambulance or other emergency service on 112 or 999

(b)he is acting in response to a genuine emergency; and

(c)it is unsafe or impracticable for him to cease driving in order to make the call (or, in the case of an alleged contravention of paragraph (3)(b), for the provisional licence holder to cease driving while the call was being made).

rev_henry

bigjl wrote: »

The Police don't have to respond to a request for help simply because it comes via a 999 call.

Somebody will be on soon saying I am wrong, but unless they have spent ten years attending 1 or 2 999 calls every week where the Police had refused to attend then I think it is safe that you can accept my opinion on that.

They do have targets regarding attendance in certain circumtances, this may cause confusion for some people, but if attendance is not thought needed then they don't attend, they may send a copper down the next day, or give you a call, but the most likely occurance is they will try to divert the call to the ambulance service.

I haven't seen anything that says you can drive and use your phone if you are dialling 999, not even the emergancy services are exempt from this law. Not saying they don't do it, but there is no exemption to the offence.

Foreign registered cars and vans are on a veritable crime spree in London, one hit an ambulance I was driving to a 999 call up ther !!!! on christmas day 3 years ago, he was traced a few days later, he was apparently arrested after crashing into a line of parked cars a mile or so away from where he hit us, they connected the two events when they noticed the yellow paint marks on the car, that and the fact that he left some parts of BMW at the scene of the RTC with my vehicle.

And, no, the driver or his insurance company didn't pay for any of the damage to any vehicles involved, and he went back to Lithuania.

You must be right about the police attending, but I am certain about dialling 999 while driving. This website for a start:
http://www.safermotoring.co.uk/MobilePhonesDriving.html

There is an exception in place in case you find yourself in an emergency situation. You are allowed to call 999 (or 112) in a genuine emergency where it is impractical or unsafe to stop.

vikingaero

Microstar wrote: »

Had my car side-swiped by a foreign-registered (LHD) truck this week. On a local dual carriageway - he pulled out into me.
Driver refused to stop (despite me chasing him for several miles in traffic and blowing horn, flashing lights).

Fortunately I am in the motor trade and so can get the car fixed relatively cheaply - but probably £1k damage at retail rates.

I managed to get photo of the truck (showing plates and name) and two independent witnesses.

Immediately called it in to the police who gave me an incident number - but said there was 'nothing they could do'. Had my details taken and was told to go to my local police station so they could check my licence and insurance!
Copper propping up the desk there told me that they often get these incidents and the drivers keep going because they know that there's nothing that can be done.

In these days of ANPR it seems remarkable that we cannot have cameras installed at ports and a copper or two on duty to pull over trucks that have been flagged up as driving away from accidents.

Anyway, if it happens to me in future I'll know not to bother reporting it to the police and so save myself the aggro of having to go to the police station and queue for 1/2 hour.

If you make a claim on your own insurance, your insurance company should make a claim over the foreign driver.

You guys should live on the M20. If I'm out driving a lot I'll see 2-4 foreign HGV's on the hard shoulder dealing with motorists whom they've sideswiped. The lucky ones end up facing the same direction of travel. If you pass a HGV then put your foot down to reduce your time exposed to danger.

There's a campaign to get foreign HGV's fitted with mirrors and cameras:

http://www.yourmedway.co.uk/p_143/Article/a_12003/Bereaved_relatives_add_backing_to_HGV_blind_spot_campaign_for_Kents_roads

It seems that some European countries require our drivers to have additional mirrors on RHD lorries, yet the UK does not have the will/cannot make foreign HGVs fit additional mirrors.

I suppose I will be berated for this: I find that HGV drivers from Eastern Europe are the worst HGV drivers. There seems to be a laissez-faire attitude and arrogance in that they don't care what they do or the consequences.

bigjl

rev_henry wrote: »

You must be right about the police attending, but I am certain about dialling 999 while driving. This website for a start:
http://www.safermotoring.co.uk/MobilePhonesDriving.html

There is an exception in place in case you find yourself in an emergency situation. You are allowed to call 999 (or 112) in a genuine emergency where it is impractical or unsafe to stop.

What you are suggesting seems both logical and sensible, and you are almost certainly correct, just that I don't know if there is anything specific.

bigjl

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

There is an exemption clearly stated in the relevant legislation

I was saying the emergency services can not claim exemption to using a mobile phone when driving, even in relation to a 999 call.

But thanks for linking to the specific regs that the previous poster was referring.

The Emergency services operate by claiming exemptions relating to the road traffic act, that is the exemptions I was referring to, should have made that a bit easier to understand.

Strider590

Police not interested because nobody was travelling above the speed limit (I bet they asked though, didn't they?).

Only speed causes accidents in this country, just look at the Police statistics to see that... :mad:


Insurance WILL try to claim from the driver if you have independent witnesses, however your premium will still go up because your considered more likely to be involved in accidents in future.

bigjl

I think such crimes as discussed in this thread explains the rocketing insurance premiums these days, they tried to double mine on renewal, £950 for a 2005 MOndeo TDCi with 9 years NCD, whatever, got reinsured by Santander for under £500, the funny thing was I am still insured by the same company, Equity Red Star, just a dofferent broker.

The other thing that made me laugh was when the insurance phoned to say I hadn't sent them my NCD and they would have to increase my insurance unless I did so in 7 days, they went quiet when I pointed out they where my previous insurers asell.

Lum

bigjl wrote: »

What you are suggesting seems both logical and sensible, and you are almost certainly correct, just that I don't know if there is anything specific.

See post #15

I guess I should be grateful that the foreign lorry that hit my GF actually bothered to stop.

She overtakes this Dutch lorry on the M4, coming up to the Brynglas tunnels. At this point it drops to a 50 limit so she slows down and the lorry starts undertaking. At the last moment the driver realised that L1 was exit only and that he did not want to go to Newport (generally a wise decision) and so changed lanes and tore up the side of my GFs car.

Fortunately she was uninjured and the car belonged to HelpHire. The only downside was that the Golf GT TDi 4Motion (which she hated) ended up being replaced by a Passat (which she really hated)

Genuine mistake on the part of the lorry driver, and he stopped, admitted blame at the roadside and to the police and had all his details in several languages in a little company provided accident pack explicitly for this purpose. Can't complain really.