Hit by a Woolworths Lorry.

oldbuffer

I was in my car on Tuesday waiting at traffic lights when a Woolworths HGV going in the other direction decided to smack into my rear panel, drag along it and rip my rear bumper off! Thanks for that. I pulled in straight away expecting the lorry to do the same and when I got out of my car he was gone up the road with no chance of me reading his reg no or any other identifying marks, except that it was a Woolworths lorry.

Try http://trucknetuk.com/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=2

MarkyMarkD

I thought then - isn't that a coincidence?

Then I realise that oldbuffer is quoting but without using the Quote facility.

Please press "quote" when you want to quote, oldbuffer - it's a lot easier to understand what's going on.

Crabman

Conor wrote: »

Yes. But the laws of physics dictate that once the cab turns, you can't see down the side of the wagon ( light not being able to go through solid objects or round bends) , the side being determined by the direction you turn. Once the vcab is around 30-40° to the trailer on a left turn for example, all you see pretty much is the side of the trailer (not down the side) in the left mirror and the pavement on the right hand side of the road in the other.

If someone decides to stick themselves in a position of danger, they'll get hit.

It's not as if it is something new and it's in the Highway Code.

Surely if you can't see down the side of the wagon during a turn, what you really need is an extra mirror at a wider angle which will show the side of the trailer at all times? Either that or mirrors that are electrically adjustable.

E.g. if the truck is taking a left turn, the nearside mirror angles outwards to see the left side of the trailer, while obviously the offside mirror would angle inwards until the view becomes obscured by the actual cab (depending on severity of the bend).

Or, a system similar to Volvo's blind spot detector which uses cameras to detect anything in the blind spot and alerts the driver. In Kuwait HGV's are banned from using the city centre streets and must offload into smaller vans for transport into urban areas, though arguably this will endanger profits as opposed to lives

Conor_3

Crabman wrote: »

Surely if you can't see down the side of the wagon during a turn, what you really need is an extra mirror at a wider angle

Like there already are...

Crabman wrote: »

which will show the side of the trailer at all times?

And that helps you manage to look down the right hand side of a trailer when turning left (vice versa for right turn) how exactly?

Crabman wrote: »

Or, a system similar to Volvo's blind spot detector which uses cameras to detect anything in the blind spot and alerts the driver.

Wouldn't be of any use in the situation described.

Conor_3

Crabman wrote: »

Surely if you can't see down the side of the wagon during a turn, what you really need is an extra mirror at a wider angle

Like there already are...

Crabman wrote: »

which will show the side of the trailer at all times?

And that helps you manage to look down the right hand side of a trailer when turning left (vice versa for right turn) how exactly?

Crabman wrote: »

Either that or mirrors that are electrically adjustable.

Laws of physics still apply. Light doesn't travel round bends. For the mirror to show down the side of the trailer on a turn, it would have to be at more than 90 degrees to the driver, at which point way before it gets to 90 degrees, all the driver will be able to see would be the side of the mirror casing plastic.

Crabman wrote: »

Or, a system similar to Volvo's blind spot detector which uses cameras to detect anything in the blind spot and alerts the driver.

Wouldn't be of any use in the situation described.

I have a far better suggestion:

Car drivers take note about what is said in the Highway Code regarding how they should make allowances for HGVs and that they actually don't place themselves in a dangerous position that's been well documented for decades.

Crabman

Conor wrote: »

Car drivers take note about what is said in the Highway Code regarding how they should make allowances for HGVs and that they actually don't place themselves in a dangerous position that's been well documented for decades.

The OP says: "I was in my car on Tuesday waiting at traffic lights when a Woolworths HGV going in the other direction..."

How did they place themselves in a dangerous position if simply waiting at the lights at a white stop line approved by the local highways authority?

MarkyMarkD

Indeed. All this stuff about how car drivers don't understand the way lorries drive is very educational, but nothing to do with the OP's situation.

If you are stopped at traffic lights, in your correct lane, you can't be expected to make allowance for an idiot lorry driver who is on the wrong side of the road.

before_hollywood

i got the front end of my car ripped off by a cement truck 2 years ago, driver hurled abuse at me (was one man firm so couldn't report him to his boss), ended up forking out £400 of my own money i had been saving up for a body kit on a new front end, lesson learned was that some people badly need driving lessons and are just ****holes, what can you do???

banger9365

sorry markymarkd put most off us that drive HGV are not idiot's and do a professional job, i will agree there is some bads one about ,it says in the high waycode you have to make allowances for large vehicles. rule's 146,196,63,163,58ect.
i am just a HGV driver with a C+E licence(old class 1)
back to the op's post i still can not see how he was hit in the rear panel by a HGV going in the other direction

MarkyMarkD

I'm not saying anything about 99% of lorry drivers. But based on the honesty of the OP's post, the lorry driver in that scenario was an idiot.

Of course, if the OP was telling us porkies and was really 3 feet over the centre line, the lorry driver might have been an innocent saint.