Almost wiped out by lorry driver - would you report?

[hannah7411]

Was on a motorway today 3 lanes I was in the left lane, massive lorry in middle lane, lorry driving at the side of me starts indicating and moving over to my way, I used my horn to let him know I was there, still starts moving into my lane and then when I tooted again he blares his horn for a silly amount of time back at me, his own stupid fault completely by not checking mirrors. He was an inch away from totally wiping me out and causing a fatal accident, my heart was beating really fast I was really shaken up by it. I noted the name of his van and time when I pulled over shortly after, after I'd taken the slip road. It's happened before a few months ago similar incident I had came off slip road and a woman starting coming over to my lane to the point I had to swerve back to the slip road. I drive this road everyday to work and feel it's only a matter of time before one of these idiotic drivers seriously cause an accident with me or someone else involved and it really worries me. Im a sensible driver never caused an accident or been close I drive at the speed limit not slow and not not over. I drive a little car and I feel like that angers people! Should I report this idiot from today or leave it?

If you are in the UK and were driving a car on a motorway and YOU were driving at the speed limit, this means you were doing 70mph. A lorry would be doing 56mph as this is their speed limit. I can't see how the lorry was going faster than you if you were doing 70mph. I think you must have been going too slow so rightly the lorry driver was trying to toot you out of the way! Think you may need to read the highway code. Coming off at the next slip road or not - if there was no traffic or terrible weather, you should be doing 70.

Don’t understand that, Lekky.

Lekky, what you've said makes no sense with this situation. At all.

There is always time to brake. If someone pulls in infront of you, you should have the reactions to be able to brake no matter who is in the wrong. If you have time to beep the horn, you have time to brake.

The lane the lorry was in WAS the left hand lane, until the OP's sliproad lane became the new left lane, making the lorry now in the middle lane until they moved over.

Did I miss the part where the OP came back and said this, or has everyone presumed this is what happened because someone else came up with the theory?

The OP said where she gets on is the start of the motorway. She was asked how come the lorry was already in the middle lane but never replied.

So yes, it's an assumption but I don't know what ekes makes sense

I'm sure the OP said several times she hadn't come on from a slip road before this incident, she had been driving along the same motorway since it began.

Maybe that the OP just caught up onb the lorry because she was doing 70 and the lorry was cruising in the middle lane (not what it's for) and decided just at the point the OP was catching up, that he would move into the correct lane.
You can't correct someone when you don't know the facts yourself

I'm sure the OP said several times she hadn't come on from a slip road before this incident, she had been driving along the same motorway since it began.
But she also said that she couldn't have been undertaking so number of us have been charitable and said it sounds like where two motorways merge.

If it isn't a case of two motorways merging then it's even simpler in that the OP and the lorry were both on the same stretch of motorway and instead of doing a proper overtake, the OP chose to undertake a HGV because she didn't fancy slowing down for the sake of 2 seconds til her junction. The highway code is clear: you do not overtake to the left of a vehicle and you do not move into a lane to the left of a vehicle to overtake. The exception is if there's congestion and all lanes are moving at roughly the same speed, but the OP has told us there wasn't bad traffic and she was doing 70.

There is no way it is physical impossible for you to be doing 70nph and Iorry to be doing 60mph, and the lorry to catch you.
Therefore you were undertaking.
If you were joining a road you thought you could beat the lorry and you lost.
You should never ever undertake a lorry, and were very lucky not to crash into him.

And you do not cruise along in the middle lane.

And you do not cruise along in the middle lane
I agree.
However whilst driving in the middle lane is annoying and I can't stand it, it's still not in the same league of stupid as driving into the blindspot of an HGV in order to undertake it and then arguing it doesn't count as an undertake.

Agreed, but also, it's not a drivers responsibility to make sure they aren't in other drivers blind spots.

No, it's not a driver's responsibility but good drivers are aware of other vehicles on the road and adapt their driving accordingly.

The OP assumed the lorry driver hasn't checked his mirror - it didn't occur to her that he couldn't actually see her.

In any event, if bigger heavier vehicle indicates that it's moving over into your lane, you slow down. You don't just keep going at the same speed

Agreed, but also, it's not a drivers responsibility to make sure they aren't in other drivers blind spots
Undertaking is dangerous as it does place you in a fairly large blind spot, especially when it's an HGV.
It is a driver's responsibility to drive appropriately, for example, by doing something other than continuing to drive in a blind spot whilst beeping your horn when seeing an HGV with its indicators on starting to move.

It's a bit like a vehicles should anticipate pedestrians and be able to stop accordingly. It doesn't mean it's a good idea to walk out into the road without checking, gazing at your phone. I'd say the pedestrian has a responsibility not to be a fucking idiot (strong phrase but people who cross the road with checking are idiots in my opinion).

There's got to be a bit of common sense.

I do think if every leaner driver had to spend half a day as a passenger in a hgv it would make a massive difference.

My partner is a hgv driver and I can honestly say that what he has taught me has made me so much more aware of what they face on a day to day basis

Good drivers don't cruise along at 60 in the middle lane. Causing other drivers to adjust their speed, would be a fail in a driving test.
Someone traveling in the left hand lane shouldn't have to slow down because someone in the middle lane is going slower than them. Yes, the op should have moved across into the right lane to overtake, but she didn't have time. The lorry should have been in the left lane all along, and should onky be in the middle lane if overtaking, which it doesn't seem was the case.

If it was a merging of roads, its the lorry drivers responsibility to make sure they can move into the left lane safely. They should anticipate, if the roads are merging, there may be people traveling at the speed limit on their left hand side.

But I don't think anything in the OP or subsequent posts, makes it sound as though there was a merging of roads. So while it is common sense not to pass a lorry in the left hand lane, it's also common sense not to sit at 60mph or less on a motorway, in the middle lane.

On the off chance that the OP comes back, I have two questions...

1. You say that you needed to be in that lane for your junction - how far away was the junction?

1. Were the lane markings for your lane a long slip road with close together dashes or was it a normal left hand lane with a short off-ramp?

Why are people failing to see, that the lorry couldn't be overtaking if it was going 10mph SLOWER, than OP.

The motorways merging theory is the only one that makes sense of what the OP has described. In which case you as tge car driver on the left should make it your business to be aware of traffic approaching on your right and that some of them will wish to move over into your lane. You shouldn't sit on the left of a lorry because it's obviously dangerous. It sounds like she should have been aware of the situation emerging and have eased off her accelerator much earlier.

On the blind spot note - you shouldn't knowingly put yourself into, or remain if you find yourself in, somebody else's blind spot. That's just stupid and not how you keep yourself and others safe on the roads.

RE middle lane hoggers yes they are annoying and illegal, no that's not justification to undertake somebody. Particularly not a lorry, with their gigantic blind spots. You spot the situation coming up because you're reading the road up ahead, and you either ease off accelerating so that you don't come up next to the lorry if you don't have time to safely overtake before your exit, or you change lanes to your right twice safely to overtake.

These big lumps of metal caled cars and lorries are lethal, and are lethal on the roads every single day. Rather than get hung up on who is legally liable when an accident happens, far safer to drive defensively and assume everybody else of the road is a numpty who hasn't seen you and is about to do something daft.

I don't get it. You are a sensible driver and he was behaving like a dick but you insisted on not looking after your own safety by just easing your foot off the accelerator and slowing down a bit.

don't fuck with lorries
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