My car was hit by a lorry. Who is at fault here?

[Trexraaa]

I approached a junction with a lorry waiting at it. I thought the lorry was going right due to its positioning on the road. I know they have to go wide but this guy was literally in the middle of the road. He wasn’t indicating. I’m going left so I pull up on the left side of the junction where I am now side by side with the lorry. I am stationary and checking left and right for a gap to go. The lorry then decides to go left and crashes into the side of my car. I must have been in his blind spot for him not to see us. That’s my car written off but at least we are all ok. Am I at fault?

Quite

Lorries are dangerous and should have infallible systems

But the OP wasn't having a test. Also, how can you not keep up with stationary traffic?
I am quite happy with the fact that I have not yet been hit by a lorry. If someone wants to take away my license for that... at least it is better than dying.

Although a wide lane, it is still a single lane so you should have waited behind the vehicle in from even if it was a bicycle let alone a lorry

If it had been dual carraigeway then depending how far over he was it could be construed that he was in the incorrect lane for turning left

And what’s your realistic answer to that one?

Wrong. You are very wrong. Thank god
you don’t drive.

Was he definitely not indicating? I only ask because there were a couple of times recently when I thought someone wasn't indicating but they actually were. The first time it was very bright sunshine vs a fairly weak indicator light, which meant it wasn't obvious until I was much closer. The second time, the car's lights were set into an intricate pattern and the indicator only showed as a thin sliver of orange at the edge - a bloody stupid design idea, frankly.

Also, I agree with PPs that you shouldn't pull up alongside anyone on a single carriageway if they're turning right and you're turning left. I'm not sure if you're aware but when you do this, you're blocking the other person's view of oncoming traffic to their left, so they can't turn until you move.

When I drive home from work, there is only one route I can take and it involves a right turn onto a road that's so busy it often takes several minutes to get a break in traffic. The only thing that makes it worse is some impatient arsehole creeping up beside me and blocking my view, so I can't see anything to my left and I can't creep forward to look without sticking my bonnet into traffic coming from the right 😡

I know it’s been answered already, but if it was clearly marked ‘2 lanes’ then you might have been ok but as it is technically only 1 lane and you cut inside him (very dangerously) the you are 100% wrong.

Glad you are ok! Did the truck driver get an awful shock?

Thanks @TheNurdnugget, I would never have considered the front as a blind spot.

I wouldn't pull parallel with a large lorry at a junction like that. You were in their blind spot.

Have you seen those diagram stickers at the back end of European lorries that say 'Angles Morts'? That pretty much sums it up.

Sensors, larger windows at front and sides, all hgvs will have to meet the direct vision standard by 2026.

*all new hgvs

Looking at the picture I'd do it if the other vehicle was a car and it was indicating but doing it to a lorry was really poor judgement on your behalf.

But that won’t irradiate the risk from the blind spots though.

the best way to reduce that risk is education of other drives about them really.

OP

Take it as lesson learned. Accidents do happen - good luck and i hope its sorted soon

You say
he wasn’t’t signalling but if he was going straight over he wouldn’t need to until he left the roundabout. Depending on the shape of the roundabout ven straight over means manoeuvring the centre of the roundabout.

My his and driving an expectational load had a woman change lanes right in front of him no way he could brake with such a loud and if he had he would have been decapitated and she would be dead luckily there was a slip road off the motorway and he managed to take it.

people need to educate themselves about the manoeuvrability, visability and braking distances of HGVs

That said, I don’t recall learning about this when I was learning to drive (20 years ago)!

No, I don't either.

So don't try and make something dangerous safer?

I haven’t said that. But no amount of cameras will make it infallible.

OP I'm not sure you are at fault. If there were 2 lanes and the lorry was in the RHS lane stopped at lights and you pulled up into the LHS lane and the lorry was not indicating, you had every reason to assume the lorry was not turning left and I don't understand all these people that are basically saying they'd never go alongside a lorry in a separate lane.
If there was only 1 lane and you were sneaking in beside him then yes you were in the wrong

They should be a hell of alot safer than they are, they are involved in so many deaths
https://www.seemesaveme.org/

It was a junction, not a roundabout.

There is a picture of it somewhere in the thread
It is a single lane, albeit a wide one

It was a single lane carriageway. The lorry position themselves in the best place for them to turn. If it was two lanes, the lorry would have straddled the two lanes to give themselves turning space and stop people driving up their inside. It’s easier when there are two lanes because as you approach, you can see they are straddling the line. But as this was one lane and there was no line to straddle, the lorry was just positioned in the middle. And the OP drove up his inside… on a single lane road.

I think you're getting a bit of a hard time OP as in some situations you can queue side by side at junctions quite easily and legally, but I'd always be wary of a lorry that didn't seem to be indicating at all, he is bang out of order for not indicating though, driving a truck like that you have to be make your intentions clear for the benefit of vulnerable road users, which is pretty much everyone when you're driving a big lorry.

The more important issue for me though is if HE could turn left (and crash into you who is stationary), why couldn't YOU have pulled out and gone left before him? If it's because you couldn't see round him to make sure the road was clear then you should have pre-empted that and stayed back anyway, as all you would have been able to do was sit there and wait until he'd moved off, but even if he was going right you may have been potentially in the way of the back of the truck as it swung round, and there would have been no way for him to know you were there unfortunately.

Be interesting to see what the insurance make of it.