Left turning lorry

Sewinman

I have to say, this is a new one on me. :shock:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1aSvoIpVss

Sewinman

I had gander at his other videos and this one is priceless! No idea why, as it is quite serious, but it made me laugh out loud at my desk!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LJQInH40cM

markhewitt1978

First time I saw this I thought can you imagine how different the reaction would be if it had been a cyclist rather than a motorbiker? Hoards of people blaming the cyclist for doing things wrong or not getting out of the way no doubt. As it was everyone is on the side of the motorbiker.

The Rookie

That is the most dreadful piece of driving I've seen in a long time!

Dreadful approach to junction, and then as he turns and drives up the wrong side there is no observations at all.

keyser__soze

BBC news article about it here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-33622318

From the article: “There's no suggestion that in this case the lorry driver was acting negligently.”… "It was the proper manoeuvre"…

Err? He drives into the wrong lane and wipes out a motorcyclist who was doing nothing wrong whatsoever. How can that be considered a “proper” manoeuvre if he couldn't see the street was clear? If not checking the right-hand lane was clear isn’t negligence then what is?

pastryboy

Yes, strange comment. You would think someone driving a lorry that hard to turn would come to a complete stop and check all is clear then move slowly.

bendertherobot

His insurers will be very glad for the confirmation that that's not negligent driving. FFS.

markhewitt1978

I believe the 'proper' manouver would be to swing out to the right on the main road first, and then swing into the correct side of the road.

The amount of excuses lorry and other drivers are given for shocking driving is out of this world.

jds_1981

There are a free emails going around where I work on a DG a few saying motorcyclist in the wrong.

dhope

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19660546#p19660546]jds_1981[/url] wrote:

There are a free emails going around where I work on a DG a few saying motorcyclist in the wrong.

What, by putting himself in the lorry's blindspot?

If there's a blind spot in front then the lorry shouldn't be road legal :roll:

keyser__soze

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19660546#p19660546]jds_1981[/url] wrote:

There are a free emails going around where I work on a DG a few saying motorcyclist in the wrong.

Likewise - :roll: at the suggestions it's the biker's fault.

rick_chasey

How is the biker in the wrong?

I think a lot of people naturally think might is right is an actual rule on the road.

usually the same nasty people who vote tory and want to bring back the death penalty

adambruntlett

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19660396#p19660396]markhewitt1978[/url] wrote:

I believe the 'proper' manouver would be to swing out to the right on the main road first, and then swing into the correct side of the road.

The amount of excuses lorry and other drivers are given for shocking driving is out of this world.

Exactly, the lorry driver should have approached the junction properly to make sure he didn't come over into the motorcyclist's lane. If that wasn't possible for whatever reason (the only one I can think of is if there's a traffic island at the junction, which I seriously doubt) then he should at least have turned more slowly to allow him to check the road in front of him more carefully.

Edit - clearly no reason whatsoever for the lorry driver not swinging out to his right before turning left, apart from him either seeing the junction late or being too lazy to wait for a break in the oncoming traffic, neither of which is a valid excuse.

jds_1981

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19660655#p19660655]Keyser__Soze[/url] wrote:

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19660546#p19660546]jds_1981[/url] wrote:

There are a free emails going around where I work on a DG a few saying motorcyclist in the wrong.

Likewise - :roll: at the suggestions it's the biker's fault.

One of the things the biker did wrong apparently checking out the woman?

graeme_s-2

Exactly the same thing happened to me while on a bicycle in July 2012. I would have been in secondary position as I was planning to turn left at the T junction. I yelled and moved to the gutter in an attempt to avoid a collision but glanced off the right wing of the truck and landed on the grass verge. Had a bruise to my right arm and thigh where I glanced off the wing and a grazed knee from falling onto the verge. Bike ok, but broke my garmin mount.

Company who owned the lorry apologised to me, paid for a new mount, gave me a goody bag of the products they distribute and promised to review their driver training around that particular manoeuvre, as well as the training for that driver specifically. West Midlands Police told me that as the driver had stopped at the scene and I was insufficiently maimed they had no interest in even recording the incident, much less talking to the driver.

secretsam

Of course the lorry was in the right, the motorcyclist had made the fatal mistake of being on a vehicle with only 2 wheels. Therefore, according to the law of Clarkson, he was asking for it. Besides, a white Ducati? Yuk

However, on a serious note, I do have some sympathy for anyone who has to drive a large vehicle in London - the roads in the centre are totally nuts. But that's no excuse.

The second link with the suicidal ped is a big, fat "Meh". We've all had one of those!

First.Aspect

There's nothing wrong with the manoeuvre itself, but there's only a blind spot at the front if the driver can't be bothered to move his head a little to eliminate it.

The issue here is that the driver assumed that the road was empty, because it had previously been empty. He turned so fast that he didn't have time to keep checking this.

If I reverse over a person in the car park at Sainsbury's, I don't think I can use the excuse that there is a blind spot caused by the roof pillar of my car. So why is it that the HGV industry gets away with using this sort of logic for excusing a few tens of fatalities every year?

navt

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19660683#p19660683]Rick Chasey[/url] wrote:

How is the biker in the wrong?

usually the same nasty people who vote tory and want to bring back the death penalty

He should have been in the bike lane.

MrSweary

Just spent a few days in Berlin. Lots of construction going on but oddly I didn't see any construction traffic at all. Lovely place to ride around, drivers are so considerate of cyclists and peds (as are cyclists from what I can see.)

seajays

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19661157#p19661157]First Aspect[/url] wrote:

If I reverse over a person in the car park at Sainsbury's, I don't think I can use the excuse that there is a blind spot caused by the roof pillar of my car. So why is it that the HGV industry gets away with using this sort of logic for excusing a few tens of fatalities every year?