Its not called a blind-spot for nothing

[Bugsy]

Ouch

[sueyh]

That almost happened to us last year on the M4 near Reading, we were on the inside lane and an english quarry lorry almost side swiped us as he pulled in after overtaking (or not quite overtaking) us.  Very very frightening.  All lorries should be fitted with the visi screens on their side windows.

Suey

[Jonzjob]

Or this http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=7d1e57fc88 !!!

[Phil & Pat]

That sort of thing has always worried me when overtaking European lorries in the UK, or UK lorries in France.

Can any lorry driver out there tell us roughly how big the blind spot is? (I'm guessing at least the front third to half of the vehicle depending on how well the mirrors are adjusted).

Apart from overtaking as quickly as possible (minimising the time at risk) any other tips?

[Owens88]

This once happened to me. The (Austrian) lorry hit me at least 3 times. I was really lucky that I was driving a heavy car (a saab) and the weather was dry. The fast lane was full so I had no chance of escape there.

 

The police who attended knew of it as a common occurrence. The driver admitted fault. The insurers tried for 50:50 !  The police had not filed a report as I had not imnmediately claimed bodily injury.

 

Sorry to any lorry drivers out there but all the legal advice I recieved was to immediately claim injury - that escalates the event into one worth reporting on.

 

Another interesting point. The driver was not just 'passing through' he was part of a fleet of 30+ LHD vehicles operating largely between Kent and the N.E. UK.

 

 

John

[AnOther]

It's a daily occurrence which I have personally witnessed twice and in one of those incidents, although the truck was LHD, the driver was English so should have been even more acutely aware of the problem. It also actually happened to my son a few years ago on the M1 and it wrote his car off although thankfully he was uninjured. I must admit that when I heard of that M6 incident last week where a family of 6 were killed by a Portugese truck my first though was that it was a blind spot accident.

I am always cautious when overtaking foreign lorries and try to use the third lane if there is one. There is talk of trucks being checked for adequate mirrors on arrival at UK ports but that's all it is I understand, talk. You do see some fitted with Fresnal lenses on the offside window.

[img]http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/44493000/jpg/_44493300_fresnel-lens_pa.jpg[/img]

[sueyh]

I think every lorry worldwide should have to have these fresnal lenses fitted by law. It was such a frightening experience when we were driven off the road by an english lorry.

Suey