Overturned Lorries on Motorways
 

Specifically on the M25, as I used it everyday, I can't help thinking that there's more overturned lorries in the last few months than there's been over the last few years. They also seem to be between junctions 6 and 10 (either direction) and quite frankly, it's started to feck me off as it often adds an hour + to my journey :mad:

Firstly, how easy is it for a lorry to overturn and secondly when they're foreign (which they usually seem to be) do they end up being prosecuted if they caused the problem in the first place????

Depends what the lorry is carrying - if it's a tanker with something like milk in it, it's pretty easy to roll (it's the second 'slap' that will get you!). Plus the weather conditions will have an affect.

It could be that they overturned because some numnuts in a car cut them up so they had to swerve to avoid - so really not necessarily their fault.

M25 Leatherhead stretch to be avoided at all costs generally - it's a magnet for accidents.

Not exactly safe to be on the roads then are they if they can roll due to movement of the goods. I hate lorries with a passion.

Yes it could be, but highly unlikely. Or it could be that they generally leave themselves no real braking distance whatsoever.

ah eddie slofart is back :lol1: :lol:

He might be, if my opinions on HGV drivers cause me a jack-knife ;)

He might be, if my opinions on HGV drivers cause me a jack-knife ;)

:cuckoo:

Judging by the number of p*ssed up Eastern European drivers I see every day coming through Dover docks, I'm truly amazed there aren't more accidents involving them. We refer all the ones we stop who seem a bit p*ssed to the port police who happily deal with them. It's the ones we don't stop (of which there are an awful lot - probably 300 trucks an hour pass through in total) end up causing bad accidents.

And I personally dont think laptops, tv's, coffee makers, p*ssing into bottles and all other sorts of sh*t sat on their dashboards help either. :(

The tankers have baffles in them

I always wondered where those mysterious half full bottles of yellow diet coke you see at exit slips came from. :Suspiciou

Professional drivers usually do leave adequate stopping distance Mark. Its the twats in cars who then pull into this space in selfish oblivious ignorance that cause accidents.....

Allow me to put this into perspective. The odd lorry acts in such a way that could cause a collision, but I have to act to avoid collisions with stupid car drivers every day. If I didnt my 32 tonnes lorry would squash them and the fire brigade would have to get them out using a hosepipe. Most of the selfish, thoughtless, ignorant fools dont even realise that they have nearly caused their own fatal accident.


Simon

Who's Mark? ;)

Anyone that decides to pull into a 17ft gap between 64tons of rolling stell needs squashing !

They do - but when I did a bunch of work with TRL (Transport Research Labs - do the NCAP testing) they were showing me how they're still very vulnerable. They have a full sized truck simulator and it can recreate the exact conditions of having a tank slapper in a tanker to help drivers learn to control it.

Back to the M25. Is there something inherently tricky at / near the Clackett Lane services between J5 and J6? There are almost daily accidents there. Is there a design fault with the on slips? I always join at either J6 clockwise or J5 anticlockwise, so this is the one section I don't know.

When seeing a overturned lorry, Think ELK test. All it takes a a quick swerve in opposite directions, and over she goes. Vans, and 4x4's and of course the A class, will flip quite easily.
I is the drivers responsibility to ensure that the load is fixed and distributed evenly. Not much you can do with liquids execpt the baffles.

yeah, coming anticlockwise from j6, the road goes up a hill and at its crest there is absolutely **** all onward visibility. I've often wondered which section of motorway has the least amount of visibity due to contours etc. This has to be near the top of the list.
astraboy.

Not always the case in defence of some lorry drivers. Do you remember about 4/5 years ago the Army lorry that overturned in Leic on the M1 dumping the tanks across the carriageway?

We have all seen at sometime the military convoys up and down the country. they drive at steady pace and are very well disciplined.

I think that was proved to be a car driver leaving it too late to leave the motorway and not judging the gap correctly. I think the car driver dissapeared without a scratch and left the scene almost none the wiser.

I was going to post this very same thing today!!!

It seems to be almost a daily things now lorries overturning on the M25, and after driving from junction 8 to 10 4 times on Monday i can see why.

The standard of driving in the lorries was awful. There was a car in the inside lane doing approx 50mph, and a truck was sitting about 2 foot off its rear bumper. There were 2 others who just indicated and moved lanes....failing to notice the cars beside them, and another one (not an artic) sitting in lane 3 holding everyone up trying to overtake a car that was going about half-a-mile an hour slower.

I'm not saying that car drivers don't do the same, but saying 'car drivers do it aswell' isn't a valid excuse. If you choose to drive these things for a living you must realise how much of a potential danger they can be driven incorrectly.

And why do you always find a lorrying doing 52mph overtaking one doing 50mph? Is there a point to it?

This isn't a post slagging off lorry drivers, as i know 90% of them are fine, but like all things the minority seem to tarnish the reputation of the majority.

(Rant over) :D

muppet :D :p

:D

Some good replys here, some dont deserve the ink. I'm often fully freighted at 44 TONNE and try to be 100% professional but stupid car drivers who have to be there yesterday, if they could see the danger. I brake at 54mph I don't stop, I slow down and not very much either

Anyone who hasn't driven with a significant amount of liquid on board hasn't lived with the white knucle fear that is "The Slosh".

I used to drive a Transit van with a 1000 litre unbaffled tank in the back (full of TFR for car jet washers). You'd stop at a junction with both feet on the brakes, plus handbrake and still end up moving a few feet. I dread to think what a fully laden 44 tonne tanker is like (baffles or no baffles)

You should see the caraffes of red they quaff in the truckers cafe on the ships.... mind boggling, no wonder they cant stay between the white lines.

Dave

Probably due to Eastern European drivers, since last November we have had 7 workers fired for drinking on the job, Just seems more acceptable to them. Tried some Vodka at their christmas do last year and it pisses all over your smirnoff:D

Good post.....

Most lorry drivers are excellent from what I see.

I guess you get a crap % in any job that tarnish the rest - plus everyone makes mistakes.

I almost got wiped out by one today as it veered into my path - but it was due to cross winds that took the rig like a sail. The way he got that massive rig back into check was F1 style driving. He then gave me a wave as a sorry as I passed.

I suppose when you lose it in one of them that's it - no second chance, bang, and someone's usually squashed.

Top Gear did a feature on lorry drivers a few years back, and since then I have a lot more time for them - for example, if they're paid X for a delivery, but the diesel they need to make the journey costs most of X, then every time they're forced to slow down and get back up to speed (which burns a lot of fuel) it costs them a substantial chunk of their profit margin. Slow down too often and they face making nothing on the delivery at all.

Also 52mph vs 50mph might not seem like a lot - but it's nearly 20 minutes off a 400 mile journey...

So profit ahead of safety. Great! :cuckoo:

Wouldn't they be better staying behind the other lorry, use it's slipstream, and therefore save diesel?

I certainly can understand about the effect of liquid moving around in a tanker.

I was wondering why we hear about so many upturned lorries too, Lyn Bowles is always mentioning them on the radio in the morning.

It occurred to me that perhap's some of them are falling asleep at the wheel because of insufficient rest.

Les