1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190 
M-way truck nerves
Page 13
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
UP TO 20% OF UK motorists are nervous about driving alongside trucks and should receive training on motorway driving, according to new research carried out by insurance firm Direct Line.
During the survey 2,098 drivers were questioned and 7% of them admitted that they were completely clueless about how to drive around large vehicles; 70% said that they would like to be trained how to drive around trucks and 40% admitted to being stressed when overtaking HGVs on a motorway.
As a result almost 20% of respondents said they rushed to overtake trucks because they feel intimated, hut the most common way of reacting towards HGVs was hesitation.
Direct Line cited government figures for 2003 which showed there were more than 6.000 accidents involving HGVs, resulting in 8,000 casualties.
Geoff Dossetter, director of external affairs for the Freight Transport Association, says these findings point to motorists' lack of knowledge about how trucks oper ate on motorways — for example different braking distances and speed limits.
"This is a useful bit of research that suggests car drivers should be made more aware of how trucks work, and be a little more considerate of the way they relate to trucks on the road," he adds.
"The safety record of HGVs speaks for itself—on a mile-by-mile basis they are involved in half as many accidents as cars."