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Demon drawbar
Page 42
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Ili As someone who works on the periphery of the road transport industry, and quite often deals with calls from customers wondering why their expected deliveries have not arrived, I spend a lot of my time both at work and in my private life defending lorry drivers.
I frequently travel the length and breadth of British motorways with a few companions for my hobby, and I am constantly pointing out good examples of lorry driving and singing the praises of the industry.
You can therefore imagine my embarrassment when we happened to overtake a drawbar trailer on a clear stretch of the M40 harassing a family motorist who was frantically indicating a desire to rejoin the left-hand lane of the motorway which was jammed with cars. Despite a queue of cars ahead on the left-hand and inner lanes, the unit continued to harass the unfortunate motorist for several hundred yards, until the motorist moved over.
Later, in dense fog, the same unit came up at speed behind my own car in the middle lane and as soon as possible I allowed it to overtake. The vehicle went on down the motorway flashing at every vehicle in its way, despite freezing fog in patches and congestion on the two inner lanes of the motorway. The driver seemingly made no attempt to alter his speed according to varying conditions and, as an experienced driver (an average of 30,000 miles a year for the past 10 years), I found his behaviour in extreme weather conditions quite frightening. It is this sort of reckless driving, totally ignoring the needs of other road users, which gives the whole industry a bad name — and causes fatal accidents!
I can appreciate that this driver may have had scheduled deliveries to meet. The vehicle, however, did not appear to me to be carrying perishable goods, and I would have thought that the weather conditions, as reported on the radio, would have meant most customers would have been understanding if delivery was late.
I have brought this to your attention as I feel drivers should be aware that they are the ambassadors for the industry, and they should not feel that they can get away with behaviour like this.
Lesley Patton Send, Woking, Surrey.
Commercial Motor welcomes readers' letters, which can be phoned in on 081-661 3689 (24-hour service). Letters may be edited for length and do not necessarily represent the views of the editor.