Dangerous Truck behaviour on the N11 yesterday

Dazzy

Was driving on the M/N11 yesterday. It was on the new stretch of Motorway between Gorey and Arklow doing about 120kmh (the speed limit).

All of a sudden the cars in front of me starting hitting the brakes and were dropping speed and trying to change lane very quickly as there was a Truck stopped in the overtaking lane.
The passenger door of the truck was open and there was a chap hanging out the passenger door checking to see if the load would pass under the bridge. The truck was close to the bridge and it looked like the truck would pass with feet to spare. No hazards on, no attemp to alert the oncoming traffic coming at 120kms that there was an obstruction on the road.

Surely a truck driver should know what the clearance of their load should be and no one in their right mind would stop in the overtaking lane on a motorway. Complete disregard for the safety of other road users.

djimi

I saw a woman slam to stop in the outside lane of the M7 one day because she all of a sudden decided that she needed to take the Carlow turn off. Damn near caused a 20 car pile up. Nothing surprises me when it comes to driving; Ive seen enough things that scared the crap out of me when driving Im genuinely surprised sometimes I still have the nerve left to get on the road.

mullingar

Dazzy wrote: »

Surely a truck driver should know what the clearance of their load should be

nuff said

-Corkie-

mullingar wrote: »

nuff said

He should of course and as you state it was on the m11 where the bridges are over 16`in height. What had he on it? Was it a track machine or something.

GTE

Ive been in situations where I have had to slam on on the motorway too but something like that would scare the hell out of me.

dirtydiesel

mullingar wrote: »

nuff said

I drive a truck and always check the height if I pick up an unusual load, its pure ignorance by any truck driver not to know the height of a loaded trailer.

marious

why didn't he pull in, get into hard shoulder and then check?

robdsherlock

dirtydiesel wrote: »

I drive a truck and always check the height if I pick up an unusual load, its pure ignorance by any truck driver not to know the height of a loaded trailer.

+1
is it not illegal for a truck to be in the right hand lane on a motorway??

slimjimmc

robdsherlock wrote: »

+1
is it not illegal for a truck to be in the right hand lane on a motorway??

I suspect he moved to the centre of the bridge thinking he'd get some extra clearance. It's a common enough manouvre with arched bridges but fairly pointless with straight span bridges. Obviously this idiot applied habit rather than reason.

freighter

Where were the traffic corps then. I hate dicks like this. I have trucks and drive them. Clowns like this give the rest of us a bad name and people are very quick to tar us all with the same brush.

robdsherlock

freighter wrote: »

Where were the traffic corps then. I hate dicks like this. I have trucks and drive them. Clowns like this give the rest of us a bad name and people are very quick to tar us all with the same brush.

i know the feeling!!

dirtydiesel

slimjimmc wrote: »

I suspect he moved to the centre of the bridge thinking he'd get some extra clearance. It's a common enough manouvre with arched bridges but fairly pointless with straight span bridges. Obviously this idiot applied habit rather than reason.

Motorwat bridges are the samr height all the way across, he should of pulled onto hard shoulder.
Your spot on on the arched bridges.

-Corkie-

dirtydiesel wrote: »

Motorwat bridges are the samr height all the way across, he should of pulled onto hard shoulder.
Your spot on on the arched bridges.

Me thinks he should have left himself and the lorry in the yard;)

GTE

marious wrote: »

why didn't he pull in, get into hard shoulder and then check?

What a silly question. Its Ireland we are in! Not some common sense. . . . land :rolleyes::p

Del2005

Dazzy wrote: »

Was driving on the M/N11 yesterday. It was on the new stretch of Motorway between Gorey and Arklow doing about 120kmh (the speed limit).

All of a sudden the cars in front of me starting hitting the brakes and were dropping speed and trying to change lane very quickly as there was a Truck stopped in the overtaking lane.
The passenger door of the truck was open and there was a chap hanging out the passenger door checking to see if the load would pass under the bridge. The truck was close to the bridge and it looked like the truck would pass with feet to spare. No hazards on, no attemp to alert the oncoming traffic coming at 120kms that there was an obstruction on the road.

Surely a truck driver should know what the clearance of their load should be and no one in their right mind would stop in the overtaking lane on a motorway. Complete disregard for the safety of other road users.

Did you notice was it Irish/UK or Continental reg? May explain why they where looking out the "passenger door" and stopped in the wrong lane if it was a LHD.

The driver may have known the height of their load, I've never seen height signs on motorway bridges, and wanted to see if it would fit under.

GTE

Del2005 wrote: »

Did you notice was it Irish/UK or Continental reg? May explain why they where looking out the "passenger door" and stopped in the wrong lane if it was a LHD.

The driver may have known the height of their load, I've never seen height signs on motorway bridges, and wanted to see if it would fit under.

You cant be seriously trying to defend this guy are you?
Or maybe just pointing out further idiocy?

Danbo!

Driving on the M50 southbound a few backs bout 11am on a Sunday morning. Lovely day so it was busy enough, but still moving fast. Was in lane 2 and the car in front slowed, went to move to lane 3 and could hear everyone leaning on horns. And there it was. A silver 318, broken down in the lane 3, passenger door open into lane 2, and the driver out leaning against the boot on her mobile.

Lupo_solitario

Does not suprise me in the least , it is amazing the amount of lorries and buses that hit bridge's , Seen it in Portlaoise about five months ago , truck stuck under the bridge on the road in from Mountmellick , the two bridges there have been hit numerous times and they have infra-red advance warning signs that warn you if the load is to high and they start flashing and they still get hit check out this , makes for interesting reading and shows it is not just in ireland that has this problem.

http://www.rsc.ie/uploads/RSC/Bridge-Strikes-Ireland1.pdf

Del2005

bbk wrote: »

You cant be seriously trying to defend this guy are you?
Or maybe just pointing out further idiocy?

Not everything is as black and white as you think. All we have is the OP's post that they saw a truck suddenly stop in the overtaking lane of a motorway and someone looking out the passenger door. How do you or I know what actually happened. Maybe they lost all electrical power or any other amount of things could have happened.

GTE

Del2005 wrote: »

Not everything is as black and white as you think. All we have is the OP's post that they saw a truck suddenly stop in the overtaking lane of a motorway and someone looking out the passenger door. How do you or I know what actually happened. Maybe they lost all electrical power or any other amount of things could have happened.

A truck doesnt just stop. If it did have a failure of some sort Im sure it could have turned to the right of lane under its own momentum if it didnt have a chance to get to the hard shoulder.

I dont accept that it could be a failure of some sort if there was no one giving warning or no red triangle being put down somewhere to at least show that something was up.

Hooch

Was going to a serious crash once (turned out to be a fatal) in a marked car, all the bells and whisles going (and our cars have extra blues in grills, dash etc). Travelling down the dual carrigway hitting, admitly doing immence speed when I came up behind a car in the fast lane....nothing on inside. Slammed on the brakes behind him sitting on the horn. What does he do?? Slams on the brakes and STOPS in the overtaking lane!!!! Smoke, tires screeching, his car wobbling all over the place.

I continued on due to the call only to check the camera later taht shift (no anpr then just normal camera). When I called to his home sometime later he had a full licence and said he alway thought you should stop in whatever lane your in:eek:.......need I mention he was prosecuted??

Nothing suprises me on the roads anymore. Sad but nothing at all......

Dazzy

SARASON wrote: »

He should of course and as you state it was on the m11 where the bridges are over 16`in height. What had he on it? Was it a track machine or something.

It looked like some type of farm machinery and it didn't seem to be oversized, i.e. it wasn't wider than the trailer or look taller than what you would usually see. It also seemed like there was plently of room to clear the bridge.

Dazzy

Del2005 wrote: »

Did you notice was it Irish/UK or Continental reg? May explain why they where looking out the "passenger door" and stopped in the wrong lane if it was a LHD.

The driver may have known the height of their load, I've never seen height signs on motorway bridges, and wanted to see if it would fit under.

Cant say 100% but think it was Irish reg. If it was Foreign reg that would have stood out to me as one of the reasons for this behaviour. All happened very fast, I was on top of him very quickly and then had to try and manoeuvre around him with other cars all around me.

I would have thought that safest thing to do would have been to try and get under the bridge in the hard shoulder and not in the overtaking lane.

The craziest part was that the chap hanging out the passenger door wasn't even looking behind at the cars coming and was oblivious to how dangerous what they were doing was :rolleyes: He was 100% focused on the bridge.

monkeypants

Stee wrote: »

A silver 318, broken down in the lane 3, passenger door open into lane 2, and the driver out leaning against the boot on her mobile.

Don't worry about it. Sooner or later Darwinism will take care of her. Thoughts like that keep me sane. Ish.