bazza123:
Whilst that is the case, you do have to wonder how many accidents have been caused by unlit parked up to the point where a specific campaign is needed. Probably not that many I reckon.
I know there were other factors at work, but the unlit lorry was certainly a factor in this crash http://www.eveningnews24.co.uk/news/tributes_to_young_woman_killed_in_a47_crash_at_north_burlingham_1_1114807
Trev_H:
The daft part about the parking law is that if you drop a trailer in a lay by it doesn’t need lights, if it’s coupled to a unit it does.
Are you sure? A dropped trailer is pretty much the same as a skip, and a skip must be lit if it is on the highway. The skip companies usually provide roadworks type marker lamps. Also needs a permit from the local council!
I wonder if the police will also be ticketing cars and caravans 
Norman Conquest:
Notice the repeated reference to “any vehicle” and “on a road”.
I therefore assume that all vehicles on all roads in the county will all be equally affected by this?
No. The requirement for lights when parked at night does not apply to goods vehicles under 1.5 tonnes unladen, passenger vehicles (other than buses) or motorcycles, where the speed limit is 30mph or less and the vehicle is parked with its nearside to the kerb. This exemption does not apply to any vehicle with a trailer attached. Oh, and uncoupled trailers are required to display lights front & rear as well. Full details are in Regulation 24 of the Road Vehicle Lighting Regulations (legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1989 … on/24/made)
Looks like I am wrong 
, you do now need lights on just a trailer in a lay by, but if it’s got no reg number and no name on it who do they write the ticket out to 
claretmatt:
bazza123:
Whilst that is the case, you do have to wonder how many accidents have been caused by unlit parked up to the point where a specific campaign is needed. Probably not that many I reckon.I know there were other factors at work, but the unlit lorry was certainly a factor in this crash http://www.eveningnews24.co.uk/news/tributes_to_young_woman_killed_in_a47_crash_at_north_burlingham_1_1114807
How was the lorry a factor?
The girl driving was at a party all night, no sleep, taking drugs and runs into a parked lorry in a ly by. So if had its lights on she would have missed it…don’t think so.
xjrv8:
claretmatt:
bazza123:
Whilst that is the case, you do have to wonder how many accidents have been caused by unlit parked up to the point where a specific campaign is needed. Probably not that many I reckon.I know there were other factors at work, but the unlit lorry was certainly a factor in this crash http://www.eveningnews24.co.uk/news/tributes_to_young_woman_killed_in_a47_crash_at_north_burlingham_1_1114807
How was the lorry a factor?
The girl driving was at a party all night, no sleep, taking drugs and runs into a parked lorry in a ly by. So if had its lights on she would have missed it…don’t think so.
Got it in one.
I drive past this layby at least twice a day and believe it should be closed off for safety. This is NOT something that I have been saying since this druggie was killed there, its on the exit to a left hander with a wall blocking the view of anyone trying to exit it. I have a few customers that live down the road just past there and go the long way round rather than attempting to join the 47 at that point.
Approx a mile down the road, just as the A47 opens out, there is a full layby that is off road. Admittedly this lay says “no overnight caravans/camping” but as wagons are neither of these then you’ll be ok.
Trev_H:
Looks like I am wrong
Pretty sure VOSA or DVLA would know who’s it is by the chassis number.
Would 1 rear coneworks light on the rear o/s be enough or do they want the top of the trailer lit on the o/s aswell. Or do they want it all lit?
Saaamon:
Is this all because of that [zb] truckstop! I’d say theres going to be quite a few drivers running over there time because of this!
And for at least once, us as drivers should stick together and boycott the place, I remember another truck stop but can’t remember which one doing something similar a few years ago, could have been whitwood, got the council to fill an industrial estate with double yellows because drivers weren’t using it!
I do stand to be corrected though.
merc0447:
Would 1 rear coneworks light on the rear o/s be enough or do they want the top of the trailer lit on the o/s aswell. Or do they want it all lit?
Just the “position lamps” front and rear. No need for side or top markers.
Why do you need to park in lay-by on the A14/A12 when I can count at least seven places to park overnight between Felixstowe and Newmarket.
Please explain to me the joys of being rocked about all night by passing lorries and how the diesel fairies come and go?
beanie:
Why do you need to park in lay-by on the A14/A12 when I can count at least seven places to park overnight between Felixstowe and Newmarket.
Please explain to me the joys of being rocked about all night by passing lorries and how the diesel fairies come and go?
Its not ideal, but try to get parked at 1 off those 7 places after 8pm. If more places like Bury lorry park, or Beacon hill where about, or if they were larger we’d be getting a fighting chance, though this would still leave the Orwell spitting as you have to pay there and not at some off the other places 
As for leaving lights on it aint going to prevent someone asleep at the wheel from smacking into you, but Police budgets are being cut
beanie:
Why do you need to park in lay-by on the A14/A12 when I can count at least seven places to park overnight between Felixstowe and Newmarket.
Please explain to me the joys of being rocked about all night by passing lorries and how the diesel fairies come and go?
because the boss wont pay parking so lay-by is only option
ipswich123:
beanie:
Why do you need to park in lay-by on the A14/A12 when I can count at least seven places to park overnight between Felixstowe and Newmarket.
Please explain to me the joys of being rocked about all night by passing lorries and how the diesel fairies come and go?because the boss wont pay parking so lay-by is only option
e
Get a new boss! Tacho laws state that the driver is to dispose of their free time as they please and in a lay-by is not a place to dispose of your own free time.!
beanie:
ipswich123:
beanie:
Why do you need to park in lay-by on the A14/A12 when I can count at least seven places to park overnight between Felixstowe and Newmarket.
Please explain to me the joys of being rocked about all night by passing lorries and how the diesel fairies come and go?because the boss wont pay parking so lay-by is only option
e
Get a new boss! Tacho laws state that the driver is to dispose of their free time as they please and in a lay-by is not a place to dispose of your own free time.!
Lay bys last resort mate, head for industrial estates and the few free parking area’s, that gives you quite a few along the A14.
If in a lot of other ways your boss is sound then don’t get a new one
beanie:
ipswich123:
beanie:
Why do you need to park in lay-by on the A14/A12 when I can count at least seven places to park overnight between Felixstowe and Newmarket.
Please explain to me the joys of being rocked about all night by passing lorries and how the diesel fairies come and go?because the boss wont pay parking so lay-by is only option
e
Get a new boss! Tacho laws state that the driver is to dispose of their free time as they please and in a lay-by is not a place to dispose of your own free time.!
I am in the process of sorting something else out beanie.and for me there is no joy in sleeping in a lay-by,
weeto:
Trev_H:
Looks like I am wrongPretty sure VOSA or DVLA would know who’s it is by the chassis number.
pretty sure the unit parked just in front would be a bit of a clue as well
Saaamon:
Is this all because of that [zb] truckstop! I’d say theres going to be quite a few drivers running over there time because of this!
NUMPTY.
On Commercial Motor’s news website , April 11th last, there was an article on this subject.
Suffolk Police said that due to a number of lethal accidents on the A 14 they would, after a period of education, enforce the law. I.E., HGV’s must be lit at night in lay-by’s.
I e-mailed Suffolk Police and asked why HGV Drivers were being targeted when clearly the problem was others colliding with trucks.
I also suggested that even if trucks were lit at night these incidents (They are not accidents because those that collide with stationary objects lit or otherwise are being careless, to say the least.) would still occur.
I pointed out that on their website there was a report of a man being seriously injured in Lowestoft in the wee sma hours when his car collided with the wall of a house.
I asked if houses (And things like ditches, tree’s, telegraph poles) would now be required to be lit at night to prevent careless drivers hitting them.
Suffolk Police never responded. Norfolk Police did, informing me that they had a joint road policing service.
I got the information that the law required HGV’s to be lit at night when parked in lay-by’s. The house incident was ignored.
I e-mailed back and pointed that out.
The response was that if I wasn’t happy with the law I should contact my MP.
Thanks for that, Norfolk Police!
The Highways Agency, in the same CM article stated the solution was to close more lay-by’s!
At the same time, Tim Passmore, the Police Commissioner for that area was quoted in another CM article saying the Road Transport Industry deserved more support and he was going to see they got it.
I e-mailed him as well and got …the same statement he gave to CM!
Pointing this out to his office got me nowhere, they didn’t want to know.
So, Tim Passmore might have your boss’s interests at heart but he definitely doesn’t have yours.
Hope this is helpful.
Alex
This is the reason for plod targeting HGV’s. A couple of years back woman’s hubby, from what I can recall on the news, a solicitor, rear ended an unlit truck, in a layby on the A14. Following a campaign by his widow, ( don’t know if she hates lorry drivers ) she managed to convince the powers that be that trucks should be lit or laybys closed.