Fatal Accident involving HGV

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS THE UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUM (INTERACTIVE)
1

R.I.P.The man in the van. :frowning: :frowning:

newsandstar.co.uk/news/van-drive … r-carlisle

The link does not seem to be working properly now, for some reason. The story is that a Menzies van was in collision with a Willi Betz artic, on the A595 near Carlisle, early this morning. The van seems to have hit the off-side of the artic cab, and was just about completely demolished. The van driver was severely injured, and died later in hospital. He had a passenger in with him, who was injured. The picture of the scene shows the Betz wagon parked on the Right hand side of the road, with damage to the off-side of the cab. The Hungarian driver is now under arrest , and being questioned at Carlisle.

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Buycrider:
R.I.P.The man in the van. :frowning: :frowning:

newsandstar.co.uk/news/van-drive … r-carlisle.

condolances to the family of the van driver :frowning: :frowning:

3

terrible accident.

4

Just seen the pictures of the van quite shocking :open_mouth:

RIP :cry:

5

Story here

6

Absolute Carnage! My condolences to the Family involved.

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I caught this on the “local” BBC news @ lunch time. The cop they interviewed said, it was thought that the Hungarian had gone into “Home-mode”, and was driving on the wrong side of the road. Terrible accident.

8

Just seen the pics and read the report :open_mouth: Judging from the pics it seems to me that the van driver saved his 21 year old passangers life. RIP

9

Buycrider:
R.I.P.The man in the van. :frowning: :frowning:

newsandstar.co.uk/news/van-drive … r-carlisle

The link does not seem to be working properly now, for some reason. The story is that a Menzies van was in collision with a Willi Betz artic, on the A595 near Carlisle, early this morning. The van seems to have hit the off-side of the artic cab, and was just about completely demolished. The van driver was severely injured, and died later in hospital. He had a passenger in with him, who was injured. The picture of the scene shows the Betz wagon parked on the Right hand side of the road, with damage to the off-side of the cab. The Hungarian driver is now under arrest , and being questioned at Carlisle.

After reading the newspaper write up and the police officers’ comments about the ‘Willi Betz’ driver more than likely driving his vehicle on the wrong side of the road, ie; the right hand side :exclamation: :question:

Thought I would just relate something that I witnessed this morning between 0300 - 0330 on the diversion route from the A1 Southbound that takes you off the A1 from somewhere around Grantham across country through Melton Mowbray to rejoin the A1 just North of Peterborough services.

After leaving the A1 I caught up to a to a plain white DAF pulling a slider tri-axle trl; with an empty 20ft box on, at the first roundabout the driver had the trl; up on the island and then had the nearside wheels up on the kerbs on the way out :question: This happened at almost all the roundabouts that we went through until I was able to overtake him about 5/6 miles before Peterborough.

What was more worrying though was that on straight stretches of road this guy was either straddling the white centre line or was completly on the right hand side of the road :open_mouth: :open_mouth: At least four times he had just moved over in time to avoid oncoming vehicles :exclamation: :exclamation:

I didn’t have an opportunity to get passed this guy until we came out of a roundabout that gave me two lanes uphill but as I moved to the right to overtake he moved into the outside lane and stopped me. I eventually managed to pass him and so did the driver in the well lit Scania who was behind me. We had both witnessed this guy’s antics over this stretch of diversion route and I still can’t figure whether he was ■■■■■■■ on drugs, falling asleep or just playing silly buggers :unamused: :unamused: And it wasn’t as if me or anyone behind me was trying to overtake him as we were all tootlin’ along at between 50 -55 and the only things that were shootin on was the occasional car.

I won’t be going down the A1 tomorrow it will be straight down the M1 and through Archway & Holloway to tip next to the Olympic site.

Condolences to the family of the Menzies van driver :frowning:

A terrible tragedy and my thoughts also go out to the ‘Willi Betz’ driver who will have to live with the consequences of his moment of inattention for the rest of his life :frowning:

Regards
Dave Penn;

10

The damage to that van is shocking.

How many more accidents will it take involving foriengers before people start taking notice?

IMO, only when somebody ‘important’ or a ‘celebrity’ is killed will anyone take any notice. It stinks, but its true.

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davepenn54:
Thought I would just relate something that I witnessed this morning between 0300 - 0330 on the diversion route from the A1 Southbound that takes you off the A1 from somewhere around Grantham across country through Melton Mowbray to rejoin the A1 just North of Peterborough services.

After leaving the A1 I caught up to a to a plain white DAF pulling a slider tri-axle trl; with an empty 20ft box on, at the first roundabout the driver had the trl; up on the island and then had the nearside wheels up on the kerbs on the way out :question: This happened at almost all the roundabouts that we went through until I was able to overtake him about 5/6 miles before Peterborough.

What was more worrying though was that on straight stretches of road this guy was either straddling the white centre line or was completly on the right hand side of the road :open_mouth: :open_mouth: At least four times he had just moved over in time to avoid oncoming vehicles :exclamation: :exclamation:

Regards
Dave Penn;

[/quote]
What if the next car contains your children, parents etc and he doesnt move over in time. would it then be time to call the Police. ■■?
I am far from an angel but that should have been reported. !!!

12

its stupid that surely he must of realised he was on the wrong side of road people behind flashing light etc i know its not feasable but willi betz and norberts for example are big companys why cant they have right hand drive units waiting at whichever uk port they come into they then exchange the units, foreign one stays at port uk one is used for duration of visit theres no way you good forget then also it would reduce the number of sideswipe incidents and take away the blind pulling onto roundabouts and hope theres nowt coming routine

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The Hungarian driver had apparently left Brown,s yard in the early hours. He would have come out of the yard, gone up a short lane, then turned Right onto the A595 heading for Carlisle. There does not appear to have been a lot of traffic about at that time,(some reports say it was 2.30 am.) he had not traveled very far from the road=end where he turned Right, until he met the Menzies van heading in the opposite direction. What probably saved the artic drivers life was that he was in a Left-hand drive machine. The Menzies driver, being in a Right -hand drive vehicle, was not so fortunate.Bad news all round.

Latest update. It has now been reported that he has been charged with Causing Death by Dangerous Driving.

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hyper26:
its stupid that surely he must of realised he was on the wrong side of road people behind flashing light etc i know its not feasable but willi betz and norberts for example are big companys why cant they have right hand drive units waiting at whichever uk port they come into they then exchange the units, foreign one stays at port uk one is used for duration of visit theres no way you good forget then also it would reduce the number of sideswipe incidents and take away the blind pulling onto roundabouts and hope theres nowt coming routine

Having RHD units would rob them of their main competetive advantage i.e. massive tanks full of cheap Derv. Wouldn’t ever happen. We should charge them to use the roads to make running on our roads as expensive for them as it is for us. That wouldn’t happen either unfortuantely.

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On a safety note I would not allow left haned trucks operate here and likewise right handers abroad , it has proved time and again it does not work…I would like to see the statistics for right handers working abroad

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Firstly - My condolences to the family of the van driver

fuse:
On a safety note I would not allow left haned trucks operate here and likewise right handers abroad , it has proved time and again it does not work…I would like to see the statistics for right handers working abroad

I think I know why it may not be the other way around… but remember that I have NEVER driven outside the UK :exclamation:

A UK trucker goes to a different country and knows that ALL those countries are opposite to the UK
A non UK trucker goes to many different Countries but only one is opposite so may be easier to forget that

I may be way off base but it’s a thought…

:bulb: Would it help if a removable KEEP LEFT dashboard sticker written in the native language of the driver was a legal requirement for ALL left hand drive vehicles when driving in the UK :question: