Following on from Bobsters ‘funniest thing’ I wondered what the scariest thing was that happened to you whilst out on the road.
Mine happened at about 2 o’clock in the morning when I was stopped by the police on the outskirts of Newbury - long before the by-pass. The first thought was OMG - my tacho is not all it seems!!! Anyway they never even asked to see it, but advised me part of the load of concrete segments I was carrying had slipped. Between us we got them back in position and as I went to re -rope the load they stopped another lorry driver and asked him to do it for me - they obviously decided I was a poor weak woman who needed help. Anyway the driver obligingly stopped to help and immediately off the two policemen went, so at about 2 o’ clock in the morning I was left on my own, in pitch darkness, with a male lorry driver I had never met in my life, and to be honest I was terrified. It takes a lot to frighten me but at the time Peter Sutcliffe was still on the loose, and it was strongly rumoured he was a lorry driver so I think any woman would have been frightened, in that situation. Anyway. the driver was, like most truck drivers, a real gentleman, he did the re-roping, checked everything was OK for me to continue my journey to Weymouth and off he went before I had even had chance to say thank you or make a note of the company he worked for so that I could ask them to thank him for me. At the time it was scary, but I WILL ALWAYS REMEMBER THAT GOOD SAMARITAN.
i’ve had many scary moments over the years.
but last week on the m62 westbound, my retarder had been sticking, it got prety hot and burst into flames. there was a lot of smoke, and a lot of trucks flashing me. "god knows how flashing your lights will put the fire out ".
so i just let her go to about 75-80mph down towards birch services. i reckond that if i did this, the wind would put out the flames.
i was right.
i got it into birch services and there was oil ■■■■■■■ out of the retarder, it was so hot it melted the tarmac.
it wouldn’t go into gear as the air pipes for the range change and splitter had melted. i was in a pickle.
then there was a bloke flapping about phoneing the fire brigade. and saying comments like “a late driver is better than a dead driver” or some crap like that. what [zb]ing use is that FFS.
anyway, i got an airline and rammed it into the range changer. i got it stuck in high range. to be honest i didn’t think it would work.
so i now had 4 gears but no splitter. and with the retarder disconnected, i headed for home. then with 150 yards to go, she finally called it a day.
so at first i was worried, then i couldn’t stop laughing.
one day my luck will run out.
Coming down “The Rock” A.K.A the A465 from Ebbw Vale to Abergavenny loaded with scrap, nursing the brakes all the way down, pick up some speed where it levels out. On the approach to the roundabout by the little chef big queue of traffic 08.30 rush hour press the brake peddle and nothing, round the outside for route 1 . The ruts on the roundabout were there for months.
Parked up and seeing one of those drivers heading toward you for a ch…, to talk at you. You can see by the look in his eye and his body language that he has nothing but moans and whines but he is like an Exocet missile; you can see him coming, you know it’s going to be bad for you but there is bugger all you can do about it. That’s the scariest thing that ever happens to me on the road. Far worse than the time I jack-knifed and wrote my unit off.
stawbery trifles,put the fear of god into me every time i get a load of them,trying to get round the m25 with a load of them is easily the load from hell,when i know ive got a load of them i normally turn up for work 15 mins late hoping someomne else will of taken them already
Mine was being set up for an ambush on the way back from Srbrenica at a place called Bratunac…
Second would be when some (zb) fired an RPG at me from on top of a hillside above a tunnel where I was coming out from. Missed the cab but hit the road next to me, blew me off the road and down towards a river.
my worst one was when i was living in scotland and doing agency driving for argos in one of their puddle jumpers, we was on our way to the last drop from dunbarton to cove, when i saw this chap whos obviously been on the booze staggering about, in the distance, got a bit closer to him and the junction and even closer, when he fell into the road, i stopped just in time , when the chap in the passenger seat got out, and looked he came back white as a ghost
i got out and looked the chap was spark out and the front wheels where less than an inch from his head never came as close as that to killing someone in a wagon and hope i never will
Me and a mate driving past Belmarsh prison in Woolwich when we got a tug by the plod - armed to the teeth! We were laughing until we got dragged out the cab, stood with arms in the air while they went through our pockets, ID and turned the cab over. Eight of them - guns pointed at us, we were cacking it. Turns out they were having a live practice and we were the targets. Copper said to me as we left ‘you should have seen your face’ - ■■■■
Coffeeholic:
Parked up and seeing one of those drivers heading toward you for a ch…, to talk at you. You can see by the look in his eye and his body language that he has nothing but moans and whines but he is like an Exocet missile; you can see him coming, you know it’s going to be bad for you but there is bugger all you can do about it. That’s the scariest thing that ever happens to me on the road. Far worse than the time I jack-knifed and wrote my unit off.
Mine happened at about 2 o’clock in the morning when I was stopped by the police on the outskirts of Newbury - long before the by-pass. The first thought was OMG - my tacho is not all it seems!!! Anyway they never even asked to see it, but advised me part of this poor weak womans load of concrete segments had slipped. Between us we got them back in position as I obligingly stopped to help and immediately. Off the two policemen went, so at about 2 o’ clock in the morning I was left on my own, in pitch darkness, with a female lorry driver I had never met in my life, and to be honest I was terrified. It takes a lot to frighten me but at the time a murderer was still on the loose, and it was strongly rumoured she was a lorry driver so I think any man would have been frightened, in that situation. Anyway. the driver was, like most truck drivers, a real lady, I did the re-roping, checked everything was OK for her to continue her journey to Weymouth and off I went before she had even had chance to say thank you or make a note of the company I worked for so that she could ask them to thank me for her. At the time it was scary, but I WILL ALWAYS REMEMBER THAT I WAS AGOOD SAMARITAN.
Coming back from somewhere or other with a coach,I stopped at the border at Maastricht to pay my 500BeF toll,when someone ran out of the Zoll booth closely followed by a man in uniform.The Official stopped,unholstered his pistol and fired off a shot.At the time,I really thought I was in the direct line of fire.It was probably yards away from me,but an experience I would not like repeated.A pistol shot makes a very strange ‘flat’ sort of sound in real life,one I will never forget.Anyway,when I finally managed to pay the toll,the desk guy said it was a suspected drug smuggler who ran off during questioning.
coming back from a run down south in a 7.5t years ago when i worked for a freight company at teesside airport, it was snowing all the way home so i was running late so phoned depot and told them i was running late and they said no probs stick it in the yard and take the new vito van home. left depot in the van and it was really snowing now just as i was passing the old farmhouse pub just outside darlington i could see these headlights flying up the road towards me ( i was doing 30 mph) because of weather conditions. then all of a sudden in the blink of an eye this car was head on in front of me next thing i know ambulance and fire crew are getting me out of the van. one written off van and me in hospital for 2 weeks with a ruptured spleen.
Few years ago when I first started out I was doing skip work with an old P reg MAN skip loader. Coming down the B2110 Turners Hill into East Grinstead a little bit too fast on a wet day, pressed the brakes and it locked up, sliding across the road towards oncoming traffic
At the last second I took my foot off the brakes and swerved round the oncoming car, applied them again and came to rest on a traffic island just before the roundabout at the bottom
Got out expecting an audience but everyone had just carried on, so I picked up the plastic keep left bollard I’d knocked over and carried on
unloaded 15 tons of humanitarian aid in kiev, ukraine on a tuesday evening after four days in customs, headed straight out for a reload back to estonia from ostroleka, poland. on the ring-road of zhitomir, was following a local truck pretty close while waiting to overtake, one moment he swerved, I couldn’t. All I saw was a body all mangled up, limbs thrown all over the place like a ragdoll. I definitely wasn’t the first and probably not the last but the next stop was the polish border some 400km and about 7 hours away…
Worst one for me, was flattening the cyclist in Hull in my 3 axle Premium about 6 years ago, as I turned left. She obviously didn’t see the numerous indicators on the combination as she came up the inside, (4) and I didn’t see her in my blind spot as I set off.
Luckily for her, the mid axle was up as I was virtually empty, and she went underneath it, otherwise she would have been brown bread. It took 12 months for my company to find out if they were going to try and charge me as the ■■■■■■■■ never told me, and still haven’t to this day.
While not exactly cricket, if I’m turning left now, and there’s a cycle lane alongside, I make sure that I’m well over into it, so the cyclist gets the message. If that means taking a wider swing, then so be it.
I’ve posted this on TN before, but can’t find it in a search.
Back in 1999 when I was running my own unit on traction:
Southbound on the M6 south of Birmingham where the M6 swings East.
I can see what looks like an artic stopped on the hard shoulder, hazards on.
Looks odd in that the right trailer door appears to be black (or been repaired and not painted to match?) or missing. You know how you try to work out what you are seeing as you get closer… at about 80ft per second!
As i get closer I realise why the right door looks black… its open, but its not fastened back along the side of the trailer, its just hanging open at 90 degrees to the back of the trailer. In other words perfectly in line with the side of the trailer. Just as i realise this the wind catches it & blows it into lane one, the one I’m travelling in!
There is another artic steaming up my outside in L2. “Oh 'ecky thump” I thought, as you do.
Very luckily for me that driver who was overtaking me was a switched on guy. He read the situation, checked his mirror, luckily had no cars in L3 & shot straight out there allowing me out into L2.
As I passed the stationary truck I looked accross, the driver was sat there calmly reading the paper!
In the heat of moment, I didn’t think to try & get the helpful drivers reg. no. or co. name, but I will never forget him & am very grateful to him for his quick thinking.
He? Yes. I could see it was he as he was coming up my outside.
Something to be said for moving over to L2 everytime you see something on the h/shoulder, not just when there appear to be people wandering around/working.
came across a guy sitting with his back to the traffic at around 2 in the morning in the inside lane of the m6 northbound just after forton services , a wild night pouring down with rain lots of spray viz not to good , i clocked this thing in the inside lane but thought it was a bit of debris from summit , how i missed him i will never know , i pulled it to the hard shoulder called the old bill who took about 15 mins to arrive , by this time iv got a hold of this guy and dragged him off the motorway got him sat down at the armco on hard shoulder and im thinking to myself w.t.f … trying to talk to the guy and he pushes me off , now im 6ft 4 and the strenth this guy had was unreal i could not hold him , then he walks straight back on to the m6… casually like and im not going after him … he makes it to the southbound side of the m6 now .
im shouting telling him to stay where he is , obviously he cant hear me but it was all i could do…this is when plod comes on the scene … they cant belive it as they get out there 4x4 the guy starts walking back to us on the northbound side…now to put you in the picture here , its a friday morning , granted early hours of . but its busy ,as i said lots of spray , windy, pouring down with rain… how nobody hit this guy is a near miracle . plod get him as he enters the middle lane of the northbound side , grab him down onto the hard shoulder and he starts kickin off big style punching , lashing out shouting the full on nutter thing…me and one of plod have to sit on the guy so other plod could cuff him , get him into the back of plods 4x4 and im thinking to myself i cant belive whats just happened … how i missed him , how everyone else missed him as he was strolling back and forth across the m6 !!.
so by now plod has had a word with me about whats happened see if im ok to drive ,do i need a coffee …must say the 2 guys were brand new attitude wise and stuff… so off i go northbound and homebound , im on the road about an hour or so and my mobile go’s off and its plod to give me an update on the situation . seemingly the guy was a patient of some mental hospital which is situated not far from the m6 and had not took his medication . plod tells me he is now ok at hospital and has been sorted out with his medication , they have spoke to him at lenth and he could not remember anything at all what had happened.
this episode did not hit me fully until saturday night ,just thinking how lucky the guy was how lucky i was . still gives me the shivers just thinking about it and thats about 12 years ago.
ok happy driving guys and have a cracking new year
bout 4 or 5 years ago was driving a rigid through melbourne city centre, old mercedes 1815 or something, lights go orange, woops, onto the brakes, next thing i know im hanging upside down watching the road going underneath me frantically trying to put the handbrake on.
eventually stop it, trying to work out wtf happened here, someone runs up to me, ill help you out he says
my first question was a silly one, but it was “just tell me, are the back wheels on the ground?”
“yep”
i was thinking the whole thing had tipped (impossible but whos being rational)
ok so he helped me out, i assessed the situation, cab has tipped right over, so far over that its broken the bushes and is almost on the ground due to the force it went over with.
only just stopped it past the lights and just short of a tram going crossways at the intersection, had there been a cyclist, pedestrian and motorcyclist in front of me theyd probably be dead, also had i not been wearing my seatbelt as i dont often do, i dont know what would have happened.
when the investigate was finished, it was established that our mechanic had fixed a diesel leak the day before, and not properly locked the cab back in, theres 2 locks on the old mercs and only one of them was done.
who ever thinks to check these things on the morning walk around?
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