milodon:
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…
milodon:
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…
you didn’t stop?
Yeah, that’s the gist of it - not everywhere has a fair and even handed police and legal system like what we do
I was on the outskirts of Exeter one night and got stopped by Police who asked if i’d seen anyone acting suspiciously.
While they were talking to me there were other Police,up and down the road,shining torches into the hedgerows and fields who were apparently looking for some lunatic that had escaped from Police custody and was violently dangerous.
My next drop was only half a mile away (next door to what used to be Frank Tuckers) but it was a key drop,in other words,i’d be there on my own,in the dark,unlocking sheds and unloading whilst some nutcase could be standing behind me.
Didn’t like that one bit.
Just doing the tests was about as scary as it gets for me, in a strange way; that sort of thing scares the ■■■■ out of me but other things don’t…
I was manouvring a rigid in a co-op’s car park one day and struggling to work out how far behind me a bollard was. Any other day id’ve jumped out and had a look but an old lady in co-op uniform appeared at the back of the lorry and started waving me back- all good, I keep an eye on her but check the other mirror occasionally. As I return to looking at her I noticed she’d vanished, quickly followed by a bump as I hit something!!
I thought I’d killed her to be honest, it’s a horrible feeling ! Anyway, I strained my neck to try to see her and sure enough, she’s back there trying to stop an 18t truck with the bare hards rather than shout or hold a hand up! Luckily only a broken back light to worry about but a lesson I’ll neverforget.
Yep, that’d ■■■■ your night up, and the next few months at least!
Not my experiences but stories I think are true;
Someone I used to work for but was previously a trucker came round a sharp bend to find all sorts of carnage, there’d been an accident with at least one fatality, he got out to try to help and found a guy trapped in his car, obviously dying. His last words were “help me mate, please help me” that too would make a mess of any sane person’s head!
Finally, from a police officer who also attended a fatal accident. The “lone” driver had gone under a trailer and been decapitated, while the scene was being sorted out another body was found but no obvious cause of death, upon further inspection the second body had died due to choking on a ■■■■■! The decapitated driver was missing his. (doesn’t take a genius but both were men).
bobster:
2008 m6 just passed 32 you know the bit just after the motorway police station!!! it were 1am and i was doing a regular run from redditch and was looking forward to my 45 mins sleep!! infront of me about 800m in slow lane is a malcolms wagon and right up his bum was a merc sprinter curtain side…
How terrible. Sorry you had to be the one there Bobster. A triple tragedy in one of those families
only a couple of years ago i was traveling east bound on the m62 just past the farmhouse where it splits ( sure you know the one i mean ) , on the opposite side a volvo tractor unit was just coming to a stop on the hard shoulder ( west bound ), the whole of the cab was on fire and i could see the drivers shoulder up against the window … i cant imagine that he got out of that , it was horrible to see and i never found out what happened to him. but everytime i past the scene on that side i could see a melted patch on the tarmac surface and quite alot of melted plastic … horrible !!
I met up for a tea and bacon sarnie in Salford (quite bad in itself) with my mate. Sat in his passenger seat chatting, herbert in a car transporter parks up directly opposite and goes into the sarnie shop, making a narrow road even narrower. So I’m keeping my eye on the road thinking one of us could lose a mirror here. Next minute I spot a transit style pick up with a long scafold pole sticking out from its side heading straight for us. I quickly jump onto my mates lap and hear a large smash as the scaffold pole bounces of the windscreen pillar (at head height!!!), catches the mirror frame and proceeds to rip the entire door skin off the frame, opening the door and smashing the drop glass also.
■■■■ of a driver gets out and says to my pal “Why did you open your door?” FFS! He’d seemingly only strapped this scaffold pole at the top (just behind the cab) and as he turned the corner it swung out at almost 90 degrees, without him knowing. Pole was bent at an unusual angle afterwards!
Only injury was a tiny cut on my finger from the flying glass.
I have only been driving since the beginning of Dec, and my scarey moment was on my very first drive out and within the first half hour, I was travelling in lane1 on a dual carriageway when a class 1 was overtaking me, he was creating a lot of spray so I switched on the wipers but in my eagerness I also flashed my lights and he was only about half way past, well he immediately started to move over so I had to brake very hard, he only just missed me by no more than 6 inch, ok maybe seven lol TBH it made me wonder for a minute or two if this was actually the job for me, but I came to my senses very soon and I am really enjoying my new job, I know it’s not as bad as other posts on here but for a new driver I nearly lost my dinner lol
Andydisco:
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
Driving along that narrow road in Germany that skirts the Swiss border at 3 in the morning in the snow. Black ,wet road - white snowy borders .I was well over my time & well brassed off & going thru this village & saw this black bin liner half in the road & half in the snow. I decided to run over it rather than go round it. At the last minute I went round it. It was a body in a black leather jacket. Where I stopped was a phone booth. I called the cops & went back to the body .I poked it & spoke to it & the guy, over 6’ tall got up & walked off quickly. The medics came & went round looking for him & then the cops came & thanked me for calling in. There had been a murder in the village the previous month. Good lads -no questions ,no tacho check & I went on my way shaken & stirred!
the scareiest thing to happen to me was in 1998/9 ? on a monday morning on the M5.
it was just after glastonbury weekend & just after sedgmore services a young lady decided to walk out into the carridgeway right in front of me .
needless to say i didn’t hit her but still shook me up , against my better judgement i let her in the cab & got her to gordano services then told the dock police at portbury , she was dresed in pyjamas ,high as a kite & had been thrown out of her friends car.
i didn’t want to give her a lift, but i really didn’t want to hear on the news a girl had been runover on the motorway
I was travelling across the causeway over Blythfield Reservoir many years ago in a small van. I heard a horendous noise like a truck’s wheels locked up and skidding but I was the only vehicle in sight. I was ■■■■■■■■ myself trying to work out the cause of the noise, thinking I was going to get clobbered by an invisible truck crashing into me, when I saw the after burners light up on the jet that had just used me for target practice while I was on the causeway. Git!
Apart from the usual slippy slidey moments the scariest 2 things thats happened to me are, 1. 1977. Returning from Carlisle down the M6, near Killington, at about 3 am I noticed a bloke on the hard shoulder waving his arms like Icarus. I then noticed a wagon stationary, no lights, in front of me, causing a speedy diversion to the hard shoulder, just missing said vehicle. After stopping and checking the underwear I wandered back towards the previously mentioned wagon which turned out to be an ancient Borderer with the nearside cab and floor…missing. To this day I don’t know what had happened, there were no other vehicles about. Amazingly, the Gardner 180 was still idling, lying on its side…ON THE ROAD!
Parked up for the nite outside a cafe near Dartford I was disturbed by a gentle rocking of the cab. Turned out the local tealeaves had slashed my n/s curtain and were havin’ it away with baby nappies. Discretion being the better part of valour I flicked the sidelights on, the shout went up, “He’s awake!” and a dark saloon beat a hasty retreat towards Dagenham. Plod arrived half an hour later.
A couple of incidents that happened in 2010 come quickly to mind.
At the beginning of the year, two of us were driving up through France, somewhere near Limoges. There’d been some snow earlier, but the
roads were clear now, and we were both running at 55mph. I was at the front when we came over the brow of a hill. In the distance I could see
lots of vehicles at various angles, some facing the wrong way up the dual-carriageway, and two trucks through the kerbside barrier, nose-down
in a ditch. Immediately I started braking, but the whole lot locked-up but kept sliding. I managed to warn the other truck with me over the CB,
and he was lucky enough to slow sufficiently before he came over the brow. I, on the other hand, continued, flat-out, to slide down the hill
towards the mass of cars, vans; and trucks sitting at the bottom. I’d got the lights on main-beam and my hand on the horn, in the hope that
those at the bottom of the hill would see/hear my warning. There were people running in all directions! I can honestly say that I though I was
going to die, and was looking for where to try and point the truck to reduce the level of carnage. Then, about 100ft from the rearmost car,
the tyres suddenly found some grip, and I came to a halt with 2 - 3 inches to spare. The truck had slid in a straight line for approx 600yds.
When I got out of the truck, the whole road was covered in black-ice, and it was impossible to even walk on it.
2)Driving out of Brussels at night just a few months ago, I had a fella tried to commit suicide by throwing himself in front of my truck.
I’d stopped at a set of traffic-lights, and whilst there, waiting to turn right, i’d seen two obviously gay fellas (no offence intended), arguing
with each other.By the time I set off, they were 200ft up the road, so by the time I got to them i’d got up to about 30mph. As i drew level, one
of them threw his arms in the air and ran out straight in front of me. As I hit him his body went up in the air so that his face was actually higher
than mine. I obviously stopped, but before I could get out he’d got up, He then started running towards a Mercedes car, parked at the roadside,
and with his head down, put it straight through the side-window. That takes some force! A police car immediately pulled up, having been called
to a disturbance the two fellas had caused in a nearby bar. The police asked me if I was ok and if there was any damage to the truck, which
there wasn’t, and then sent me on my way. All during this, the fella was laying through the car, covered in blood and glass. I’ve no idea if he was
dead or alive. He’d certainly have one hell of a headache!
I was driving along a B road at 2am in 2005. Probably about 5 miles in any direction from any hamlet or civilisation of any sort and I see a pretty young girl with her dress in tatters frantically waving at the side of the road.
I slow down and open my window, just taking off my seatbelt to get out and shout “you ok love?” at which she looks at me, smiles and then legs it through the bushes behind her. I decide something fishy is going on so put it into gear and start moving off, at the same time I look to my right and see two huge guys coming out of the hedge towards me with what looks like a crowbar and big pipe.
Obviously out nicking cars (or worse) I reported it to the police and they said that two people in the past week had been knifed for their cars along that road in the past month.
Shook me up for a long time after and I’ve not picked up a hitchhiker since!
early nineties i was on my way back from madrid, when my truck broke down, on the ring road, at rennes, it was bang on midnight, on the sunday, going into monday.
after 15 minutes of fannying around, the truck started, so i retrieved the warning triangle, put it back in the trailer box, on the road side, and got back in the cab. just about to set off, when there was an almighty bang, turns out, a french artic, with hanging meat on, had misjudged my position and clipped the rear offside, (french offside that is) of the trailer, he then went into the central crash barrier, which pushed him back towards me, he hit my cab HARD then went off the motorway, down the bank, and rolled in the field.
by far, my scariest moment, luckily i was fine, abit shook up, and the french driver, got away with minor cuts and bruises, which considering the state of the trucks, was a miracle. we both went to hospital to be checked over, and after a few hours, the french police, (who were fantastic) throughout, took me back to the crash scene, where they were still clearing up, got my passport, truck docs etc, and then went to the police station, to sort it all out. all was well, and i was flown home, that afternoon, truck was undriveable. i was glad to get back in the uk after that one!
it were 1am and i was doing a regular run from redditch and was looking forward to my 45 mins sleep!! infront of me about 800m in slow lane is a malcolms wagon and right up his bum was a merc sprinter curtain side…
