That damned Rennes ringroad is a bad place, isn’t it? I was hammering up the 137 with a load of “Guinness Book of Records” from Madrid… Middle of the night and trying to catch the 0630 out of Cherbourg. Anyone who knows the road will know you can take the sliproad flat out, and I was… But there was dust in the air and I didn’t know what it was.
Turned out a youngster had flipped his car on the RR and ended up on his side on the slip road with his wheels pointing towards me. Well I nailed the brake and swung hard right… I can rememberseeing the red Yield sign coming towards me, and swerving to avoid that as well, but I don’t remember hearing any impact. Turned out I brushed his rear bumper with my step (cracked that and completely removed the little step repeater light), the front tyre rubbed it and that was all, but it was enough to flip the car back out into the middle of the ringroad…
I thought he had to be dead… I stopped, grabbed my phone, ran back and expected to spend some considerable time within the justice system as the only stops I had made were for fuel and smokes at Irun and the peages… that was all. This young guy walked towards me though… He was as ■■■■■■ as a parrot and really shaky on his feet, both through booze and shock. I was trying to call the police but he wouldn’t let me… He wanted to call his parents… I insisted, he insisted… so I buggered off. All he has was a nasty cut behind his ear…
There I was going up the M6 in a Volvo FL10 about 8 years ago. Its about 8am as I get to the M62 split, slip road for Liverpool is clear but the lane for Manchester was standing still. The wagon in front of me starts tapping his brake lights and as I am rapidily gaining on him I decide to pull into the next lane to pass him. I look down to check my blind spot and check that it was clear, look back up and the wagon in front has stopped! he was empty, I was at full weight of 32 tonnes. There was no way I could stop. Stamp on the brakes and yank the wheel to the right as I know the lane is clear. It caught the trailer by 2", loud bang, glass everywhere then silence. The cab got pulled back on the the passenger side and crushed the bed!! Drove it onto the hard shoulder, police turned up, checked i was ok then left me there. Found out a woman car driver, in front of the wagon I hit, had stopped on the carriage way to try and get into a gap in the standing traffic. The gap wasnt big enough so she took off, only after forcing the wagon to stop. If I had hit it square on or gone to the left I wouldnt be here today.
One i can remember, Was only 7 at the time, But sometimes my dad took me, my mum and my big bro in the lorry as he was only on days like, And i’ve never liked Sed atkis before as the comfort was next to non
To cut long story short, I was layed snorin me bonce off in the bunk with ma bro. Him at the driver side, me at the passenger side (always preffered seeing the stuff my dad did ) And from what my dad told me it was a nob head hit and run driver And ended up with us on the other side of the motorway facing traffic!! Oh wouldn’t be so scary if i didn’t go flying out the ■■■■■■■ bunk almost out the windscreen
But i still want to drive trucks for a living Didn’t scare me that much i suppose!
Another incident was being with my dad when he was on tippers and was at a farm and was getting loaded not sure with what but was out of one of them stupid pipe things not sure, but usually end up waiting for hours on end to get loaded. And the stuff we was getting loaded with wasn’t coming out over quick. Turns out the farmer got into the feeder and got stuck trying to push the stuff through it We was supposed to be out by 2 we didn’t get away till about 6
Crapped Myself eg 1
Driving for Woolies and coming out of Rugby on to M6 Northbound on a boiling hot summers day the traffic was bad. As I got to junction 3 our carriageway had slowed right down but the southbound side was flying. So there I was , window down taking in the rays and listening to Steve Wright when I could here this almighty crunching noise but what happened next beggers believe. A Car on the southbound side had had a blowout on the front drivers side which dragged him into the central reservation metal girders. At somepoint while scraping the metal the flat tyre wheel caught something, ripped off the car and (with suspension arm still attached) cleared the central reservation and bouced up our carraigeway. Luckily the traffic was crawling and the wheel and arm completely missed all the cars… Never seen anything like it.
Crapped Myself eg 2
While taking a load from Coventry to Bath City Centre Dept (Royal Mail) I had come off at Junnction 18 and was driving down the country lanes before you get to the long steep hill into Bath. The country lanes do not have lights and while trying to keep awake singing to the radio there was an almighty BANG! Needless to say after filling ones pants I looked to the passenger window and saw what looked like something out of a cartoon… a massive owl had flown straight into it!! But it was the imprint it left on the window that I couldnt stop laughing at (which was bird bellie up against window and wingspan right out!) poor thing. So there I was thinking I’m driving a class1, owls have excellent eyesight day or night but this idiotic bird didnt see me■■? Hahahahaha…
Many years ago I was driving for Shell in and around Frankfurt. My terminal was Flörsheim, near Frankfurt airport, and we used to carry 38,000 litres of fuel; petrol or diesel depending on the ticket, to Autobahn service stations. It was good trip as basically we dumped the whole lot off in one go and didn’t have to fanny about with several drops to normal Shell gas stations.
It was a good gig. The equipment was top class, but the only fly in the ointment was the alternating night shifts. Week of nights, then a week of days… you get the idea.
Anyway, one night in the deepest mid winter it had been snowing heavily and I was heading up the A5 from Frankfurt to the Rasthof near Reiskirchen, which is about 80 or 90 kms from Frankfurt, at about 03:00 in the morning.
You drive down a fairly steep hill shortly before you get to Reiskirchen and it was slippery in the far right hand lane (remember; a German Autobahn!) I was taking things pretty easily and I guess I was travelling at about 50-60 kph down this slope with clear visibility and no traffic in front of me when a German Army Unimog decided to overtake me… My lane had been cleared but was getting re-covered. His lane hadn’t been cleared and looked like it was two or three inches deep.
I have no idea if he was loaded, but it looked like a troop carrier Unimog as I recall. Anyway, he pulls out and starts to come up my left hand side, as the snow in that left hand lane starts to get deeper…
I guess he was about level with the front of my tank but still behind my unit when I saw that he was starting to slide left and right beside me. The driver obviously thought his big 4x4 could/would defeat the laws of physics, and was being re-educated as he braked quite heavily beside me… He couldn’t have missed the fact that he was next to a fully loaded tanker due to the very large Shell signs, and I had a bit of sphincter flutter as he started to weave about next to me… but I held my course and speed thinking (praying) that if he was going to go into the side of me at least he was likely to bounce off, and we’d see where the bits landed at the bottom of the hill.
Result was he panicked so much and slowed enough to actually hit the Armco barrier on his left hand side whilst me and my tank continued on our way to Rieskirchen…
I came from Swiss going to UK in a snowstorm on the Munich side of the Abahn in the hills above Stuttgart at night. The road was covered with snow but I noticed all these tyre tracks leaving the Abahn & going off down the tree covered slopes. I thought it was the army on maneuvers but realized next day it was private cars that had gone out of control.
Not quite ‘on the Road’, but at Pentalvers, Felix. I had just picked up a refer box from the port and went to Pents to have a GenSet fitted, as usual they don’t move fast so I put the kettle on and was watching TV on my phone when I heard this almighty bang, like a Tyre exploding. I went out to see if it was one of mine and as soon as I opened the door I heard escaping air coming from the back of my trailer.
On examination one of my suspension airbags had exploded. No idea why, but one of the drivers behind me thought the refer was badly loaded with most of the weight at the back.
Dropped the box and picked up another trailer, then picked up the box with GenSet and off I went without further incident to Alconbury.
Yeah, that’s the gist of it - not everywhere has a fair and even handed police and legal system like what we do
exactly, there was nothing I could have done to help the deceased but in a country where the norm for every policeman is utterly and thoroughly corrupt, I would have been up [zb] creek without a paddle, for something that wasn’t my fault nor would I have been able to help.
I remember a case years ago when romania wasn’t even close to being in the EU, an estonian driver ran over a dacia with 5 suicidal gypsies parked in a blind curve in the middle of the night with no lights on. he was sentenced to 15 years, released after only a year though.
First one was going along the M42 at about 0330 when I seen an ASDA wagon swerving onto the hard shoulder and back into the lane a few times, as I was coming to overtake past him I flashed to let him know I was coming through and he straightened up, I had just got about level with him when he decided to swerve over into my lane this time. As I looked to my right I had a car coming up past me so I quickly indicated as I was pulling over to avoid the ASDA sideswiping me, the car had seen him coming over and luckily had the sense to hold back. Was not happy the ASDA driver at all!
Second one was dropping at LIDLS in Runcorn, had missed the turning so drove around until I came back in, dropped my load and then drove the way I had just gone to goto a burger van I had seen for my break. As I was went round a bend in the road the truck lost all traction and swerved one way, tried to correct as I it went the other before I finally got control and carried on. Was only going about 20mph when it happened and luckily no harm came of it, was a bit strange as I when I went through the same bit of road about an hour earlier I went through fine at 30mph!
I’ve had a few minor scares in the last couple of years as a trucker, Apart from a speaker grille landing on the steering wheel whilst on the twisty bits of the A6 just south of Buxton, one was when I was on the A515 going towards Nottingham from Buxton to pick up a set of bath taps , It had been raining heavy & lots of spray so the cars in front were taking it easy, I had a motorcyclist overtake in the no overtaking bit about a mile or so from Newhaven services, he wasn’t being a total idiot though. A mile later he was in the middle of the road dying, a car coming towards us turned right into the service station right across his path, he hit it at the a pillar and the bike came up behind him and crushed him. It took a few seconds for things to sink in before I jumped out and started running towards him, fortunately for my sanity (I’ve lost one brother, a brother in law and a bloody good mate to motorbike accidents) others got there before me and started CPR and were in contact with the emergency services. One thing I remember and made me question humanity was the car drivers that were going round the guys doing CPR inches from their feet and having a good old gorp, I hope they got more than they bargained for!
The last scare was on the 1st of December last year, when we got the first snow, I’m M1 s/b before j37, lanes 1 & 2 were covered but drivable, lane 3 had about 4 inches and would be a struggle in a 4x4 at speed, I’m doing about 45 passing slower cars when I see headlights coming from behind in lane 3, I thought it must be a 4x4 having a little ‘fun’. As it passes, doing at least 60, I’m shocked to see it’s a Renault Megane (or similar) I’m thinking this is gonna end in tears, when right in front of me, it loses it and veers across 3 lanes, t-bones a Sprinter which then hits the concrete central res and bounces back onto the h/s, I hits the haz lights and gets over to the h/s, take a deep breath and go see whats what. Everyone okay if shaken, turns out the Megane driver is a woman, clad in biker gear and with 4 kids in car ageing about 3 - 12 and not a single one of them strapped in! Me and Arla driver had to get between the car and Sprinter driver, he was not a happy chappy, not at the accident but cos the kids weren’t strapped. An off duty womble turns up and me & the Arla driver get on with our day. Can’t help thinking though that if she’d not hit that Sprinter She’d have gone into the ditch at full speed and things would have been very messy.
) And from what my dad told me it was a nob head hit and run driver 
