What is wrong with current batch of truckies??

How do you do that on a narrow road, ie where there is not enough room to pull a truck safely onto the shoulder of the road ?

Onetrack,

Might be the same tipper operator I witnessed passing cars heading north on the Kwinana at the Roe hwy exit.
Used the Roe exit lane to round up a slow car and trailer plus two other cars being held up then came back out onto the kwinana again if that makes sense. One of the cars being held up actually had his indicator on to go off left in the second Roe offramp lane. As he started to move off he very smartly got cut off by the truck. Rounded them up on the left side. Scared the bejesus out of the car driver which ended up in a big lock up and a heap of brake lights....wouldnt have been 6" in it.
Absolute muppet....Day cab freightliner pulling one of Effectives tri's

Basil

Pete, if the road is that narrow then any traffic behind couldn't pass your truck anyway without going on to the wrong side of the road. It is a matter of common sense, really, so you would put your right indicator on and slow down and keep an eye on any following traffic.

I should have included the words "where it is possible to do so" in the original comment.

Vichung your logic makes sense with the go left thing but there is one fundamental part of it missing. People these days have no patience and this is developing into arrogance.
Why go left safely out of the way then go where you want to go when the roads clear when you can stop right there and wait to turn right and hold everyone up and cause a hazzard. The mentality is if they get hit its not there fault and its all about me me me stuff the rest.
This is why commonsense defensive driving isnt working anymore.
Years ago if you were in the left lane behind a truck and you knew you were going to turn left up the road abit you patiently sat behind the truck until your turn came up.....not anymore...roar pass the truck, duck in front of him and jam the anchors on to turn left...truck cleans up car...trucks fault.
Its not speed, its not the roads...its the attitudes.

Basil

Hi Onetrack, Basil and others, do you mind if I go back to that Abbott video for a minute? Firstly, remember that I don't live in Oz, so don't know that road, don't even know who Tony Abbott is, haven't seen any other photos of or comments about that incident so I am speaking solely about what I can see from that brief video clip; there may well be other factors that I don't know about.

Also, I'm not here to defend truck drivers, I've been driving trucks fulltime for over 50 years, and still do, so I've seen excellent ones, good ones, bad ones and terrible ones in my time.

From what I can see in the video, the initial cause of this incident was the fact that the driver of Abbott's car stopped in the middle of a busy highway to turn right onto some grass, it doesn't appear to be a proper intersection. Apparently legal, but surely a bit foolish with that traffic about. Surely the car driver, who presumably is a professional driver, should have allowed for other people possibly not being fully alert and not aware that he was stopped.

The minibus driver, he also wasn't alert and it would appear from the video that he swerved left to avoid the car and forced the truck driver to swerve off the road whereas otherwise he (the truckie) might have passed safely on the left.

The truckie, yep it looks as if he was going too fast for the conditions and possibly not paying enough attention to what was happening ahead, or beside him.

So, it would seem to me that there were 3 people at least not driving defensively enough, and the fact that the car driver's action of stopping in the centre of a highway in fast moving traffic was legal doesn't make it sensible. Surely the over-riding requirement for every driver is to drive safely, not just legally, and this applies in this case to all 3 drivers involved. But still, that is just an old trucker's point of view.

Cheers, Vic

Vic

SPOT ON

Well I think the truck driver has to take most of the blame, if you see vehicles close to the road, stopped, doing anything odd it is best to slow down anyhow.
What about this bloke, must have learned to drive from watching Homer Simpson
[ftp] www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/world/tow...frev00-1225756817906 [/ftp]

Trying that one again www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/world/tow...frev00-1225756817906

Pete, I don't think I agree with you on this, but it looks like I'm in the minority. Some of the blame, yes; but most of it??? From what I've seen on the video, I don't really think so. Surely if you are going to stop anywhere, especially in the middle of the road on a highway, your first action should be to check your mirrors to see if your stopping is likely to cause an accident or serious incident?

The truckie actually avoided a more serious accident by his actions, probably a lot more dramatically than would have been necessary if he had been going more slowly or paying more attention, but he did. I still think from watching the video yet again that the INITIAL (not the only) cause of the incident was careless driving by the car driver, and then the dangerous driving of the minibus driver.

Anyhow, we could bat this thing back and forth for ever, so I will get out of the discussion now. None of us were there to see the whole progression of things leading up to this incident and it's a bit hard to tell from a short video; it's certainly led to some interesting comments. One thing is for sure, very few of us are perfect drivers and I'm sure most of us have made some bad decisions on the road occasionally no matter how hard we try not to.

Stay safe! Cheers, Vic

Vic - None of the Australian States Road Traffic Acts (as amended) allow for .. or advise .. pulling to the left, to make a right hand turn from any road.

The only exception to this, is inner Melbourne, where there's still trams running up the middle of the road (thus proving that Melburnians still live in the 19th century .. )

All of the Australian States Road Traffic Acts state, that any vehicle turning right, will pull over as close as possible to the centreline of the road, and give adequate indication of turning (minimum of 30 metres).
There are no restrictions on where you can turn right from any road, unless it is so marked by signage. This point that there was no road where Abbots car was turning right, is a red herring.

There actually was a gate into a farm paddock where the car was turning, and the car driver is in the right to turn there. Having said that, the Road Traffic Acts all state as a footnote to turning, "if safe to do so".

Thus we have road rules that clearly state that even if you are in the right .. then, caution .. and defensive driving techniques .. tell you, that if the spot where you want to turn right, is a fast, dangerous, patch of road, and just around a bend .. you're better to find another safer spot to turn.

This was the case in this near-accident. Where Abbots car was turning, is apparently a particularly windy, fast, and too-narrow section of hwy .. and where the car pulled up, is not far from a sharp curve.

The whole scenario to me, represents, what is overall, poor levels of driving skills, on the part of ALL the drivers involved, as you've stated, with years of experience behind you.

The car driver was obviously unfamiliar with the section of road, and should have gone up the road to find a good, straight, clear section of road to turn around and come back.
The bus driver exhibited particularly poor driving skills, by pulling up in a hurry behind the car, then swerving left around it .. without the use of indicators .. and the truckie was travelling way too fast for the section, and possibly distracted for a few seconds, by the media gathering by the side of the road.

In every case, though, the onus is on the vehicle driver .. be it car, truck, or bus .. to be able to pull up safely, within the distance that he can see ahead.
The common thread amongst many truck accidents, is the pedal-to-the-metal attitude of many truck drivers, who are always under pressure to get there as fast as they can .. and who won't let up on the loud pedal, even when road conditions dictate caution.

We have seen many of these style of accidents in recent years, and a lot involve truckies running into trains at level crossings. The Kerang and Lismore truck train crash disasters, are just two that come to mind, when truck drivers refused to let up on the accelerator, when road conditions dictated caution.
Part of the truck crash problem is truck drivers who treat highways as freeways, and who get infuriated at anyone who stops or turns in front of them. Unfortunately, many times a day, people do exactly that in front of our vehicle, and we have to be prepared to slow down, and even stop.
As we all know, nothing is more infuriating than just getting 40 tonnes or more rolling nicely, and you have to brake, and start winding up, all over again.

Unfortunately it's a fact of life, that there are still many roads that are dangerous, too narrow, and which have no turning or passing lanes, when there's a crying need for them.
This does not resile from the fact, that truck drivers are expected to have better driving skills than car drivers, and they need to allow for the conditions.