Driver shunted by lorry on motorway

[DeludedGuy]

Here is the story if you haven't seen it.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england...shire-34933345

Excuse me, I might be a little unsympathetic but he seems like the type of bloke who seeks trouble and attention. Who has cameras front and back? Who takes this to the media?

From the video its clear that:

• The first incident happened when the driver of the car was hogging the middle lane with a clear lane to his left travelling at what looks like a slow pace as the lorry was trying to overtake another slower moving lorry.
• The lorry overtakes him twice, meaning he pursued the lorry after the first incident, overtook the lorry, slowed down in front of the lorry forcing the lorry driver to overtake him for a second time. The second incident could have been completely avoided if a)he ignored the lorry driver, he already had video evidence b) slowed down and let the lorry driver complete his overtake maneuver instead of maintaining and even increasing his speed.
• Possibly making a call on his mobile whilst driving?

I'm in a right old grumpy mood today.

[jimbouk]

Seems like a 'two wrongs (or more) not making a right' situation. He shouldn't have been sat in the middle lane, and the lorry driver shouldn't have pulled in with the car there. Although it's hard to tell whether the driver deliberately sped up to stop the lorry pulling in.

The overtaking twice happens, some vehicles don't maintain the same speed for various good and bad reasons. Again with the pulling in too soon, hard to tell whether the car driver sped up.

Fortunately driving a car it's easy to change speed to put some clean air (either in-front or behind) you and a bad/annoying/inconsistent driver on a motorway. But yeah all seems a bit odd.

[Gerrard]

Who has cameras front and back?

Mr Stockdale, who runs a dashcam company...

Whilst the lorry obviously shouldn't be ramming him, he wasn't exactly innocent either. I'll be honest, I wouldn't mind ramming some MLM's (Middle Lane Morons) myself sometimes!

[DeludedGuy]

Exactly Jim - in a single journey I encounter dozens of incompetent road users but instead of making a meal of it I adjust my speed/position and get on with my day - what you have here is a frustrated lorry driver and an attention seeking incompetent road user. It's a non story that should never have made the front page of the BBC website.

Well spotted Gerrard, I think this is easily a marketing opportunity for him.

[Smudger]

I don't think he was completely blameless, he was in the middle lane said he was 'just about to move over' (totally wasn't) so the lorry driver had nowhere to go, as he couldn't undertake, and isn't allowed in the outside lane, so I can understand the frustration. Not condoning the lorry driver's actions, but the car driver sounds like a self-righteous gonk.

[Ttaskmaster]

So Dashcam was SOOOO "in fear for his life" and "shaking uncontrollably" for these 14 minutes that..... he was able to drive perfectly well and even "followed the lorry to a depot in Dunstable" a good 35 miles away, taking about 50 minutes in average traffic, where an ambulance was waiting to take him away for neck and shoulder pain...

Says it all really.

I do believe the silly little drama queen likely instigated a lot of what went down. Seeing the speed at which the truck goes past, I'd guess he was doing about 60-ish. Dashcam looks to have been chugging around 45-50 maybe, in the middle lane with his hazards going (I can't think why he'd be doing that and it bothers me), to the point of forcing the truck to overtake.

I don't have sound for the video so I can't hear his engine, but I'd go so far as to guess that Dashcam may have sped up to get in the way of the truck as it went to pull in. I'd expect the Trucker to be far more careful the second time around, if he'd genuinely just multi-clipped a car, too.


That or it was indeed staged by Dashcam Inc and filmed as a marketing thing for his little company, with Trucker agreeing to take the rap and lose his job (conveniently through an agency) in return for double the usual annual bonus. Probably a Dashcam employee anyway, so no real job lost.
I note the photo of Dashcam shows a lovely framed pic of a guy (presumably him) and his loving daughter... I'd not be surprised to find the whole thing is a setup - "Look how dangerous truck drivers are... This is why you need fifteen life-saving Dashcams™ plastered all around your vehicle!!".

[Domestic_Ginger]

Quite impressive 'nudging' from the gonk in the lorry! He didn't do too much damage from the photo. Worryingly it looks like he's had practice; a trucking pseudo spiderman vigilante fighting the injustices of the middle lane criminals.

Article is highlighting the poor performance of the police.

Edit: I don't think the 'victim' is blameless in the slightest.

[Ttaskmaster]

Did a bit of digging - Apparently not the first time such a thing has happened: https://www.youtube.com/user/PoliceWitness/videos

See the one called "Why should I record my journeys?".
It's the very same Dashcam Inc bloke, selling his stuff - How convenient that he himself now gets hit, in a manner that leaves him open to some lovely compensation and demonstrates why you need to buy his stuff...

This video is front page of his own website, stating:
"[company name] seeks to empower and protect you on the road through the use of dash cam technology, at home as part of our community watch programme and personally using our FREE 999 emergency police app.
Without a dash cam (in-car camera) this dangerous driver would never have been held to account.

It would simply be his word against the word of the other motorist. And with £3000 worth of damage, the car owner would be considerably out of pocket".

The article photo of his car shows "a number of bumps and scrapes from the incidents".
Does he drive a Bugatti Veyron or something???!!!!
What kind of car costs THREE GRAND to replace those piddly little nips shown in teh photos?

Three grand... that six times what I bought our Mercedes for!!!
Guess I'd better get me a DashCam!!!

[DeludedGuy]

Well spotted Ttaskmaster! Might start a group just to shame them

[AGTDenton]

Dashcam driver makes no attempt to move over whilst the lorry is in the outside lane. He even attempts to come back at the lorry to stay perfectly in the middle lane to hog it for life.

Lorry driver clearly needs to cool off and should never have gone into the outside lane, can understand that they hate changing gears and middle lane hoggers annoy the hell out of me as well but its no excuse to drive aggressively.

Both in the wrong as far as I'm concerned - but incident caused by the Dashcam driver that could have been avoided by the lorry driver.

[Ttaskmaster]

Lorry driver clearly needs to cool off and should never have gone into the outside lane, can understand that they hate changing gears and middle lane hoggers annoy the hell out of me as well but its no excuse to drive aggressively.

No excuse, no, but in many cases it can take minutes to get that extra 20mph back up to speed... and some drivers are on the clock, so they still get docked pay if they're late.

However, as mentioned, this just smacks of a complete setup, likely with both parties in on it and staging the event.

[BobF64]

Surely, if the car driver has footage of himself driving in the middle lane the police should be eagerly investigating it and prosecuting him under that new law.

After all, they soon go after people that post videos of themselves speeding or doing other dangerous things.

[Disturbedguy]

Did a bit of digging - Apparently not the first time such a thing has happened: https://www.youtube.com/user/PoliceWitness/videos

See the one called "Why should I record my journeys?".
It's the very same Dashcam Inc bloke, selling his stuff - How convenient that he himself now gets hit, in a manner that leaves him open to some lovely compensation and demonstrates why you need to buy his stuff...

This video is front page of his own website, stating:
"[company name] seeks to empower and protect you on the road through the use of dash cam technology, at home as part of our community watch programme and personally using our FREE 999 emergency police app.
Without a dash cam (in-car camera) this dangerous driver would never have been held to account.

It would simply be his word against the word of the other motorist. And with £3000 worth of damage, the car owner would be considerably out of pocket".

The article photo of his car shows "a number of bumps and scrapes from the incidents".
Does he drive a Bugatti Veyron or something???!!!!
What kind of car costs THREE GRAND to replace those piddly little nips shown in teh photos?

Three grand... that six times what I bought our Mercedes for!!!
Guess I'd better get me a DashCam!!!

There's also a video, on his facebook page where the same person decides to try and overtake the lorry, on a road in which his lane merge's..he blames the road for not being long enough...even though he could have easily waited seeing as he was behind the lorry anyway. The guy is a twonk.

[GoNz0]

Blatant attempt at advertising his dashcam company, he did everything in his power to provoke this and should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law as he endangered lives. If I were the lorry driver who has now lost his job through this I dare say I would have a score to settle in court against the company.

The guys an ex copper (special constable) so he should know better.

[peterb]

With a bit of luck, he'll be prosecuted on the strength of the evidence from his dash and - a fine irony!

[eltel]

From the short video clip that is no ones fault but the car drivers he appears to be driving in the middle lane with his hazard warning lights going at a slow speed forcing the lorry driver into the outside lane.
the car driver should have been on the inside lane he had nothing to overtake for at least a half mile and was slow moving
playing a game like that with a 50 tonne lorry is just stupid car driver could have ended up seriously injured or dead.