Driver reading magazine whilst driving horse lorry!!

HollyWoozle

HollyWoozle

Well-Known Member
Joined
1 August 2002
Messages
4,035
Location
Beds/South Cambs
www.farandride.com
I was driving to work this morning and I saw a small horse lorry/van for an international equine moving service on the A1 motorway. I took an interest, being a horsie person, and noted the name and then I went past them and pulled into the slow lane in front of them.

I checked my rearview mirror and could see that the driver was folding up a newspaper. I thought "surely he wasn't reading that?" and gave him the benefit of the doubt. He put it on the seat next to him but then I could see that he was looking at that seat over and over, like he was trying to read whilst driving. Then he veered a little onto the rumble strips at the side of the road, before correcting. I kept looking back, rather concerned (and whilst trying to drive safely myself), and then he picked up a magazine and laid it out on his steering wheel to read!!

I was really horrified and thought "what if my horse was in there?!" (plus it's hugely dangerous for other drivers too) so I noted the company name and numberplate and looked them up online to call them. I just did so and the manager thanked me for ringing and said that as far as she knows, the lorry was empty...not the point! I said that I would never want to use their services knowing what their drivers were like and she said "yes, it doesn't make a good impression". I didn't get the impression that she was angry about how her driver had behaved or too concerned for the damage it could cause. She said she would "bring it to his attention".

I'm sure I'm not allowed to "bad-mouth" a particularly company on here but I was just really angered by this! I'm not usually the sort of person who complains but I simply had to on this occasion. What would you have done? Argh!
 
Was it the 'Horse and Hound'!!!?

In all seriousness, disgraceful behaviour and I would have been tempted to report him to his transport company too.
 
Hmmm what speed was he doing on the A1? Are we talking 60mph trying to read a paper, or are we talking stuck in traffic?

I would be equally horrified if it were any lorry, car, motorbike - any moving vehicle in fact, as they would be able to cause fatalities to other motorists by behaving that way, regardless of their cargo.

Would you have been as angry with any other lorry, and called their bosses too?

I'm not sticking up for the lorry driver, but I think the fact that he was transporting horses is irrelevant - he should not have been doing it full stop. Sadly I have seen hundreds of lorry drivers doing this, and until they actually cause an accident, nothing is done about it.
 
Blimey. I say name & shame. Surely its not libel/defamatory if you say "I saw a HorsesRUs truck being driven on the A1 by someone reading a paper" - because its true.
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Completley dangerous and irresponsible for all other road users.
On one of the recent tv police programmes it showed the consequences of a slow moving lorry crashing in to the rear of a stationary car that was in a que of vehicles waiting to leave the motorway . The car was completely squashed and the driver was killed. The drivers younger sister was shown on tv and as you can imagine she was distraught. The police eventually got the driver to adit he was trying out a newly fitted mobile phone in the cab. The tragedy was that a young life was lost. He did not even realise the vehicle was there.
You would be doing everyone a favour if you reported him to the police as they may even warn him. Don't rely on his manager to warn him as the company is probably only interested in making money.
 
Reading the paper! Thats nothing compared to what they do here in Italy. I know for a fact that a few of the horse transporters ( I know them personally) watch DVDs while driving
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I would say he was doing 60mph or so. I agree that it should be equally as horrifying when anyone driving any vehicle does it but the fact that he could've been transporting horses just made it upset me more. Just being honest!

I'm sure there are several drivers of different sorts of vehicles who do the same thing but I don't think that makes it right, especially not when they have been trusted to carefully transport someone's horse. I admit that if it had been a general lorry driver then I wouldn't have called. Make of that what you will, just as a horsie person it upset me more because of his particular job.
 
It doesn't matter what speed he was doing, he still needs his attention on the road. Today I got a fright, I had stopped in the village to wait for traffic to move through a narrow bit, looked right into a shop window, kind of looked ahead and saw the cars finish going through the narrow bit, started forward and luckily realised an idiot woman had crossed right in front of me. It only takes a second, particularly if your focus is in the wrong place.
 
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