Near miss on M50 today - request from the lorry driver involved.

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Lunchbox legend

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I've had a message from my sister who was driving a fully laden artic truck, when a woman with a horsebox cut in front of her with just inches to spare. That lady would have had 44 tons of truck in her horsebox, if my sister hadn't been on the ball. Her message below:

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M50 east between junctions 2 & 1 on 3/6/2015.

Drivers of horse boxes, after having a near miss today as a woman driving a horse box barely passing my 44 ton fully laden artic before cutting in, missed me by mere inches and only then because I braked to avoid an accident. You and I are in charge of large vehicles carrying livestock, so here is a tip for passing other large vehicles. Make sure you are safely and sufficiently past us before you move back in, if you are in any doubt put your indicator on and check your mirrors, we will give you a quick flash of the headlights if it is safe to pull back in.

By the way, this will help us when passing you to know it is safe to move back into lane 1. As a professional driver I give every consideration to horses going as far as stopping and cutting the engine of my truck if I feel a horse could be spooked putting animal and rider in danger. Thanks for taking the time to read this and I hope it helps to keep everyone safe for the future.
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One or 2 seconds delay in braking or 1 or 2 inches nearer and this morning could have ended very differently for lots of people.

Keep safe folks :)
 
I've found while driving a horsebox that most HGV drivers will flash their headlights to tell me it's safe to move back in front of them, so I tend to wait for this, and if it doesn't happen I make extra sure there's plenty of room before signalling to move
 
Well done your sister OP. Hope she is not too shaken. I am driving my lorry 600 miles today and tomorrow (horse up on the second 300 miles) so this is a good reminder.
 
Tobiano said:
Well done your sister OP. Hope she is not too shaken. I am driving my lorry 600 miles today and tomorrow (horse up on the second 300 miles) so this is a good reminder.
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Thanks. I think she's concerned more than shaken. She's driven trucks and ridden motorbikes all her adult life (so for the last 35ish years) and has pretty much seen it all. I think she'd just prefer not to have blood and lorry load all over the road ;)

One of the few times she was shaken was many years ago when some bloke (in some big, fast car) cut her up and there was no way to avoid hitting him. Her truck rammed him into a telegraph pole and squashed his car to a smaller size. They were both unhurt but I howled with laughter when she (small, petite, ladylike looking - def not typical trucker image) got out of her cab and yelled at him "What the f...k are you doing?! if you WANT a f....ing mini BUY a f.....ing mini!!" :D :D :D

Hope your trip goes well :)
 
Lunchbox legend said:
One of the few times she was shaken was many years ago when some bloke (in some big, fast car) cut her up and there was no way to avoid hitting him. Her truck rammed him into a telegraph pole and squashed his car to a smaller size. They were both unhurt but I howled with laughter when she (small, petite, ladylike looking - def not typical trucker image) got out of her cab and yelled at him "What the f...k are you doing?! if you WANT a f....ing mini BUY a f.....ing mini!!" :D :D :D
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:D :D Fantastic!!!

Some people aren't fit to drive a horsebox (or any other vehicle come to that)! Glad your sister managed to control the situation, the horsebox driver will never know how lucky she was!
 
People used to cut in front of me when I had a mahoosive horsebox so needed plenty of room and time to brake safely, so annoying. Worrying that a horsebox driver would do this, when they really should know better. Good to raise awareness though OP thx
 
I've lost count of the number of times I've had a car pull in in front of my car on the motorway without actually being clear of it. I was taught to only pull in when you can see clear ground between the vehicles in your mirror. The standard of driving and driving knowledge is bad and declining.
 
Do hope your sister is OK. Well done for her avoiding the shunt.

I find the frustration when driving my lorry out and about on the motorways is the way people in all sorts of vechiles use the slip roads joining on to the motorways. Some seem to think it is there given right to just pull straight on. No thought for just trucking along and we can't pull over because we have things beside us.
 
Work colleagues husband used to drive a truck - he flashed his lights to let in another lorry driver only he (friends husband) misjudged it and they had a collision. I can't remember the outcome as this happened over 20 years ago, but since then I don't trust anyone flashing me to let me move into the inside lane. In any case I thought flashed headlights were only to be used as a warning.
 
Flashed headlights can mean all sorts of things - I've just spotted a mate, beware speed cameras about, sod off out of my lane I want to go faster.. Defo not to be relied on. What's wrong with using your mirrors to check that you're clear of the vehicle that you're overtaking?
 
As a car driver who commutes on the motorways daily, I've noticed that a lot of people don't give you the time to get clear of the car you've just overtaken before pulling back in - instead they're flashing you, driving close, once I even had a van stick their full beam on (which blinded me so more fool them, I had to brake, took 5 miles for my eyes to recover fully).

My car has blind spot warnings so as a minimum, if those are lit up then I'm not moving. Ideally I like to see the bonnet of the car in my rear view mirror before moving across.
 
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