Fecking foreign lorry drivers

[Graham53]

so there I am on the M25 today in the car in slow traffic because of an accident in the fog with my mrs and 14 yr old son going off to family dinner, when the car in front brakes sharply , I've left enough room to stop but have to anchor up sharpish and stop with about 6-7 ft between me and the car in front, then I glance in my mirror and see a fucking great big Volvo truck getting closer and closer and think it's not going to stop and my son who sat in the back is gonna get the brunt of it when this twat runs into the back of me at 30 mph or I'm going to get flattened as it ploughs through. I've checked my mirrors quick and saw there was a small chance I might get into the lane to the right but as I'm turning the wheel to accelerate out of the way BANG the wanker has whacked the back of me then because I've got the wheel turned (luckily I think ) the force of the push from the lorry has accelerated me into the next lane where an innocent driver has hit me square on my drivers door smashing the door and the glass in my face.
Anyway I've pulled over and got out with the other drivers involved and looked at where the lorry had stopped and it was about 4ft from the back of the car in front of me before the shunt and had I not turned the wheel and got shunted right that's where me and my family would have ended up.
Turns out it's a Bulgarian driver who speaks no English driving a truck for a Spanish company on his way to Ireland (don't ya love the eu) called plod who took 20 minutes to arrive and I thought they might have done stuff like breathalyser or check tachos etc but nothing just moved my car to a safe place and buggered off and left us to the traffic wombles from the highways agency who were actually quite friendly giving us tin foil to put around ourselves probably to amuse the themselves and the rubberneckers driving past watching us do our impersonation of a turkey wrapped in bacofoil .
Moving swiftly on and the reason for the post title , chatting to recovery driver on way home who asked what happened when told a lorry hit me up the arse says " was it left hand drive?? " to which I reply yes why ? And he answers "cos we have about 10-12 left hand drive truck involved in accidents a day"
Then our insurance co tell us how complicated it is to claim off foreign insurers and it may be a while before we can get any of the £200 recovery fee I paid and the £250 excess that's going to be deducted off the written off car settlement
Oh and while we were at the side of the motorway there were nearly 5 accidents involving lorries that nearly shunted people that had slowed rubbernecking at our accident. Mental absolutely mental

[ogri48]

Jesus mate! Just glad you and the family are ok. The car can get sorted

[Graham53]

Thanks Ogri
Just thankful we all walked away, amazingly my son who was in the back didn't have a scratch on him , no whiplash , headache or anything and when asked if he was ok just shrugged his shoulders and said yup totally non bothered and then spent an hour chatting and laughing on the phone to his girlfriend , me I'm stiff as fuck can't move me neck and got a minger of a headache and the Mrs is the same as me.

[ogri48]

That's got to be one of those life events that you look at everything that happened afterwards and think of all the other ways it could have gone very, very badly.
Me and the missus had one three years back, we were in her Mazda 3 overtaking a lorry in the pouring rain on a dual carriageway outside of Wisbech , unbeknown to us the lorry driver clipped a small car that was coming down the left hand slip road and spun it right around the cab. First thing I know about it is when the nose of the little car suddenly appeared from around the lorry pointing at us and heading towards us as we were heading towards it . I had nowhere to go, a head on was absolutely unavoidable but the car was still spinning and the arse of it mounted the Armco and it went over it and into the opposite carriageway! If it had been the concrete barrier you often see on carriageways now it would have channeled it straight into us. I often think of that, and how close we came but for the grace of God, chance, or whatever else there might be

[bri h]

Shit! Im glad your relatively ok mate.

[scoobiemandan]

Close call 

Glad you and kin are okay though!

[robbo]

Wow, that certainly was a close call. Your quick thinking definetely avoided an unthinkable outcome. So glad you and your family are ok in the main.

[Bretty]

I used to drive a car 70,000 miles a year. I saw the aftermath of an accident every day. I used to get up at 5am and sometimes drive until 9 at night, and touch wood never had an accident myself.


I saw 2 really bad accidents on 2 consecutive days and quite that job. The thing that will keep you alive is to be 100% awake, aware, alert and undistracted.

[robby boy]

Glad you and your family are alright, these guys drive for a living and are supposed to be professionals  .

[acid drop]

Definitely a brown trouser moment , but don't worry about the car as long as you and the family are safe and well.

[YamFazFan]

What an awful day for you 

The lorry driver wasn't on the phone was he?.

 There's been several in the news lately that have rammed into the back of people because they were looking at phones and not at the road.

[Graham53]

Thanks for all the kind replies , yes definitely a brown trouser moment and a sleepless night as well due to flashbacks of a Volvo truck grill getting larger in the mirror, still could have been worse I could have been driving my car and not my wife's    needless to say she's pleased to be alive but not a happy bunny as now car less    ( and now using my car    )
Really pissed off with RAC though , I've got the full monty breakdown cover for each of us so it covers whatever  we're driving or riding and phoned em up and it says on the automated start of the call press 1 if you've had an accident and fuck me it puts you through to cash for crash solicitors !! Which I didn't want I just want the car lifted but apparently the don't do that only breakdowns !!! So anyway I get home after paying £190 for recovery truck and call the Insurance up and they say ok we'll get the car collected by the RAC, WTF and then when you look at RAC website it states they recover you if you've had a shunt .... the wife is typing a mrs angry email as we speak, and the recovery company arranged by the RAC said they'll be out in 40 minutes before I paid the money then when I'd paid said we will be there in 90 minutes WTF again , All in all pretty poor from RAC.
Once again guys thanks for the kind words , it just proves that you meet the nicest people on a fazer !!!

[BBROWN1664]

Glad your OK Graham. Shame it was a foreign truck though as otherwise you could have sorted things a lot quicker.
My Mrs was driving my car last year (4x4 automatic) when we got shunted by someone on the motorway. I managed to blag quite a nice hire car for the period mine was being repaired on the basis I needed a large estate car with automatic gearbox (I needed neither) and ended up with an A6 estate S-Line auto for the 5 weeks it took to repair my car.

Downside to this was , I quite liked the hire car and didn't like the repair quality on my car so have just sold my car and bought an A6


My youngest was the only one out of 6 of us that didn't get whiplash. Having not been in any form of car accident before, he was the only one who didn't brace themselves when everything stopped suddenly and all you could hear was the car behind skidding.

Hope the whiplash calms down soon. It can be a pain in the neck.

[Graham53]

I think I must be concussed as well I read that about whiplash being a pain in the neck twice and then the penny dropped 
The thing that's now pissing me off is I'm being hounded by foccing ambulance chasers now, maybe I'm insane but I don't believe in trying to claim a few £££ for a stiff neck that I've had for a few days that's mostly an inconvenience more than anything and that I'm probably going to have to pay for in some way in the future by the way of higher premiums, but these fuckers are relentless my Mrs has had 15 missed calls and 15 voicemails and I've had about 10 including the call while I was walking round Tesco yesterday where they tried to con me into giving them the details by pretending they were working on my behalf from my insurance.
These leeches need regulation or something 

[BBROWN1664]

I am still getting calls a year on saying that there is an unsettled claim and I could get £££££££'s. I just hang up now and add their number to the blocked list. The other ploy I use is ask them which accident they are referring to as I have had a few in the lat year (I haven't) or which car they are talking about etc. etc.

[Graham53]

I think I'm going to have to employ those tactics , it's just annoying that I've become £££ signs in the eyes of all these people but angry that it's the fault of the bloody RAC , who clearly must get some kind of gain from referring to slater and Gordon solicitors

[fazerscotty]

Graham, glad you escaped without serious injury.
The RAC...... well where do I start. I suffered a breakdown in the car a couple of months ago, stuck on the hard shoulder of the M42 in rush hour.
Called the RAC out, as thats who I'm paying the money too.
At 4:45pm.
They originally stated someone would be with me within 45 mins - and I thought ok.
After an hour I called back, this is where the "fun" started.
Now it was going to be an additional 1 & 1/2 hrs  and it wouldn't be one of their vans, they were having to call a local garage to come out - I thought ok, a little off but its rush hour, maybe their really busy.
At about 8:00pm a breakdown truck arrives from a local sub-contracted garage to "have a look". Bottom crankshaft pulley had broken up and no he wasn't going to fix and no he couldn't recover the car as his truck wasn't big enough. The car? A 2004 X Type Jaguar, similiar to a Mondeo but better (Not when your on the side of the road however!!!!!)
So he called back to base and a bigger truck came along, we're now looking at 8:30.
Car recovered, and on the 25 minute drive to the home address, the recovery truck driver announces.......
"The RAC don't come out to breakdowns on the motorway anymore - they've lost too many chaps to lorry drivers" 

[Graham53]

Thanks buddy , it's all making a little more sense now
When the renewal is up in February I'll be looking around at alternatives , I just hope they're all not as shit as the RAC

[BBROWN1664]

I gave up on RAC and AA etc, I just use whoever my bank account breakdown insurance is using this year. No point in paying twice.