Be Excellent To Each Other

Earlier today I was on the dual carriageway with my window wound down when a massive motorway maintenence lorry carrying some sort of digger on the back overtook me. It was fucking huge, like a massive truck with an extra trailer on the back. Seriously big. Anyway, I'm fairly certain it's illegal for these big things to overtake anyway, but it also spattered all kinds of stones on my car. And through my open window. It hurt. But what angered me most was that a stone also hit my girlfriend and hurt her quite a bit.

So when it came for me to overtake him I decided to express my anger with a finger. I came off at the next sliproad with the lorry following me, and I stopped at the top for a roundabout. The lorry skidded up alongside me to my right (on a bit of gravelly white lined road that you aren't supposed to drive on no less) and the burly driver actually got out and came over to my window shouting at me.

Now, I would've sped off but he was parked in such a way that I couldn't so I sat and shouted with him for a bit. I admit that I thought he was gonna twat me for a second but he didn't and when the traffic started mounting behind us he got back in his cab and drove off.

This upset my girlfriend quite a bit and now I feel like a bit of a bellend for initiating this crazy road rage encounter, but I still think the lorry driver was out of order. Unfortunately I didn't get any details (he was a highway maintenance employee afterall).

What would you guys have done? Did I do wrong? I admit that I'm still pretty shaken up about it all, not being one for confrontation, but I feel even worse because it really upset my girlfriend so much. Am I a cunt?

Don't start what you can't finish.

In my younger days I used to get into all sorts of bother like this. It's really not worth it, mate. I know it's infuriating, but you just have to suck it up or risk getting yourself or your loved ones hurt.

Yeah, I'm really not one for the road rage and I'll very rarely stick my fingers up or even sound the horn, but this guy really pissed me off. It annoys me when these big lorry driving arseholes are overtaking people at 80MPH anyway, and the fact that I got gravel in my eye and stones smacking off my face and my girlfriend's face just doubled the rage.

It's not like the traffic was heavy or moving slow, either. And like I said, his lorry was as big as a supermarket articulate, with another trailer on the back about half the size again.

I know you don't think about stuff like that in the heat of the moment, but looking for a 'How's my driving' sticker or similar on the back would have been the best recourse.

I DEFINITELY considered that immediately after it happened

I'm kinda gutted I didn't take that route because I'd love to be ringing in a complaint about him right now.

That's a bit shitty, Jonarob. Are you both okay?

My brother was telling me how a lorry moved over to his lane, forcing him onto the hard shoulder. My brother spent the next 8 miles in front of the lorry, knowing he couldn't move over into the outside lane on the 2-lane motorway, going 30mph with his friend on the back flipping the driver off the entire time. The driver was not happy, but fucking check your mirrors next time, you dick.

Where have people got the idea that lorries aren't allowed to overtake you?

Lorries aren't allowed in the outside lane of a motorway, I thought; be it two-, three- or four-lane. They are ok to be in the outside lane of a two-lane dual carriageway, though.

Is that right?

Same place that says it's illegal to go round a roundabout more than once probably.

Yes, I think so.

They're not allowed to do 80mph though so it's a bit of a moot point.

Not allowed in the outside lane [on a motorway], as far as I'm aware, regardless of how many lanes there are.

Nope.

You're not a cunt for instigating a road rage encounter like this, but you are a bit silly for doing so. Hopefully you'll not do it again now that you've seen what might happen.

I believe that's correct for HGVs, but not LGVs.

It's correct for anything towing a trailer isn't it (which would include an articulated lorry) ?

Also if it's a dual carriageway the truck shouldn't have been going faster than 50.

Jona, everyone gets annoyed and acts like a twat at some point. So don't worry about it, but don't do the same next time

I dunno if reporting him for dangerous driving would have had any point, worth a try perhaps.

Perhaps — not a clue. Either way, the guy in my brother's case didn't move over to go past, despite many opportunities, so he mustn't have been allowed to.

Regardless of the legality of lorries overtaking, I was doing maybe 60 along with everyone else, and he came steaming past (definitely going 80+) in his massive ridiculous truck. It was so big and moving at such a pace that it caused a gust that actually made my car swerve, so you can imagine how hard the stones came in. I'm not sure if it was stones off the road or the big dirty looking digger on the back of the lorry, but either way, he was driving more than erratically and I wasn't the only one who thought so looking at the reactions of some folk when I eventually moved out and took some people over.

NB: I know it probably sounds like I chased him after he overtook me, but this happened over the course of a few minutes and I kinda naturally moved out to overtake some slow movers and he'd moved into the inside lane and slowed down a fair bit, so I took the opportunity to give him the finger.

I think by far the most ridiculous thing here though, is that he actually chased me up the next slip road and skidded the massive truck to a stop beside me on some gravelly no-go area of slip road and got out to have a go. He could've smashed into me or caused a pile up behind. He wasn't even going up my slip road as far as I could tell, and he probably rejoined the dual carriageway after he left. And the local council employs these fucking mentals.

I still maintain that rule should be "any vehicle with a legal or mechanical speed restriction must stay in the left-hand 50% of the road (rounding down full lanes)" so they can't use the middle lane of a 3 lane motorway. It's just ridiculous watching the cunts "overtaking" one another over about 700 miles.

"Time is money blah blah" would the truckers cry, to which I would further change the law to "sod your tachographs and uncalibrated speedos then, legally mandated GPS speed tracking/recording it is then. Including for forrins."

Going up the M6 to the Lake District a few weeks ago, the busy traffic was funnelled through one lane as three lorries battled for the next 1MPH over 75% of the width of the motorway. The tailback was monstrous.

Not that it matters but I doubt it was actually as much as 80. They simply aren't geared for it.

He's still in the wrong but potentially you were equally dangerous by getting riled by it.

Geared or not, it's a fast stretch of carriageway with a good downhill runup to the point we were at. He had some serious momentum at that point and literally went past me like I was standing still - I didn't even notice him in the mirror before he hurtled past. I'm positive he was doing serious speed for a lorry.

Some digging suggests that it doesn't apply to two-lane motorways (news article). It's not lorries, it's vehicles with trailers (which is good, because I happily overtake in the outside lane in my buddy's car transporter).

Yeah, sorry, I was talking about lorries in the traditional sense of a cab towing a trailer.

Lorries have to be limited to 56mph in this country, but I assume that doesn't prevent higher speeds on downhill stretches.

This was a cab towing a big low-loader with a digger on it, which in turn had a sort of half-sized lorry trailer bit attached to the back of that. It was in three pieces and 50% longer than your usual truck.

Certain lorries do.

@jonarob - so it was a tractor unit pulling two trailers?

Not all of them, and this one definitely wasn't. In fact, being a "government" vehicle I doubt it's bound by the same restrictions. It wasn't a proper lorry in the traditional sense, but a lorry-style cab carrying a low loader and a second trailer as mentioned above.

Possibly, what's a tractor unit? If it looks like a normal lorry cab and is as big as one, then perhaps yeah.

Tractor unit:

Simply something that can pull a trailer, and can't carry anything without one.

Did the 'cab' bit look like this?

Definitely not! It was a proper lorry cab, with a seperate low loader of similar length to a proper articulated lorry trailer, which was in turn pulling a half-sized lorry trailer.

The digger on the back of the thing was huge. Like not your average JCB, but a serious bit of tarmac munching kit. Would probably destroy that little low loader if it were placed on it.

edit: Looked like your first image, the blue one. Like a proper lorry

I'm honestly surprised at its manoeuvrability coming up the slip road and stopping beside me. I thought for a moment he was just going to crush me or something.

Sounds like a bogey low-loader - they have a separate bit at the front to take the weight off the tractor unit. I'm very surprised he wasn't restricted to 56mph. They can go slightly faster down hill, but only via gravity, as they have no power above 56.

None of this matters, of course, but it would appear that I'm in the mood for details today

Nerd alert!

I was definitely going 60 and he came past me going seriously fast, that's all I know. BUT, I'm not exaggerating. I'm positive he was close to if not exceeding 80MPH based on how quickly he went past. I seriously shit myself when he went by.

But however fast he was actually going, there's absolutely no doubt that he wasn't restricted at 56MPH. There were no restricted speed signs on the rear either, and I was definitely going just over 60 because I checked my speedo at the time, annoyed at how quickly he was going. And yes, I know speedos misread, usually over, but he was going so much faster than me that it's absolutely positively impossible that he was restricted.

Are you sure it wasn't the Batmobile?

He didn't look like Batman when he was arguing with me, but he might've nicked it, yeah.

Should have got his number then, I'm sure VOSA would like a close look at that.

I know, and in future that's what I'll do. He was probably having a bad day, but what if he did decide to just fucking ram me or something? Very foolish to provoke the fat angry lorry driver, no matter how much of a cunt he was being.

You can't change who you are, buddy.

Aww maaaaaan

Cheer up jonarob, live and learn

...and get Spy Hunter-style wheel blades fitted.

I go mental at other drivers every other day. There are so many dick heads on the road it's hard not to.

Why did you let it overtake in the first place Jonarob? Call your self a man?

Jonarob, yesterday.

Your blood pressure must be through the roof. You just need to accept that people do prickish things on the road all the time. I can usually spot the twats quite early on now (especially when cycling), and just make sure I give them enough room to do whatever stupid thing they're going to do.

That photo seems to be from the Pantomime version of the film. "IT'S BEHIND YOU!"

I shout at other people on the road all the time. It's therapeutic.

No, because I vent like fuck.

Horses for courses, I suppose. It used to always stress me out getting pissed off at other road users, now I've got some kind of zen-like calm when driving. Perhaps it's down to the fact I don't commute using the car, anymore.

You don't get stressed driving because you've stopped driving then?

Got a grand here for that pink car if you're interested.