Would I be at fault if I hit the truck in front of me?

Forums › Transport (cars, bikes and boats) › Would I be at fault if I hit the truck in front of me?

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#1639075 22-Sep-2016 23:03

Wow , that guy needs to be prosecuted, that's how fatals occur.

You'd need to make a formal complaint though, and perhaps show up in court.

I would, this driver needs to be sorted .

gzt

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#1639080 22-Sep-2016 23:08

I would say the truck driver should have waited for you to come down the lane and pass before starting/completing that manoeuvre.

Small screen here and short start to clip so hard to see how long he was indicating for. It almost looks like it was coming across from the first lane in a continuous motion while indicating. It is not great driving if he missed your approach either way and failed to give way.

On the other side it may be possible to look at that and think you were travelling too fast for the conditions on the road, and maybe even should have anticipated the situation and slowed earlier. Maybe you were using the horn instead of the brakes for a short time?

But maybe if that is the case it is more like 'accident' from an enforcement pov and less likely charges for the truck driver. I don't know, that's just a guess on my part.

Overall it looks like the truck driver wanted to get all the way to the fast lane quick and could not wait to achieve a higher speed before doing that and putting you in danger. Bad.

Having said that I would like to see more of that clip prior to the incident even tho it might not change the conclusion of fault with the truck driver. I note the display does not show your speed. An investigator would be out there calculating the white lines to determine that.

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#1639081 22-Sep-2016 23:11

surfisup1000:
Wow , that guy needs to be prosecuted, that's how fatals occur.

You'd need to make a formal complaint though, and perhaps show up in court.

I would, this driver needs to be sorted .

If we manage to get all bad driving from all dashcams I'm willing to guess this is nowhere near the real bad ones. This appears bad because the OP didn't slow down. It could go either way, likely partial fault of both. Although as you hinted, if someone dies then suddenly the one that remained alive is fully at fault. Not sure why. A bit like rugby penalty vs yellow vs red depends usually on whether the other fella got hurt or got hurt bad

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#1639085 22-Sep-2016 23:24

blakamin:
Anyone think that maybe the truck was just merging and the (blue) car in front of him was slowing too rapidly, for the red wagon in front of it, and the truck was trying to avoid rear-ending it? Because I've driven in Auckland, and like most other places, people can't merge to save themselves.

I can see your point, but if the truck was doing a more or less continuous movement from lane 1 to lane 3, it makes the truck driving manoeuvre even worse and more dangerous/risky.

Personally... even just watching that first second of your video would've had me going waaay slower than 100 given that anyone in that middle (now left) lane could've moved right to allow easier merging.

Yup. For sure.

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#1639094 22-Sep-2016 23:55

joker97:

If we manage to get all bad driving from all dashcams I'm willing to guess this is nowhere near the real bad ones. This appears bad because the OP didn't slow down. It could go either way, likely partial fault of both. Although as you hinted, if someone dies then suddenly the one that remained alive is fully at fault. Not sure why. A bit like rugby penalty vs yellow vs red depends usually on whether the other fella got hurt or got hurt bad

The OP did not need to slow down as probably expected the truck to wait until it was safe to change lanes as required by law. There is no law requiring the OP to slow down here. And that truck isn't even close to the speed of traffic in the fast lane.

But, from a defensive driving perspective in that averting a crash is the best outcome regardless of fault, people need to anticipate what other drivers might do and take into account weather conditions and other driving hazards.

Maybe the OP could have anticipated the truck was being a dopey driver and slowed down -- or maybe not, that truck was changing lanes pretty quickly. The wide angle on those cameras means that everything is much closer than it looks on screen.

There is a good argument that all drivers should take a defensive driving course.

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#1639107 23-Sep-2016 06:00

Eh there's no law telling people to slow down? Perhaps not ... I wonder what the big signs i keep seeing in the motorway ... Ash they're not laws ... But here are some laws

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dickytim

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#1639114 23-Sep-2016 06:08

I had a similar situation, I changed lanes and was then hit from behind. My insurance company investigated and after speaking with the other driver (6 months later) I was deemed to be not at fault, however if I had changed lanes and not left enough room I would have been at fault. The guy was texting and never hit the brakes before he hit me. Lucky I have a very solid tow bar.

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#1639115 23-Sep-2016 06:13

joker97: Eh there's no law telling people to slow down? Perhaps not ... I wonder what the big signs i keep seeing in the motorway ... Ash they're not laws ... But here are some laws

To add. I'm not saying OP is definitely clear or not clear, only an investigation can tell that. But for me, avoiding maiming and avoiding waiting for an investigation by stepping on the brakes, i step on the brakes.

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#1639130 23-Sep-2016 06:51

Update: I couldn't see the video on my phone. With that video, it's clear the truck driver was behaving badly.....but from a defensive driving point of view your speed appears to be a fair bit more than that of the traffic around you......and that always poses risks.

Basically, if you can't safely slow down if someone does something like this, you shouldn't have been going that fast... a.k.a. -> "driving to the conditions". I know most people aren't used to thinking that way, but that's part of what it means.

Ever watch those Russian car crash videos? A large proportion of them are due to one car moving faster than a line of others in a multi-lane situation...and a person in another lane does something dumb. BOOM! Big speed differentials can leave in a position where, as you say, you didn't have time to respond to something. That suggest slowing down to allow time to respond to such things if they develop is a good idea. Seems unfair....but lives may literally be at stake. People make mistakes or exercise bad judgment.

I hadn't seen the video when I wrote this:

At 100kph your following difference should be about 9-10 car lengths. If there wasn't that much space between you and the vehicle in front, would the truck have needed to cut it so fine in front of you.

Could this have contributed to the situation, or was there 9-10 car lengths of empty space in front of you?

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#1639139 23-Sep-2016 07:43

I live near there and know this bit of road. It's consistently bad for the type of behaviour you see in the video. People see a gap in the traffic and assume the far right hand lane is travelling the same speed as the left hand lanes and pull out. The fact that there's a merging lane on the left doesn't help the situation. Anyway, from my experience I would never travel in the right lane at 100 km/h in that section of highway in those traffic conditions (ironically I would be in the left lane if there was no traffic ). It's called 'defensive driving' and/or driving to the conditions.

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#1639146 23-Sep-2016 07:49

I'd have definitely been on the brakes long before that truck moved into my lane. I expect truck (actually all other drivers) to drive like that moron - even if most don't. Possibly "sixth sense" (from years of motorcycle riding - even if long ago), but the speed differential there and the way the truck moved into the centre lane before crossing over to the fast lane gave me the sh!ts several seconds before it happened.

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#1639156 23-Sep-2016 08:20

and he had the cheek to toot at you, i hate when people are clearly in the wrong and toot at you.

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#1639182 23-Sep-2016 08:43

He does not appear to have any reason to switch lanes like that, just being an impatient driver. That on ramp is a nightmare for it, I'm always on my guard along there ready to take evasive action.

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#1639188 23-Sep-2016 08:53

Unfortunately there's no point reporting this sort of thing to the Police. They don't have time to deal with these sorts of incidents.

I was involved in an crash where a Ute intentionally crashed into me and then drove off failing to stop.

I called 111 at the time and they didn't send a car, even though I was following the guy.

I made a formal Police report and handed in my video footage.

Two months later, the Police contacted me saying the incident was too minor and no further action was taken.

Only bonus was, the camera footage came in handy for wiping my insurance excess, as the other party denied the incident ever happened.

Rant over.

MikeAqua

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#1639189 23-Sep-2016 09:05

Truck driver clearly didn't give way. OP has tonnes of clear space in-front of him in his lane. I would drive at 100km in that lane with the conditions in that video.

But ... I would not have used the shoulder in the way the OP did.

A person who is sceptical about other drivers, especially those in heavy vehicles would have read the situation and braked a lot sooner and wouldn't have needed to use the shoulder at all

Sorry, but that video looks like a game of chicken at 100km/hr to me.

Mike

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