nine below zero

Hello Everybody, I'm new to forums and found this one in order to share my experiences and see if anyone else has had a similar problem in France?

I am English and live between the UK and Aube, Grand Est.

I drive a British-registered saloon and respect French speed limits but a few times a year have been harassed by French HGVs, the drivers using their vehicles to seriously intimidate.

There is usually a pattern, myself driving at 90kph (or the particular speed limit) on a Route Nationale, when an HGV approaches and starts 'pushing', hovering around two metres off my rear bumper. I ignore this presence, which then results in 'surging' by the lorry to threaten contact, often with headlights flashing and horns sounding.
I maintain my speed without reacting; the lorry then makes a dangerous passing manoeuvre and cuts in when only halfway past, causing me to brake hard to avoid being knocked off the road. Sometimes, the lorry driver will then momentarily 'lock up' his brakes. Just blatant aggression.

I am a very experienced driver (and motorcyclist) and am the last person to go looking for problems. I feel that in certain of these events, someone with less experience would have been involved in a serious 'accident'. It would not really have been an accident, though.

What worries me is that it ONLY happens when I am driving a British-registered car with a GB plate on the back.
I also drive French-registered cars and have NEVER had any problems. What does this say?
French friends who have been passengers and witnessed this behaviour, have been shocked and said "It looks like some people don't like the English".

I feel that in Britain, if an HGV driver was seen doing this, they would be in real trouble. Here in France, does it have to take a fatal accident before anyone in authority does anything? I am learning French but at the moment it is not good enough to be involved with the Gendarmerie in reporting these events - I'm not sure that they would be terribly interested.

Any thoughts or similar happenings? Advice welcome! I have thought of buying a front and rear video camera to record the extremes some of these drivers go to with a 44 tonne truck.
Kind Regards, Alan

EuroTrash

Unfortunately it's how some people are.
In my youth in the UK I used to be a bit of a biker and some of my friends had three-wheelers because you could drive them on bike licences (dunno if you still can), think Del-Trotter-mobiles. And some of these three wheelers went faster than any three wheeler has any business going, because what was under the bonnet was nobody's business and they're made of fibreglass so light as a feather. So it wasn't as if they went slower than normal traffic speed. But, no Krautmobile or any other driver with a fragile ego can bear to stay behind a Reliant Robin, no matter what speed it's going. As you say - inches from the bumper, must pass at risk of life and limb - then having got past, they didn't gain an inch, just, we had swapped positions and their manhoods felt secure again because the Robin was in their mirror not in front of them.
You just have to pity them and let them get on with it.
Stay safe

PS just noticed it's your very very first post - how rude of me - WELCOME TO THE FORUM

Chatter Static

Just brake and let them go by, lorry drivers always want to get as far as they can go especially if they have magnets on their bit's... Im assuming one of these gentlemen was the driver.....

nine below zero

Thanks for your response, Euro Trash. Interesting story about the Reliant Robin and illustrates very well the psychology of some people! I remember the Bond Bug also - a three-wheel flying machine.

nine below zero

Hi Chatter Static, I like that - Rik Mayall having a bad day!

petitefrancaise

Advice given to me on a "defensive" driving course in the UK. The instructor was an ex-police driving instructor and the aim of the course was to get my confidence back after being in a very bad accident on the M1.

Lorry drivers are penalised for using more petrol and given bonuses for using less... so their aim is to maintain a steady driving rate with the minimum of braking (obviating the need to then accelerate). So, let them go past you if you can - just pull in. If you are on a dual carriageway and you see that a lorry driver is looking in his mirror a lot, getting ready to pull out, let them pull out or go past them quickly. The most dangerous place on a motorway is alongside a lorry - never stay there, pull back if you can't overtake or speed up to get in front. I regularly flash my lights to let a lorry driver pull out in front of me safely and am rewarded with thumbs ups/high fives or smiles. And I feel safer and more in control.

So to the OP, if you have someone (ANYONE!!) behind you driving in an unsafe manner... just let them go and be someone else's accident.

nine below zero

Hello Petite Francaise, Sorry to hear of your accident on the M1.

You make very interesting points about lorry drivers being rewarded or penalised for their use of fuel. In an ideal world they could drive from A to B at a steady 60mph/100kph on cruise control with nothing in their way, let alone an irritating foreign vehicle.

However, in the real world, why should we as law-abiding road users be subjected to very ugly and dangerous incidents to satisfy commercial interests? If companies are putting their drivers under such stress then the full weight of the law should be brought to bear on them also. This is very important.

What is happening is akin to 'might is right' - something that is fundamentally wrong as we are all equal under the law. If a huge rugby player joins the queue in La Poste then should we all move over and let him go to the front?

If a culture begins to accept this behaviour, then surely it's the road to anarchy, it won't heal itself.

To reiterate on my original post, I'm not someone who is trying to cause problems, just the opposite - I'm encouraging a public discussion in the interests of the safety of all of us. I know many people will say that 'it's the way it is, accept it', but people used to say that about drink-driving. Sometimes we have to stand up when we see something is not right. I don't want your car or mine flattened and the occupants turned into strawberry jam
by an aggressive driver who should really have psychological tests before being allowed to handle a supermarket trolley.

I have driven extensively in Europe and the USA and pride myself on defensive driving/riding, particularly essential as a motorcyclist.

Thank you for reading this. Best Wishes, Alan

Pulaski

This! Though it seems to work more often in the UK and Europe than in the US. I am always happy to let a truck pull back in in front of me, and the driver is invariably happy to know that he can do so safely without wondering exactly where the rear end of his trailer is vis-a-vis the vehicle he/she is passing.

At night, very occasionally, when I have caught up with a heavy lorry which is passing one or more vehicles and the lorry hasn't yet pulled back into the slower lane despite having already cleared the vehicle(s) he/she is passing, I have moved the inner edge (left, UK, right US or Europe) of the lane I am in, so that my inside headlight is visible in the lorry's inside door mirror, then flashed my lights, and the lorry has swiftly moved over into the slow lane. I am 99% certain that the lorry driver thinks it was the (last) vehicle they were passing that "flashed them over".

petitefrancaise

Well, all I have to say is that after 11 years in France, I don't think I ever had any experience such as you have described. I liked driving in France, the level of courtesy shown is higher than anywhere else I have lived. It's like a dance, everyone gives a bit and it seems to work.
Texas on the other hand..... I started out with a small Honda Fit (Jazz) but ended up feeling so unsafe in this tiny car surrounded by huge SUVs being very badly driven that I sold it and now have a Prius estate and I wouldn't go any smaller than that.

The UK drivers are pretty nasty. No merging, 2 fingers up, driving too close, driving too fast.

Pulaski

It's a wonder no one told you ahead of time that that would be the case.

petitefrancaise

oh shut up!!!

bobbi2

I agree, they pull out and then indicate so never sit next one! They are a real danger on the roads be it here or in the UK. In my eyes they are the main cause of incidents on the roads.

Pulaski

Have you ever driven one? They are difficult to drive, with multiple unavoidable blind spots, long stopping distances, and wide turning circles, not to mention being potentially unstable when maneuvering even at slow speed.* Yet people treat them as if they're just another car on the road, when they need to be treated with caution and respect, and cut more than a little slack, not least because in the event of an accident with any sort of passenger vehicle, the passenger vehicle will come off worse!

To the extent that ar-tics are involved in accidents, I would bet that they are more likely to be a victim of a car driver's stupidity than being the primary cause of the accident.

* A driver at a former employer of mine, clipped a kerb in an ar-tic, as he drove through the industrial estate to a company warehouse, and tipped the lorry on its side. The accident investigation determined the speed when he hit the kerb was twelve miles per hour. The cargo was not especially unstable - the trailer was filled with 8ft-9ft stacks of biscuits.

bobbi2

No but I fly a plane where there is no room whatsoever for error and like any mode of transport you drive them with the respect they are due ( as I do) and in my eyes a lorry driver who pulls out before indicating is not down to "the difficulty of driving such a vehicle", it is down to stupidity and lack of respect to fellow drivers. If I got in a plane and flew it like I see lorries been driven I would of caused a serious accident and may not even have a job by now!

Pulaski

Agreed, without exception.