Encounter with a lorry...

[Steve Maskery]

The country roads round here can be very narrow, single vehicle only. It is very difficult to move over in some places, becasue it is normal to have quite significant drainage ditches at the sides. You don't want to end up in one of them.
Yesterday teatime, we were coming home from Limoges when, round a corner came a lorry. A damn big lorry with a double trailer. We both stopped. I pulled over as far as I could, expecting him to let me straighten up so my back end was also out of the way. But no, he just came on. I peeped. He kept coming. Within a few seconds he was alongside me, me swearing and peeping and he just kept going. There was a horrible scraping noise and he kept going until he was passed. My partner was terrified, I was livid.
He stopped, I got out and walked towards him and... he just drove off. I couldn't follow him because I was facing in the wrong direction and there was nowhere to turn round. I was angry and, TBH, I was a bit scared.
To my astonishment, there was no damage to the bodywork, although today I can see that my alloy wheel is flayed. I don't know if it is the surface that is damaged or if it is just rubber off his mudflap, I'll need to have a go at cleaning it and see how bad it is.
I was talking to another Brit local this morning and told him. He said it happens all the time, lorry drivers are immune from prosecution, they do what they like where they like when they like. The police just give a Gallic shrug and say "Beh", that what insurance is for, apparently.
S

 

[Cabinetman]

That’s not a nice thing to happen at all, looks like you got off light!
Wasn’t that long ago pick up trucks here had rifles on a rack behind their heads, and they wouldn’t hesitate to pot a tyre or two!

 

[AndyP]

I could right a very long missive of my experiences with some vehicle drivers here. I am sure, for example, that most drivers, of whatever age, were never taught how to use a roundabout. Also I am convinced that non-functioning indicators would not cause a control technique (MOT) failure as there are very few vehicles with working ones.

I think you got off lightly. Glad it was not worse.

 

[HdV]

Advise I got from the brother of my father who lives in Luxemburg but has to be in France on a daily basis: one of you gets out of the car and blocks the road while the other manoeuvres it to a better position. Don't stay in the car while doing that. As you experienced, lorry drivers over there will not mind one bit if they damage your or their own vehicle. But they will be in very deep trouble when they hurt a person even in the slightest.

Mind you, it might take some courage to do so if that driver is overly aggressive...

 

[Steve Maskery]

From what I can gather, Andy is right, I got off lightly.
This has been the worst, if not the only act of agression towards us (he had no way of knowing we were not French), just about everyone else we have met has been kind, tolerant of our limited language skills and generally friendly.

So why do some people behave like this? He must have known what he was doing.

S

 

[RogerS]

I'm surprised that most cars round my way don't have the drivers wing mirror hanging off

 

[RogerS]

From what I can gather, Andy is right, I got off lightly.
This has been the worst, if not the only act of agression towards us (he had no way of knowing we were not French), just about everyone else we have met has been kind, tolerant of our limited language skills and generally friendly.

So why do some people behave like this? He must have known what he was doing.

S

It's because his knuckles were sore from all that dragging along the street.

 

[Steve Maskery]

You see that a lot round here too. Gaffer tape sales must be a good line of work.
S