An unwritten 'country code' is putting Rob's life at risk on the road, and all he's doing is turning right
An unwritten 'country code' is putting Rob's life at risk on the road, and all he's doing is turning right
WA sprayer operator Rob Mitchell says a growing number of drivers are mistakenly interpreting his signal to turn right as an opportunity to pass him, with dangerous consequences.
"Indicating to pass" is insane and needs to stop
This makes no sense at all. Why would large vehicle drivers do that? It's the job of the people behind them to patiently stay behind and make their own decision on when it's safe to pass.
This is why we have the mantra "don't be nice, be predictable". Being nice and letting people through out of turn makes it dangerous for everyone.
Road trains are fucking massive. They take a long time to pass even if you break the speed limit by 20 km/h, and they obscure your view of the road quite substantially. It's near impossible for a driver to safely pass a road train without the truckie's assistance on some roads. The fact that drivers mostly know truckies will do this means they are less likely to attempt an unsafe overtake which could endanger both them and the truckie.
On country roads it is a lot less stressful for you and the trucker if you have a cb radio. You don't need a massive areal and all wired in, just a little handheld for to communicate to a truck in front or behind.
Say you're towing a caravan at 90kmh. You can just say to the truck behind "white land cruiser and van to linfox truck, I'm slow, in 3km there's a overtaking area I'll let you go around."
I live in an area in regional Victoria where you’ll get behind one of these guys for a 5-10km stretch.
And I grew up in regional NSW where it could be more like 15-20km.
If you’re on the asphalt you overtake if you can see it’s safe to do so as usual, or if the operator can clearly gesture to you, unmistakably, with a hand signal that it’s safe to go around.
I’ve never heard of the right turn signal thing.
I’ve seen it a few times when travelling. I think that the best way for a slow vehicle to indicate that it is safe to overtake is to indicate left (near-side, passenger-side, kerb/shoulder-side, whatever) and merge onto the shoulder. This is what the majority of tractors do in my local region.
This provides those following better visibility of the road ahead and allows them to make up their own mind.
Also, those following, just be patient. The only reason why the tractor would be deliberately driving slow to annoy you is because you a being a dickhead. Don’t be a dickhead on the road.
I'm in rural sa and many trucks will indicate to let the person behind know it's clear, especially over a crest.
For crying out loud, never ever ever do this, god, if there is a crest then you can't even see once you pull out. Don't do it.
I've seen it a lot, mostly by road trains on the Nullarbor, and we would wait for them to stop indicating. It's just a brief signal, one or two flashes and then you're safe to check if it's safe.
@Joshi
(In case it isn't obvious, the following applies to Australia, where we drive on the left.)I've done hundreds of thousands of clicks on country roads, and the right-turn signal has NEVER meant that it is 'safe to pass'. Never.
Most indicator stalks allow drivers to apply pressure and thus activate a turn signal's bulb, without "locking on" the relay.
This allows drivers to manually produce two or three pairs of LEFT flashes of the LEFT indicator. Like, L-L (1 sec pause) L-L (1 sec pause) L-L.
That has always been understood that the driver in front is saying, to the following driver, "I know you're there. I'm not turning off, but if you want to pass, it's clear ahead, and I'll be looking out for you."
The right-turn signal has ALWAYS ONLY meant, "Danger. Do NOT overtake me."
More than a few times, I've been in trucks with several tonnes of explosives and an impatient passenger coach, or cara-bloody-van, starts showing too much of their grill in the right hand mirror.
Giving them the L-L pattern has let them know it is clear to pass, but the right-turn signal coming on has ALWAYS meant, "Nup. No way. Don't be a bloody fool. Cool ya jets."
I have also driven extensively through mainly country WA and elsewhere and briefly worked as a truck driver in the NT, in my experience there is no consistency in understanding of these signals, as pointed out by the article, and I'm sceptical that it is consistently applied by truckies.
I do believe that there is an understanding among experienced truckies and some(a majority???) of other road users that there is a system but it is not universally understood by cara-fucking-van drivers, or apparently school bus drivers either.
As a car driver I have on at least 2 occasions had a truckie indicate it is safe for me to overtake(indicating L-L) in a situation that would have caused an accident. The only time it is safe to overtake is when you as the driver can be satisfied it is safe to do so. Relying on potentially ambiguous signals that are not universally understood is a literal accident waiting to happen.
I have been slightly obsessed with this since being quite outraged at a clear signal to pass being so dangerous and I've raised it with several truckies over the years, I think a small majority of truckies assume it's universally understood but a large minority never indicate to pass as it is dangerous/raises liability concerns. A clearly non random sample and I may have been asking leading questions...
You make a good point that for the truckies safety there is a need to indicate that it is unsafe but if people are misunderstanding this then I don't know what the solution is.
-- several edits for clarity --
I have done only one drive (or two...there and back) on roads that both had truckies and were single lane. Brissy to St George. West of Dalby I saw truckies indicating right to communicate that it's safe to pass constantly. I had heard about it before and explained it to my co-driver because he was unfamiliar, but this was the first time I experienced it. And my experience was very strongly that yes, it is indeed a real thing.
I have never heard about the left blinker being used in the same way as you describe.
@Zagorath
Generally, truckies just talk to each other on UHF40 (or 29) to arrange safe overtaking.But a turn signal has always been a warning signal. It points to where one should never be.
It's not uncommon, though, for a truck that has *already* executed an overtaking manoeuvre to 'thank' the vehicle now behind them with an R-L-R-L combo of single flashes, *after* they're back on the correct side of the road.
Some truckies add a 'flourish' of one or two 'hazard light' flashes to the end of the sequence.
But, in all my years on the roads, I've only heard of recently deceased idiots who've tried overtaking a truck that has had its right-hand indicator on.
Things may have changed in the last decade, but FIIK why!
I was driving from Brisbane → Tasmania last week and a helpful truckie definitely used the right indicator to tell me it was safe to pass. Thanks, mate!
Of course you treat it as a suggestion, nose out and judge for yourself before trying to overtake.
If you cannot see around the vehicle in front of you to know if it's safe to pass, it isn't safe to pass.
@Joshi Recently driving road train grain harvesting, 2 cars up my arse, so close couldn't see, put my right indicator on to turn into paddock to load and had slowed right down and moved left to line up for narrow gate, and both decided good time to pass, full of kids, luckily I stopped in time.
I swear this is like the third time I've seen an article with almost this exact (OG) title, spaced like 6 months apart. And I'm currently feeling absolutely crazy for my inability to find those articles.
Just gonna say, ive said thanks out loud in the car and given the truck the thumbs up after he just gave one or two clicks of the right-hand blinker saying we could pass (after being on their arse for a few kms). Multiple times.
But if it was stuck on and still blinking then I would not pass.
Just saying.. Cos they're not gonna write an article like this and it not existing.
Why would you not use your hazards? Using just one indicator really does seem insane...
What would hazards mean in this case? A hazard?
Two blinks of blinker is Imitating what you would do before you swoop out to pass..so least it makes sense.