I'm not looking for driving lessons or opinions on how "bad" the crash was. Any other input is useless to me.
I'd recommend staying clear, maybe going an extra lane away to go past! I'll be doing that going forward for sure..
If I may be so bold, this first comment is slightly strange - every drive is likely to raise at least one thing that one can learn from, a journey with an accident happening especially so... The reason people are at (statistically proven) increased risk of repeating an accident in exactly the same way in the year or two after the first accident (can't remember exactly) is because people don't stop and analyse the situation to see what they should have done better! "It was his fault, I wasn't in the wrong" is an attitude so prevalent that people point-blank refuse to acknowledge they could have done things better themselves, something which is only going to get worse with the creeping scourge of in-vehicle cameras for 'safety'. A good, 'advanced' driver acknowledges that they are not perfect and are always learning, and takes responsibility for their own and others' safety.
So, if that doesn't come across as completely patronising (which was not the aim), I'm going to ignore your first comment and make a suggestion... :wink:
If you are in traffic that is moving at much the same speed on a dual carriageway or motorway, don't drive along in the lane next to lorries.
As you come up to the lorry (or the rear lorry of two or more that are in a row), ease off and hold back in your lane so you are behind the rear of the lorry, then wait for the vehicle in front to finish overtaking the lorry/ies.
When they have cleared the front of the (front) lorry and there is a couple of car lengths of space behind them (so you don't catch up to them and have to drive along next to a lorry), check that the lorry/ies aren't looking to overtake a vehicle/lorry in front (such as when they are 'hinting' by moving towards the centre line / braking intermittently because they are so close / driving only a few feet behind the vehicle in front), and if they aren't, surge forward using firm acceleration.
Ease off the accelerator as you approach the vehicle in front (using acceleration sense and the knowledge of how quickly your car slows down when you come off the power) so you don't have to brake, and you will have minimised time next to the lorries and therefore minimised the risk to you / your passengers / your car.
The added advantage of this is that it creates space in front of you for the lorry/ies to overtake in if they need to (don't forget - 10+ gears and only something like 300rpm of rev range in each of them IIRC, so momentum is everything), and if they do overtake, you don't even need to alter your course or brake because you're not in the way and are doing the same speed as them anyway - they signal, you give them a flash, that is it! This means less stop-start traffic is caused (by you braking, the person behind braking more heavily, the person behind them braking even heavier, etc etc) and traffic flow is smoother overall.
Some people (audi drivers? lol) behind you might get impatient because they want you to be 0.5 inches off the bumper of the car in front of you (because it
feeeeeeels faster, but actually makes virtually zero difference to your overall journey time), but TBF, f**k 'em - they aren't the ones who are going to get crushed to death against the central reserve if a lorry does exactly what it did in the opening post above.
If, once you have overtaken safely as above, they then follow you and drive alongside the lorries, that's their lookout, but you will have looked after you / you passengers and given lorry drivers a chance to not have to bully their way out into a constant stream of unthinking car-drivers, making the journey safer for everyone.
Give it a try on your next DC/Motorway journey with traffic - I find it quite a relaxing way to drive, plus it means your space for emergency braking is much improved generally and breaks the habit that we all get into of travelling too close to cars in front at high speed.
Only if you want it to be.
Good used door, side skirt, repair to rear quarter + paint.
I can point him to someone in Bedford that would sort that for less than a grand.
@alex_s2b
I will be amazed if that can be fixed for under a grand - in my experience you're looking at a grand just for the rear wing...
They'll definitely write it off IMO - strip off anything aftermarket now that you want to keep, then if they won't let you buy it back, you've not lost anything.
