I've posted here before about the stupid truckers I occasionally encounter while driving in London, particularly on narrow dual carriageways like the Western Avenue and the one near where I live, the Kingston By-pass. Today I had yet another hair-raising encounter with one moronic trucker driving a Hungarian-registered articulated truck, registered XVV 751, which belongs to the Waberer's logistics company (slogan: "Optimum Solution").
I was driving east along Western Avenue and passing over the Greenford flyover - the junction with the Harrow to Southall road where the Western Avenue has one of its many narrow points, where six lanes have been squeezed into a space only really wide enough for four. This idiot basically raced past me on the left, leaving barely an inch between my truck (a small DAF) and his. I was doing about 45 mph, and in my efforts to avoid a scrape, moved slightly to the right, which risked butting out into the outside lane, where there was yet more fast-moving traffic.
Don't these people realise that overtaking on the left is illegal? It's illegal for a reason, no doubt because it's easier for a driver, particularly a truck driver, to deal with an overtaker on his or her right than on his left, because he's on the right and his offside mirror is right next to him. However, to overtake on the left, at high speed, on a narrow bit of road is just insane, and the only reason you'd do it is because you've got 40 tonnes underneath you and none of these rats under your feet (other road users) can really harm you. I see these idiots brazenly breaking the law almost every day - overtaking on the left and speeding down the outermost lane from which they are banned. When are the police going to crack down on these stupid drivers who are a MENACE to everyone else on the road?