This morning on my way into work I very nearly came a cropper with a lorry. More him than me though…
The owner had placed a long metal bar along the back framework where the reg plate normally sits. Covering the tips of the rods were flurescent yellow tabs, like mini flags. The rod was positioned quite low down, so as not to be seen when imediately filtering. They protruded quite a way from either side of the main body of the trailor, maybe a foot 1/2 or so.
As I’m filtering around traffic, I purposfully rode wide around the trailor at around 25 mph. Lucky I did as I would of caught the bars at around waist height. I could only think the reason for having the bars were to deter cyclists from moving down the length of the trailor.
Either way, just keep an eye out for this sort of thing. I’d hate to think of it catching any body out, let alone an LB’r.
Definitely doesn’t sound right. There’s pretty strict rules about what can protrude from the sides/rear of lorries - a load of regulations relating to the markings that must be displayed when carrying over-sized loads that extend from the main body/deck of the trailer. Can’t remember all the ins and outs of it as a driver only tends to keep up to speed with these things if they’re regularly carrying over-size loads.
If it’s something you think is dangerous and a non-standard modification, maybe a quick call to the Traffic plod to report it. Can’t imagine any reputable operator doing something so potentially dangerous, but there are plenty of knuckle-heads in the industry so who knows.
Very strict regs indeed on width , had to reposition handrails on a trailer that failed inspection as it added an 2.5cm stick out … 2.5 cm was not allowed … start again Numnum .
