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Does an articulated lorry, driven with proper regard for the conditions, eg all the snow, tend to jack-knife spontaneously? Or can the many seen over the past few days, and the extra congestion so caused, be down to simple under-time-pressure driver error?

On an icy road it's very easy for an articulated lorry to "Jacknife". All that is happening is that on application of the brakes, the rear tries to catch up with the front.

Year ago I drove a large vehicle all over Northern Sweden on solid ice and you get used to driving on it. Although one scary moment was driving on a icy road with a cliff and changing drivers with my mate while we were going along. I'd just told a "Jesus" joke and as we changed, the bonnet flew up and we nearly went over the cliff. I have never told such a joke ever again!

Thats my point Jim. Perhaps lorry drivers might consider the snow and drive a bit slower so the back end doesn't try to catch up with the front when they apply the brakes.

It's more about momentum and weight than actual speed. In the wrong conditions and surface even crawling down a hill could cause a lorry to jack knife.

I am sure you are correct though and there are alot of idiots at the wheel as well.

No doubt pressure to deliver within a time slot and get back to base within allocated hours is a factor.

Also significant is the number of incidents overnight on motorways and major routes when temperatures lowest and less traffic to keep even main roads clear. This leads to chaos once the morning commuter traffic starts on roads that if not blocked cars could keep flowing with care and common sense.

Take a look the the TV prog Ice road truckers.

They drive up steep hills ,across ice etc etc
They all do what we should be doing,taking it slow and when hills are comming up chain up the wheels.

I actually used to drive heavy trucks,across Europe and The Middle East,some years ago.Most modern trucks have automatic gearboxes,which do not help them climb slippery slopes.Additionally they are not given the space they need,by normal sized cars.This can cause sharp breaking by a truck,in bad weather.This is the biggest cause of jack knifing.

So driving a bit slower in bad conditions might help then?

So driving a bit slower in bad conditions might help then?

and keeping a much bigger gap so more chance of avoiding ploughing in to other drives misfortune.

drives - drivers


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