National Lorry Week which, this year, takes place between October 23rd -29th, is all about celebrating the lorry and the essential and often unregarded role it plays in all our lives. The vast majority of the general public probably don’t know that 98% of all goods in the UK are delivered by road.
Of course, every truck needs a driver, so National Lorry Week also celebrates the work of the drivers we see behind the wheel seven days a week, 365 days a year. None more so than Category C driver, Matt Boden, whose quick thinking whilst on a shift for Driver Hire Plymouth & Cornwall, prevented a bad situation turning into an awful one.
Matt takes up the story: “I was on the B3254, on my way back to ‘N&C Tiles and Bathrooms’ depot in Plymouth. I was on a fast section of road doing around 50mph with two vehicles in front of me, one of them was a minibus. For no apparent reason it suddenly veered sharply to the left, hit a two-foot wall, went airborne before landing on two wheels on the wrong side of the road, eventually settling on all four wheels and then crossing back to the right side of the road where it came to a halt. Luckily there was no traffic on the opposite carriageway.”
Whilst all this was happening in front of him, Matt slammed on his brakes, switched on his hazard lights before pulling up just short of the minibus. Matt jumped out of his cab and went to the minibus to see who was hurt. Its occupants were all wheelchair-users and, thankfully, unscathed, as was the carer. Understandably the driver was in a state of shock.
“I went back to my cab, called the emergency services and then moved my truck to create a safety barrier, enabling the minibus passengers to disembark,” Matt continues. “I then took on marshalling duties, waving traffic through the now much narrower carriageway. What I was a bit surprised by was that nobody stopped to offer further assistance.”
When the police arrived, they thanked him profusely for everything before sending Matt on his way to complete his shift. “I guess you could say that it’s all in a day’s work,” says modest Matt. “To be honest it’s what any decent person would do isn’t it?”