The clip in question can be seen below via Jeremy Vine’s Twitter profile.
The video contains a voiceover from Vine, in which the Radio 2 and Channel 5 presenter explained how he was cycling with police officers in high visibility clothing. He then refers to one of those police officers flinching as a Waitrose lorry moves past in the lane to his right.
Police officer complains a massive truck can’t shrink itself so it’s not near the line.
Proceeds to ride his bike over said line into oncoming traffic. pic.twitter.com/B0u4SlDzKC
— John Hasznosi (@John_Hasznosi) May 21, 2022
After the lorry passes, the aforementioned police officer is heard saying “The Waitrose Lorry just close-passed us” before going on to claim that the truck driver’s wheel’s “were touching the line”. The cycle cop also suggested that the truck driver would be punished for driving without due care and attention.
However, if you look at the video closely, none of the lorry’s wheels touch the line between the lanes at any point. The lorry maintains its position in the lane, continues in a straight line and keeps within the speed limit.
In addition to that, the group of cyclists are seen riding alongside one another 2-wide and even 3-wide at one point. Some would argue this is unwise in a busy, urban traffic environment such a London. On top of that, somewhat embarrassingly, the officer who claimed the lorry driver was guilty of undue care and attention is seen veering across into another lane just seconds later.
It is therefore extremely harsh to apportion any blame on the driver. Unfortunately for the trucker in the video, his employers, Waitrose, haven’t exactly rushed to his defence. Replying to Vine’s tweet, Waitrose and Partners thanked the TV host for bringing the video to their attention, and added that they “are investigating” the matter.
Naturally, lorry drivers and many other Twitter users were unimpressed by what appears to be yet another attempt to smear their profession, which is known to be one of the most regulated and monitored jobs on the planet.
Chris Calvi-Freeman, who planned traffic for both the London and Sydney Olympics, tweeted:
“I’m a big supporter of road safety & cyclists’ rights, but there has to be reason on both sides. A v busy road, lots of big lorries – cyclists should cooperate by dropping to single file or keep away from lane line. The PC wobbled across the lane line at 1.35 & was 3 abreast!”
Lorry drivers and cyclists frequently frustrate one-another in London, although even in this case many cyclists admitted the trucker in the video had done nothing wrong. One wrote: “As a cyclist, I’d have a bit more sense based on vulnerability,” while another tweeted: “I cycle in London regularly. The driver did absolutely nothing wrong.”
Meanwhile, over on Facebook lorry driver groups, many truckers were left dumbfounded by Vine’s bizarre complaint.
In the Professional HGV Driver UK group, one truck driver reacted by writing:
“That cop said the Waitrose driver will get a driving without due care and attention, if that happens, all LGV drivers need to down tools. The driver was fully in his lane and doing absolutely nothing wrong.”
Another driver in the group branded Vine a c*ck:
“Vine courts controversy all day every day and gets paid many many thousands of pounds to do so. So why was the Police officer riding so close to outer edge of his lane??? What traffic / vehicle was to the offside of the HGV. The man’s a c*ck.”
Numerous other truckers in the group also used a more offensive c-word to describe TV presenter Vine.
Finally, in one passionate post, a group member called on the road transport industry and lorry drivers to rally round and support one another in the face of unfair media criticism.
Photo: bazzadarambler / Flickr / CC BY 2.0 (illustrative image)