The accident occurred back on January 20th, but became widely-known roughly a week later when dashcam footage of the event appeared on YouTube.
Describing the situation under the dashcam recording on YouTube, the trucker, who has been working behind the wheel for 18 years, argues that when the BMW began overtaking him moments before the accident, the BMW driver “began honking and showing the middle finger”.
“On Friday, January 20th, when driving on the A4 motorway from Wrocław in the direction of Katowice, at km 198 I had an unpleasant road accident that occurred as follows: after overtaking a truck, I pulled into the right lane of the motorway, then a gentleman driving BMW X7 caught up with me and started honking at me and showing his middle finger,” wrote the Polish lorry driver.
The trucker then went on to state that the BMW driver cut him off and applied the brakes right in front of him, causing his lorry to ram into the back of the car.
Both drivers pulled over following the accident, and the police were called to the scene. Despite what had happened, the police gave the truck driver a 2,000zł fine and 10 points on his licence. The argument given by the police was that the lorry driver had not kept sufficient distance between his vehicle and the BMW in front.
The HGV driver, flustered by the whole debacle, said he felt he had no choice to accept the fine as he had no proof he was in the right.
Since then however, a witness who had also pulled over and shared his personal details with the trucker, has shared his dashcam footage online.
The video appears to show that when the truck driver completes his overtake on an another lorry, the BMW follows him into the right-hand lane. At this point, the BMW’s brake lights momentarily flash and the vehicle appears to coast for a few seconds thereafter.
That effectively brake-tested the lorry driver, causing his HGV to hit into the back of the BMW.
Following the publication of the dashcam clip, our colleagues over at Trans.INFO Poland reached out to a legal expert to find out if the lorry driver has a case for his fine to be scrapped.
Unfortunately, despite this video footage seemingly providing proof of the trucker’s innocence, he is unlikely to have his punishments rescinded and refunded.
“Acceptance of a fine for a traffic offence by the driver makes it legally valid. The list of circumstances in which it may be revoked in such a case is very limited. We are talking here about cases where the fine was imposed for an act that is not an offence, or if the perpetrator acted in self-defence, in a state of necessity or in a situation where he could not recognize the meaning of his actions, e.g. due to mental illness. If the driver would be able to prove such circumstances, he should, within 7 days of accepting the fine, submit an application to the court in the relevant area concerning the issue of the fine. When examining the case, however, the court will no longer assess the driver’s behavior, but the fulfillment of the indicated conditions for annulment,” explains Maurycy Kieruj, legal counsel at Transcash.
A similar verdict was provided to Trans.INFO Poland by Poland’s General Road Police Headquarters.
In addition, a police spokesperson told Trans.INFO Poland that dashcam clips showing a fragment of an accident “may not be sufficient to assess an entire event, and more circumstances of the event may be important”.
The spokesperson added that those who are given a fine are informed of the fact that they have the right to contest the fine and be subject to further legal proceedings. Those who accept the fine are thereby admitting to committing the alleged offence.