..... despite statistics which show that HGV drivers have the least "accidents per miles"
Apparently aircraft are the safest means of travel, problem is, like trucks, when they do go wrong the impact is quite large.
Sadly I come into contact with a 'lot' of truck drivers down here and sadly that stereotype isn't wrong, most can hardly speak English (Poles on cheap hire rates) and most have a less than ideal sense of reason. We must get five or six RTAs a week, all and I mean all are proven to be the truck drivers fault, sadly unlike out on the public road where they are the biggest thing around, here they are not and in everycase they come off very badly.
I'm not saying all truck drivers are like that and I do accept that the type of work, trip MTs and cross dock transfers we have here will attract those who are lowest paid and least respectable. Those who work for larger more reputable companies are often very professional.
We had a case recently where a driver thought he should be loaded first and when the crane passed over him to load one in front (to clear a path for said driver) got the hump, jumped out the truck and climbed up the moving crane with a 9" knife shouting abuse at the driver, who promptly called our police on our emergency radio and then legged it over the top of the crane and down the other side and off up the park, said driver was blocked from chasing by gates at top of crane and promplty arrested and locked in the cells until his manager came and carted him off and promptly sacked him.