A large truck ahead signals a right turn but first swings out noticeably toward the left. Why does the driver do that, and what should you do?

Why D is correct

A long vehicle physically cannot turn right from the kerb lane the way a car does. Its rear wheels track well inside the path of its front wheels, and without swinging wide first the body would ride up over the kerb or strike whatever sits on the corner. The wide swing is not a mistake and it is not a lane change. The gap that opens on the truck's right is the most lethal place on the road for anyone smaller: cyclists and pedestrians are killed there every year by drivers who read the signal as 'right' and moved past. Stay back, let it finish, and accept that no mirror on that vehicle can show the space you were about to occupy.

Why the other options are wrong

A. The driver has mis-signalled — move up on the right and go past

Reading the swing as a mis-signal is how people end up under the rear wheels. A driver signalling right while moving left is executing precisely the geometry their vehicle requires.

B. The driver is looking for a wider lane — pass on the left immediately

Passing on the left crosses the path the trailer will occupy as it straightens into the turn. There is no side of a turning truck that is a good place to occupy at that moment.

C. It is nothing unusual; treat it exactly like a car making a right turn

Treating the manoeuvre like a car's ignores the entire problem. A car's rear wheels follow its front ones; a truck's cut across as much as two metres inside them.

On the road

A cyclist comes up the inside of a truck waiting at a junction, and the driver, who never saw them, begins the right turn. The gap the rider rode into was the space the trailer needed in order to finish the manoeuvre.

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