Driving down the M6 in pouring rain yesterday I had the following experiences:-
1) Witnessing one lorry taking 12 minutes to overtake another one causing a huge tailback in the process.
2) Having one lorry pull out right in front of me as I was about to overtake without signalling, I pulled into outside lane and passed, my wife looked across to driver who was on his mobile and paying no attention to road.
3) Another lorry pulled out right in front as about to pass, just as that happened another lorry came up behind virtually touching my towbar, this all happening at 60 mph in sodden conditions.
I am sure lorry drivers will claim car drivers are the ones at fault somehow, i would ask them to explain the above actions please and before they say it is a minority, by my experiences it is NOT!
I am not a lorry driver. In the past, pre 40 footers, I learned from comparable situations you describe that if I could not see clearly the lorries mirrors then the lorry could not see me.
My normal practice is, if I am not sure the driver knows I am there, to overtake with a lane clearance. Should this not be possible then I just wait until either criteria is satisfied.
Lorries overtaking, my tactic here is to sit back and think of the fuel I am saving. Then being in a small vehicle I just make up the lost time
if I need to, expending more fuel than I saved.
If you consider the miles covered by commercial vehicles per accident, I think you will find it is many orders lower than the same figure for private vehicles.