After an engine failure on the M27 a few years back I now carry two large warning triangles which I can put out at some distance behind the vehicle. At least if someone runs into a triangle they have time to stop before they hit my car of caravan. Its also worth having high vis jackets for all persons in the car. Most of Europe requires warning triangles and jackets so I guess it can't be a bad thing.
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I carry two triangles and two hi viz jackets in each car, but I don't think that any car or truck on a motorway or dual carriageway will avoid hitting you even if they hit the triangle as the stopping distance is too great. Also a large truck would not even know it had hit a triangle. So on a motorway I'd get cars occupants inc dogs over the barrier before putting down a triangle on my way to the emergency phone.
Other clive,you are right , get out and get away. I carry 2 triangles and a colapsable cone that has a flashing orange light in top, its one of those things you have and hope you never need. Stay safe everybody no good taking chances .
I can not find the article for the moment but I was reading somewhere that said warning triangles should not be used on the motorways in this country
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I've seen something similar re autoroutes and on one of our cars warning triangles it is embossed on its frame 'not for motorways'.
Damian
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The following is from the Diect Gov website:
If your vehicle breaks down, think first of all other road users and
If your vehicle breaks down, think first of all other road users and
- get your vehicle off the road if possible
- warn other traffic by using your hazard warning lights if your vehicle is causing an obstruction
- help other road users see you by wearing light-coloured or fluorescent clothing in daylight and reflective clothing at night or in poor visibility
- put a warning triangle on the road at least 45 metres (147 feet) behind your broken-down vehicle on the same side of the road, or use other permitted warning devices if you have them. Always take great care when placing or retrieving them, but never use them on motorways
- if possible, keep your sidelights on if it is dark or visibility is poor
- do not stand (or let anybody else stand) between your vehicle and oncoming traffic
- at night or in poor visibility do not stand where you will prevent other road users seeing your lights.
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At work we are supplied with 3 warning triangles with flashing LED's, Warning Road Flares and high power LED torches and all weather high vis gear. We have the same kind of gear for towing.
Last Friday I helped a van driver who had damaged a tyre outside our neighbours. His employers had called the AA and someone else and around two hours was the waiting time as the rush hour traffic was on the road. I've had a puncture in the north of Scotland on a single track road. If you get a puncture you may not have the benefit of a hard shoulder or be in a position to call for help or help that arrives quickly. I would always do my best to park up in the safest position possible and change the wheel quickly. About 5 minutes for changing any car or caravan wheel should be easy if you have the correct tools at the ready.
I don't believe that the AA, RAC and Green Flag services are there for the likes of general wheel changing when most driver's should be able to change a wheel themselves.
Last Friday I helped a van driver who had damaged a tyre outside our neighbours. His employers had called the AA and someone else and around two hours was the waiting time as the rush hour traffic was on the road. I've had a puncture in the north of Scotland on a single track road. If you get a puncture you may not have the benefit of a hard shoulder or be in a position to call for help or help that arrives quickly. I would always do my best to park up in the safest position possible and change the wheel quickly. About 5 minutes for changing any car or caravan wheel should be easy if you have the correct tools at the ready.
I don't believe that the AA, RAC and Green Flag services are there for the likes of general wheel changing when most driver's should be able to change a wheel themselves.
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I agree with the thrust of your comments but the 5 minute timescale is optimistic given the need to move occupants to a safe position, remove luggage to access the spare wheel (if car has one), get van into position where you can remove the spare, jack van and change wheel, reverse procedure. Even Mclaren might be pushed at 5 minutes. I carry the van spare inside the van to make a wheel change quicker and easier.
otherclive said:
Passenger's and your own SAFETY should always be the priority.
You should try to allow easy access to the spare wheels and jack and have a suitable wrench easily accesible. Many drivers especially women find standard wheel wrenches useless. Roadside with a puncture on a wet dark night is not the ideal time t find that the OEM wheel brace will not give you the leverage you need to undo your wheel bolts
For SAFETY drivers should have tools that they can undo wheel bolts with as a wheel needs to be changed quickly rather than struggling at the road side. It's also important that drivers know where the locking wheel nut 'key' is stored. and how to get to the spare wheel of the car and caravan.
If you know where everyting is, around 5 minutes for a wheel change is not difficult. Learning where to find the bits you need to change your wheels and where they all live at the side of the road is not the time and place, grovelling around on you hands and knees as you have no idea where the jacking points are isn't a 'smart driver' points scorer.
McLaren and those F1 rapid wheel changes are done quickly as they have the correct tools for the job and wheels at hands and people who have practiced what they are doing.
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ABSOLUTELY and that is why if you have a problem on the motorway YOU AND your PASSEGERS should be up the bank and/or at the other side of the barrier, while the professionals change your wheel or fix the car,Gybe said:
Some people seem to have a fixation with motorways and hard shoulders bing the place that you get a puncture. If you stop on the motorway you are meant to call from the Motorway SOS phones and alert them. Normally means a Highway Patrols Officer or sometimes a police patrol will get to you before any breakdown service is availablecolin-yorkshire said:
Generally there seem to be plenty of drivers(often assisted by patrol officers) changing wheels with a HAP parked behind them and why would you wait hours for a breakdown operative when you can do the job yourself.
On motorways the advice for moving driver and passengers from the vehicle to a position behind the armco only applies to able bodied people.
If you're lucky enough to suffer a pucture on a balmy summers day and are fit and well, sat out awaiting GF_AA_RAC may be swell. Probability wise, it'll be cold n wet! Sitting around on a motorway embankment is not an option for all and the safest thing is to be on your way pronto.
I'm as professional as anyone else at changing wheels and jacking up trailers and cars as are many other drivers, the only diffeence is that we don't drive dayglo and 3M reflective tape ehanced vehicles that light up like xmas trees. If you are stopped on a motorway with a HAP in attandance, better that you are on you way in a few minutes. It's not illegal to change your own wheel on a motorway after all.
A work colleague and myself offered assistance to a retired couple towing a large folder caravan just before easter last year. They were about a mile or so past a toll booth just south of Bordeaux with a shredded tyre. They declined our offer, ten and half hours later on our return journey as it was getting dark they were still there. They thought that the French police that came by had called for assistance and we guessed that the French police probably thought they had
If we hadn't both been observant caring caravanners we could have been sat in our hotel a lot earlier and they may have been there the next morning.
you will have heard the sinatra song "I did it my way" well be my guest!!! me I will stick with green flag thankyou, by the way the longest I have had to wait for them is 30mins so your couple of hours is very wide of the mark, besides apart from a punture there is very little one can do to repair a modern car without the aid of laptop and ecu connector so one would have to call them anyway.
the fact of the matter is far from being a fixation the most units one sees broke down are on the motorway or major routes. on our last trip down the southwest we saw 6 units in total all on the M1 and M5.
the fact of the matter is far from being a fixation the most units one sees broke down are on the motorway or major routes. on our last trip down the southwest we saw 6 units in total all on the M1 and M5.
I work part time driving so I see plenty of outfits stopped on motorways. '"fixation" was my comment about puctures, not breakdowns. My colleagues and I see relatively few caravan outfits on our work trips with flat tyres on motorways. I've had the AA turn up in 15 minutes, 'Sods Law' when you really need them or GF, the chances are it'll be on the busiest day of the year or in rush hour traffic or if you are on a motorway when it is gridlocked as happened to one of our truck drivers last month. The police closed the road and the truck tyre service couldn't get to him.
A vehicle breadown is a somewhat different issue to a pucture that most drivers should be capable of resolving rather than Green Flag RAC or AA very nice men sorting out some poor devil urgently in need of a man with a laptop
A vehicle breadown is a somewhat different issue to a pucture that most drivers should be capable of resolving rather than Green Flag RAC or AA very nice men sorting out some poor devil urgently in need of a man with a laptop
We responded to the M5 north bound near Frankley services the other Friday evening.
Our information was RTC persons trapped. On arrival at the scene there was utter carnage all across the hard shoulder & 3 lanes of the motorway.
It transpired that a lone female driver had broken down on the hard shoulder, & phoned her parents for help. They had parked behind the broken down car on the hard shoulder when another car went into the back of them, & back onto the carriageways & involving several other vehicles.
Several people had to be cut out of their vehicles with serious injuries.
The motorways are dangerous places to be at any time of the day or night, so if you break down, get out of your vehicle & get to a place of safety whilst awaiting H.A.T.O (Highways Authority Traffic Officers) & your breakdown company.
Just another thought. If you help someone at the scene of an RTC, dont sit them in your car whilst waiting for an ambulance as happened near here to a police officer.
Once they start complaining of neck pain the roof comes off your car to get them out
Our information was RTC persons trapped. On arrival at the scene there was utter carnage all across the hard shoulder & 3 lanes of the motorway.
It transpired that a lone female driver had broken down on the hard shoulder, & phoned her parents for help. They had parked behind the broken down car on the hard shoulder when another car went into the back of them, & back onto the carriageways & involving several other vehicles.
Several people had to be cut out of their vehicles with serious injuries.
The motorways are dangerous places to be at any time of the day or night, so if you break down, get out of your vehicle & get to a place of safety whilst awaiting H.A.T.O (Highways Authority Traffic Officers) & your breakdown company.
Just another thought. If you help someone at the scene of an RTC, dont sit them in your car whilst waiting for an ambulance as happened near here to a police officer.
Once they start complaining of neck pain the roof comes off your car to get them out
I agree whole heatredly that changing a wheel anywhere is a dangerous practice and every precaution must be taken and acted upon.
That is why in the first place anyone who uses the roads realy must practice a wheel change in the relative safety of a car park, to understand the process.
One thing that is not mandatory in the uk but is so in europe is, to have hi viz vests for every seat in the car and also the vests must be accessable from inside the passenger compartment. Therefore ensuring that everyone can exit the vehicle wearing a safety vest.
I do wish this country would step up to the plate and modernise the regulations.
I have made a plan with my family that if we have a breakdown on the road or motorway, the first thing we do is get out the 5 hi viz vests and each occupant wears one before getting out of the car. That is assuming we haven't been involved in an accident as the cause of the breakdown. We then move well away from the car and in the case of a motorway hard shoulder, go up the embankment and about 50 yards rearwards of the car. This ensures that we are not in the impact zone should the car be hit.
With my passengers standing lookout on the embankment I would then return to the car to do the wheel change.
I also have in the boot of the car my hi viz construction jacket and waterproof hi viz trousers to not only make me a glow worm but also to protect my casual clothes as the road is not clean at best.
Dusty did hint at my disability (I have a spinal injury), however fear not I have done a wheel change recently (on my 78 year old mum's VW polo ) and apart from being a couple of mins slower and doing more work on my hands and knees rather than bending down, a wheel change can be still done. That was done on a mud drenched lane where the potatoe harvest was in full swing so plenty of mud.
I still feel capable of looking after my own car and able to leave the AA, RAC & green flag to help other people.
I wonder just how many of you carry your triangle and 5 hi viz vests (7 for people carriers) in your car while on uk roads. Also do you carry an upto date first aid kit and know basic first aid?
That is why in the first place anyone who uses the roads realy must practice a wheel change in the relative safety of a car park, to understand the process.
One thing that is not mandatory in the uk but is so in europe is, to have hi viz vests for every seat in the car and also the vests must be accessable from inside the passenger compartment. Therefore ensuring that everyone can exit the vehicle wearing a safety vest.
I do wish this country would step up to the plate and modernise the regulations.
I have made a plan with my family that if we have a breakdown on the road or motorway, the first thing we do is get out the 5 hi viz vests and each occupant wears one before getting out of the car. That is assuming we haven't been involved in an accident as the cause of the breakdown. We then move well away from the car and in the case of a motorway hard shoulder, go up the embankment and about 50 yards rearwards of the car. This ensures that we are not in the impact zone should the car be hit.
With my passengers standing lookout on the embankment I would then return to the car to do the wheel change.
I also have in the boot of the car my hi viz construction jacket and waterproof hi viz trousers to not only make me a glow worm but also to protect my casual clothes as the road is not clean at best.
Dusty did hint at my disability (I have a spinal injury), however fear not I have done a wheel change recently (on my 78 year old mum's VW polo ) and apart from being a couple of mins slower and doing more work on my hands and knees rather than bending down, a wheel change can be still done. That was done on a mud drenched lane where the potatoe harvest was in full swing so plenty of mud.
I still feel capable of looking after my own car and able to leave the AA, RAC & green flag to help other people.
I wonder just how many of you carry your triangle and 5 hi viz vests (7 for people carriers) in your car while on uk roads. Also do you carry an upto date first aid kit and know basic first aid?
Sound advice Steve.
I also because of our European trips carry I also carry Hi viz vests in the car & my medical bag (I am a trauma management instructor in the brigade).
Just a matter of interest, if any one gives first aid to some one sat in the front of a car involved in an accident & the airbags have not deployed do not under any circumstance put your head inside the car just in case the airbag decides to activate.
A case happened in the states where some one put their head inside the drivers window to help the driver, the airbag decided to activate & killed both the first aider & driver. We carry a special cover that goes over the steering wheel to stop this happening.
I also because of our European trips carry I also carry Hi viz vests in the car & my medical bag (I am a trauma management instructor in the brigade).
Just a matter of interest, if any one gives first aid to some one sat in the front of a car involved in an accident & the airbags have not deployed do not under any circumstance put your head inside the car just in case the airbag decides to activate.
A case happened in the states where some one put their head inside the drivers window to help the driver, the airbag decided to activate & killed both the first aider & driver. We carry a special cover that goes over the steering wheel to stop this happening.
As per my previous post we carry hi vis, LED Triangles etc.
But I'm thinkig that a life raft and life jackets for all cars with all the flooding we've had in recent times and of course we'll all need flare guns to alert the emergency services if we get washed in to a river and out to sea, blame global warning concerns. Ship to shore radio will be a must and we'll all have to pay to be trained to use it. Large fines will be handed out if drivers are caught without a mirror to signal to air rescue services.
Then there'll be the clothing, full dual purpose marine and artic survival suits for drivers and passengers. You never know when you could be bobbing around in your life raft or stood behind the armco in snow and sub zero artic conditions.
I've probably missed a few other things, drugs testing kit in all cars to check if the driver has smoked a spliff by accident or sniffed some cocain instead of snuff.
Basically anything that can make the Government and safety lobby/industry money or give those Froggy Gendarmes another reason to pull Johnny English Foreigner and add a few more Euro's to Sarko's and the Froggies pension pot.
How much carrying Hi-Viz jackets or Breathalizer's in France has to do with safety is debatable. But it's a nice little earner out of unaware or forgetful UK and other motorists
But I'm thinkig that a life raft and life jackets for all cars with all the flooding we've had in recent times and of course we'll all need flare guns to alert the emergency services if we get washed in to a river and out to sea, blame global warning concerns. Ship to shore radio will be a must and we'll all have to pay to be trained to use it. Large fines will be handed out if drivers are caught without a mirror to signal to air rescue services.
Then there'll be the clothing, full dual purpose marine and artic survival suits for drivers and passengers. You never know when you could be bobbing around in your life raft or stood behind the armco in snow and sub zero artic conditions.
I've probably missed a few other things, drugs testing kit in all cars to check if the driver has smoked a spliff by accident or sniffed some cocain instead of snuff.
Basically anything that can make the Government and safety lobby/industry money or give those Froggy Gendarmes another reason to pull Johnny English Foreigner and add a few more Euro's to Sarko's and the Froggies pension pot.
How much carrying Hi-Viz jackets or Breathalizer's in France has to do with safety is debatable. But it's a nice little earner out of unaware or forgetful UK and other motorists
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I cannot see what the objection is to the French regulation to carry Hiviz jackets? If you consider it a prudent measure why not insist that others do so too? As for breathalysers the French have really stamped down on drink driving and seem to be enforcing it far more rigorousy than in UK. I was stopped in a country village at 1100h one morning for a random test. The availabilty of cheap single use kits is a good idea and I have used such on two occassions when guests stayed overnight and might still have been over the limit when they left next day. I know the French limit is lower than Uk so that gives an extra re-assuarnce.
The issue isn't really wih carrying Hi-Viz or anything else the French come up with. The issue is the changes they come up with being used as a cash cow and the fleecing of UK and other visitor's. My work colleagues and I have been stopped numerous times in France just because we are Brits. Two colleagues in need of motorway assistance also just got checked out for Hi-Viz and then the Froggy plod gave the gallic shrug and were off.
I would never need a Beathalyzer, I don't drink and my wife doesn't ever drink alcohol if she thinks she has to drive.
If you're truly concerned about safety surely abstaining from alcohol would be the priority rather than rely on a fairly inaccurate cheap breathalyzer.
ps. Daniel Orgeveal the president of a road safety group which lobbied vigorously for the French breathalyzer requirement also works for the breathalyser manfufacturer Contralco – one of only two government-approved manufacturers, which stand to make a hefty profit from the new rules
What was the first priority, profit, safety or corruption
I would never need a Beathalyzer, I don't drink and my wife doesn't ever drink alcohol if she thinks she has to drive.
If you're truly concerned about safety surely abstaining from alcohol would be the priority rather than rely on a fairly inaccurate cheap breathalyzer.
ps. Daniel Orgeveal the president of a road safety group which lobbied vigorously for the French breathalyzer requirement also works for the breathalyser manfufacturer Contralco – one of only two government-approved manufacturers, which stand to make a hefty profit from the new rules
What was the first priority, profit, safety or corruption
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