M40 crash and recovery warning

phil8139

phil8139

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This crash happened on the M40 yesterday.

A devastating event in any circumstances, but how many of you with breakdown cover would be willing to leave your pets in the car while being towed?

Phil.
 
I see that on facebook it's pretty awful, they were advising people to cancel their policy
 
I have looked at a few breakdown policies and they all say the same.

Animals will not be transported in the recovery vehicle. If you carry your pet with you, be prepared to leave it in the broken down vehicle whilst being towed home.

Phil.
 
phil8139 said:
This crash happened on the M40 yesterday.

A devastating event in any circumstances, but how many of you with breakdown cover would be willing to leave your pets in the car while being towed?

Phil.
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They weren't being towed though, the recovery vehicle never made it. How often do people take all 12 pets with them when they go out. Would it be any different to a car/van etc. towing a horsebox? If the women were concerned about the safety of the dogs being towed, I'm sure the recovery driver would have got them off the motorway at the next junction where the woman could have made alternative travelling arrangements for the animals.
 
You see this is where it goes to show how many variations you get of an incident/accident etc.... According to the story going around FB, it said the people and dogs were left sitting on the hard shoulder for 3 hours because the RAC refused to go out to them...
 
Hmmm nearly every story on Facebook that travels round Facebook is usually either that twisted that is like a extended game of Chinese whispers or there is some form of scam involved :(
 
None of the news reports I can find mention how long they had been waiting or whether the RAC had refused to remove them because of the dogs. Regardless of how what the weather is doing when you are broken down on a motorway, you are supposed to leave your vehicle and find a safe refuge away from it whilst waiting for rescue services. So why hadn't the women removed themselves and the dogs from the vehicle and more importantly, how did the lorry come to hit it anyway?
 
nilagin said:
None of the news reports I can find mention how long they had been waiting or whether the RAC had refused to remove them because of the dogs. Regardless of how what the weather is doing when you are broken down on a motorway, you are supposed to leave your vehicle and find a safe refuge away from it whilst waiting for rescue services. So why hadn't the women removed themselves and the dogs from the vehicle and more importantly, how did the lorry come to hit it anyway?
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I guess with that amount of show dogs on board on a motorway too it would be pretty damn hard and dangerous too
 
nilagin said:
None of the news reports I can find mention how long they had been waiting or whether the RAC had refused to remove them because of the dogs. Regardless of how what the weather is doing when you are broken down on a motorway, you are supposed to leave your vehicle and find a safe refuge away from it whilst waiting for rescue services. So why hadn't the women removed themselves and the dogs from the vehicle and more importantly, how did the lorry come to hit it anyway?
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It also doesn't state in linked report if the dogs were in the appropriate travel cases either...something I did notice was the RAC stated that a specialist recovery vehicle had been dispatched suggesting that the motorhome might not have been able to be transported on there standard recovery trucks :thinking:
 
I know the person who put the original facebook post up very well. The primary reason for doing it was not to apportion blame on the RAC, but to make dog owners check/be aware of the RAC policies (and AA it turns out) relating to the transport of dogs in a breakdown. It is at the discretion of the breakdown driver as to whether they will deal with a vehicle which has dogs on board.
 
RichardtheSane said:
I know the person who put the original facebook post up very well. The primary reason for doing it was not to apportion blame on the RAC, but to make dog owners check/be aware of the RAC policies (and AA it turns out) relating to the transport of dogs in a breakdown. It is at the discretion of the breakdown driver as to whether they will deal with a vehicle which has dogs on board.
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I can see why it would actually be sensible to not allow it, on a number of points.. trucks do not have somewhere to secure animals so it could prove a danger, also the next passenger in the truck could have an allergy to dogs etc...and those are just a couple of points
 
And it would be folly to accept animals, imagine if it was a horse box.

Phil.
 
MWHCVT said:
I can see why it would actually be sensible to not allow it, on a number of points.. trucks do not have somewhere to secure animals so it could prove a danger, also the next passenger in the truck could have an allergy to dogs etc...and those are just a couple of points
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You are talking about dogs within the recovery vehicle itself - which is missing the point entirely as that is not what is being discussed (Although some drivers are OK with this too).

It is still at the discretion of the driver whether they will deal with/tow a vehicle with dogs on board. Sure, the circumstances in this incident were more extreme than normal with there being 12 dogs in total, but the people with the camper were not expecting the dogs to be put into the recovery vehicle. The contractor the RAC requested initially would not attend due to the dogs. They were en route when the accident happened, the delay partially caused by the time taken to convince RAC to attend.
 
RichardtheSane said:
You are talking about dogs within the recovery vehicle itself - which is missing the point entirely as that is not what is being discussed (Although some drivers are OK with this too).

It is still at the discretion of the driver whether they will deal with/tow a vehicle with dogs on board. Sure, the circumstances in this incident were more extreme than normal with there being 12 dogs in total, but the people with the camper were not expecting the dogs to be put into the recovery vehicle. The contractor the RAC requested initially would not attend due to the dogs. They were en route when the accident happened, the delay partially caused by the time taken to convince RAC to attend.
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Do you have a link that offers a different account to the one linked, I've not seen any reference to a breakdown service refusing to attend so I don't know if that is rumour or fact at this stage
 
incidentally the population of facebook seems to have gone full moron (more so than normal) on this one with the "everyone boycott" the RAC posts.

even IF they had been waiting for hours (although I cant find a source reporting this at the moment), the people should not have been in the vehicle for starters and how exactly were the RAC supposed to know whether an artic was going to wipe the vehicle out? what if it happened while the breakdown van was in attendance?

lack of facts and knee jerking everywhere...
 
neil_g said:
incidentally the population of facebook seems to have gone full moron (more so than normal) on this one with the "everyone boycott" the RAC posts.

even IF they had been waiting for hours (although I cant find a source reporting this at the moment), the people should not have been in the vehicle for starters and how exactly were the RAC supposed to know whether an artic was going to wipe the vehicle out? what if it happened while the breakdown van was in attendance?

lack of facts and knee jerking everywhere...
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Indeed...it's amazing the level of stupidity sometimes voiced on Facebook :eek:
 
So it wasn't the RAC it was a contractor, can't really blame the RAC then. But whether there was a delay in the arrival or a rescue vehicle or not. The blame still lies with the lorry driver.
 
Been debating this on another forum and a few things come to mind.

How many pet lovers would leave their (un)natural born offspring in the car while it was being towed? Would this result in a stand off argument on the hard shoulder delaying the recovery even further?

What are the RSPCA guidelines about leaving a dog in the car? If it died due to heat exhaustion who would be liable?

There are many issues regarding travelling with pets that most people were unaware of and this incident highlights a few.

Yes the truck driver will be at fault, nasty time ahead for all concerned.

Phil.
 
phil8139 said:
Been debating this on another forum and a few things come to mind.

How many pet lovers would leave their (un)natural born offspring in the car while it was being towed? Would this result in a stand off argument on the hard shoulder delaying the recovery even further?

What are the RSPCA guidelines about leaving a dog in the car? If it died due to heat exhaustion who would be liable?

There are many issues regarding travelling with pets that most people were unaware of and this incident highlights a few.

Yes the truck driver will be at fault, nasty time ahead for all concerned.

Phil.
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Not very relevant in a week where temperatures struggled to get into double figures ;)

Crack the window open and make sure they get water regularly while towing otherwise. Same as you would if you were driving.
 
neil_g said:
Not very relevant in a week where temperatures struggled to get into double figures ;)

Crack the window open and make sure they get water regularly while towing otherwise. Same as you would if you were driving.
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Indeed :lol: still not seen sight not sound of this on my Facebook, maybe that means I've got some good fiends :lol:
 
....maybe you were right in the first place, Matt....


:coat:
 
It appears that the vehicle that turned up couldn't tow it due to size and had to leave and a bigger one was sent.

It appears it wasn't the RAC that attended but a contractor. SOS did the RAC send the wrong size vehicle or the did the contractor.

So much unknown, but it doesn't stop the foolish jumping to conclusions
 
Having a vehicle crashed into while on the hard shoulder is a foreseeable consequence of not just getting and towing it to the nearest exit or service area. The longer you stay on the hard shoulder the greater the probability of being hit.

Where were the highway wombles when all this was going on?

If the dogs were only corgis they could have fetched them out of the motor home but in this weather I'm assuming they felt the cold was the greater risk.
 
So much outrage and for what?
Nobody knows the real story.
Three dogs were killed - hardly national news.
Maybe folks should be asking how a lorry ploughed into a vehicle on the hard shouldre, or why the occupants of the said vehicle decided to stay inside it (against all advice), instead of waiting on the embankment.
 
Yes all 12. If you carry that many you have to be prepared to move them.

12 dogs with only 3 people is too many. If they'd got out of the vehicle and had the caged dogs on the embankment they could have arranged alternative transport for a person and a few dogs.

Vehicles on the hard shoulder are hit all the time. It seems to be he case the highest cause of motorway death is a hard shoulder crash not a crash on the main carriageway.

Motorways need regular refuges really.
 
srichards said:
Yes all 12. If you carry that many you have to be prepared to move them.

12 dogs with only 3 people is too many. If they'd got out of the vehicle and had the caged dogs on the embankment they could have arranged alternative transport for a person and a few dogs.

Vehicles on the hard shoulder are hit all the time. It seems to be he case the highest cause of motorway death is a hard shoulder crash not a crash on the main carriageway.

Motorways need regular refuges really.
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I'm sorry but that is god awful advice, yeah let's take 12 dogs out of a secure environment out of there an up the embankment, and what happens when one or more escape? It didn't say anything about them being in dog carriers anyway as though I hope they were we all know the majority of dogs are not carried in them dogs running around on an active motorway :(

And refuges, yeah that's going to work, and exactly how spaced are they going to be? Every mile, half mile? The hard shoulder IS the refuge

And finally as I read it the lorry hit the vehicle while jack knifing suggesting that something happened in front of the lorry to cause excessive breaking
 
MWHCVT said:
And finally as I read it the lorry hit the vehicle while jack knifing suggesting that something happened in front of the lorry to cause excessive breaking
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Just goes to show how we all read things differently because I read it that the lorry hit the motorhome and jacknifed as a result!

You've assumed that something else caused the lorry to brake excessivly when nothing is mentioned in that story. I am sure there will be loads of other assumptions based on no facts by other people too.
 
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MWHCVT said:
It didn't say anything about them being in dog carriers anyway as though I hope they were we all know the majority of dogs are not carried in them dogs running around on an active motorway :(
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They were in crates (aircraft something something something.)
 
Tigger.ufo said:
Just goes to show how we all read things differently because I read it that the lorry hit the motorhome and jacknifed as a result!

You've assumed that something else caused the lorry to brake excessivly when nothing is mentioned in that story. I am sure there will be loads of other assumptions based on no facts by other people too.
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Indeed we all do read stuff differently :) I prefer to give the benefit of the doubt before any evidence has been presented :)

Dale_tem said:
They were in crates (aircraft something something something.)
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Were they? Fair enough :) though I still doubt it would be a good idea to remove them and take them all up the embankment as that is likely to be more stressful for the dogs than leaving them in the vehicle
 
srichards said:
Vehicles on the hard shoulder are hit all the time. It seems to be he case the highest cause of motorway death is a hard shoulder crash not a crash on the main carriageway.

Motorways need regular refuges really.
Click to expand...


In fact only around one in ten motorway deaths are hard shoulder crashes

http://www.itv.com/news/central/story/2013-08-06/illegal-hard-shoulder-campaign/

ANY vehicle which is hit whilst stopped on the hard shoulder, is a result of negligence or driving without due care and attention.
 
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