Most days i leave work to hear on the travel update on the radio that an accident or delay due to overtuned caravan. One on the M5 today.
They seem frequent, what is going on? what is the cause of this? I must say when i have been travelling on the motorway i see some towing that must be doing 70mph. Its beginning to worry me. If you are loaded correctly with light winds and doing the correct speed surely you are very safe? Or are we all one tow from disaster?
I would of thought that any overturned caravan accident has to be at fault somehow. They dont just flip over do they.
No, they don`t just `flip over`, but they can end up as bits of matchwood for a variety of reasons.
There is probably a high percentage of vans that never see a spanner (other than the one thats tugging it) from year to year let alone a service. Tyres? Well theres plenty of tread so they must be OK. Weights? well it pulls alright so we can discount that. Noseweight? come on, its a caravan, you`d expect it to drag its arse a bit wouldn`t you?
Changes in road surface, crosswinds,inclines, `bow-waves` from large vehicles? They never bother the car so why should it be any different?
Anyway, you can go faster in some countries than others, so speed can`t have anything to do with it.
Statistically, caravans are very safe, but there does seem to be a rash of "overturned caravan" reports every summer. Some will be caused by punctures, sudden crosswinds or the actions of other drivers, some will be down to bad loading, speeding and badly maintained equipment.
But count the number of traffic reports each day, and then count the number of overturned caravans reported - it's a tiny but sadly highly noticeable fraction. Also, other causes of delays etc are not always reported in such detail. They are often simply described as "an accident". If they were reported as "an overturned Ford" or "an overturned Mercedes", and you drove one of those marques of vehicle, they might stand out more too.
------------- * You never know where you're going 'til you get there...
Caravans are basically fairly stable when towed correctly. Its not even about speed really. Its usually about a driver - not necessarily the one doing the towing.
You can turn it over by loading it badly, failing to plan ahead, forgeting its there etc. Equally you can turn it over swerving to avoid some numpty thats just pulled out in front of you.
When I was a kid our van had quite a bad snake after being overtaken by a lorry, it was terrifying, we were all over 3 lanes, luckily it didnt flip but now any tiny wobble & my stomach drops.
We've just returned from Devon & noticed how the ruts in the motorway lanes really wobble the van & we're amazed at how many vans overtook us really fast.
Listening to a spokesman from Devon and Cornwall police on Radio Devon last week in a discussion about Caravan safety etc.
He reported that there had been 16 accidents in the last year in the force area directly involving caravans.
There investigations had revealed over half were due to excess speed and the common denominator was that most had occurred on downhill stretches of the A30.A38 AND M5.
We travel up to Bristol once a week to visit my elderly mother.
Our journey takes us down the A361 and onto the M5 at junction 27, we leave the motorway at junction 20.
These journeys are either on a Friday or Saturday.
You can imagine the huge number of vans we see and in that time over that stretch we have seen 4 or 5 vans overturned and approx 10-15 on the hard shoulder with punctures to van tyres.
My major concern is the speed of a very large number of outfits
We travel at 70 to 75mph on the M5 [before anyone comments yes we do break the speed limit] but we find lots of outfits passing us at this speed. I am convinced a large number of these drivers "forget" they have a van on the back, lets face it cars are so much more powerful than years gone by.
Another concern is the very high percentage who tow without extension mirrors, when coming up behind them if I can't see their mirrors they obviously can't see me!
They seem to be the ones who make the last minute decision to pull out and overtake [as if doing it blindly and they are!]
its a wonder there wasnt an overturned van on the ouse bridge m62 goole yesterday. i was steady away 65 solo ready to turn off at next exit , half a mile away when a super hero with a discovery and van royce , private plates etc shot past me, downhill 75 + , nice little snake going on as well.
Nice to see we have someone marking our posts and patronising us for any bad grammar, I'm suprised he didn't add red crosses and put "see me" at the bottom.
Quote: Originally posted by Jason Neville on 13/9/2010
I would of thought that any overturned caravan accident has to be at fault somehow. They dont just flip over do they?
Correct. If a caravan is being towed at a sensible speed & is correctly loaded & maintained it won't 'flip over' unless presented with an accident situation that is beyond the driver's control.
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Topic: Overturned Caravan!!!!!!!!!!
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