Hard shoulder dangers.
Yet another tragic reminder of how dangerous the hard shoulder of the motorway is occurred on the A1M in North Yorkshire in mid-November. Six people died when a truck hit three vehicles which, according to press reports, were stationary on the hard shoulder. One of the vehicles was an overturned car, the other two were vehicles which had stopped to offer assistance.

Three of the dead were in the upturned car, apparently killed by the lorry which struck them after their car had come to a halt clear of the carriageway. The other three fatalities were people from the two vehicles which had stopped to help.

This incident followed a hard-shoulder accident a week earlier on the M40 near Oxford where a coach hit a broken-down truck which was being attended by a recovery vehicle. One coach passenger died in that collision.

And it was followed at the end of November by an incident on the M4 where a Dutch truck apparently struck a broken-down lorry which was standing on the hard shoulder. The Dutch driver was seriously injured - because the vehicle was left-hand-drive he was in the side of the cab which took most of the impact.

The message can't be repeated too often: the hard shoulder is not a safe place.

Disposable respirators.
By the time most recovery operators swing into action at the scene of an accident, any nasty substances should have been mopped up by the fire services. If you work in an area where experience shows you might on occasion be exposed to what are described as "nuisance organic vapours", Iles Optical provides disposable respirators.

The cup-shaped respirators are designed to give maximum filtration with minimum breathing resistance and are for use where protection is needed from non-toxic solid and water-based aerosols, as well as nuisance organic vapours. Iles Optical is based in Perivale. Middlesex, telephone 020 8998 6600.

Vision Alert wins AA orders.
Vision Alert is to supply the AA with its new 600-series Evolution Lightbar. It will, says Vision Alert, be specified on all new vehicles purchased by the AA for its breakdown fleet.

The rotating lightbar is claimed to have a light output up to 20 per cent greater than that of rival products. The AA's head of vehicle developments, Steve Winter, says: "The lightbar fully matched all our requirements and we were extremely impressed by its design."

Nip theft in the bud.
Specialist vehicles are not always the most obvious targets for theft - unless the thieves know what they're after and what it, or its equipment, might be worth. Orchid, which uses a tracking system to pinpoint the location of stolen vehicles, recently helped police locate a stolen truck 90 minutes after it had been reported missing.

The truck, operated by glass recycling specialists Richardson, was equipped with a hydraulic lifting system which had been the thieves' target. This had been removed, but was recovered using data about the truck's movements which showed that it had been stationary for a period in the evening before it was reported stolen.

The theft was reported at 6am on a Monday - many thieves targetting the transport industry recognise that a missing vehicle is less likely to be reported promptly at weekends - and the truck was recovered just 90 minutes later.

Says Lisa Fear, Richardson's operations manager: "Our specialist vehicles are equipped with purpose-built lifting systems. This vehicle would have taken at least four months to replace. If it had not been recovered, it would have caused severe disruption to our business and major inconvenience to our customers."

The Orchid system features a control centre linked to all 52 UK police forces and the company can provide a range of vehicle tracking and location services for a monthly subscription. Its use can also help reduce insurance premiums.

Lower VED rates for trucks.
Massive changes are on the way for haulage operators with a 50 per cent cut in Vehicle Excise Duty for most heavy lorries. The changes will be introduced in next year's budget and the government says they will affect over 250,000 trucks over 7.5 tonnes GVW.

Transport minister Lord Macdonald said last month: "The new structure of VED duties proposed by the chancellor is radically simpler than before. It is good for the environment and good for the haulage industry. And the cuts in VED will give us some of the lowest rates in Europe for the cleanest vehicles.

"In addition the interim rebate scheme is a valuable transitional measure until the new structure comes in next year. The DVLA will write to qualifying operators inviting them to apply for the rebate. Hauliers will receive their payments on proof of entitlement, within 28 days. "This is a major benefit to hauliers - paying less for their existing VED disc, and less for next year's too."

The transitional payments scheme will apply to all vehicles with a current 6 or 12 month VED disc on 30 November 2000, and to further discs taken out between 1 December and the introduction of the new structure of VED rates in next year's Budget.

Unique recovery on the M25.
Not quite a mainstream recovery, but one which nonetheless made the national news, took place on the M25 in November. The vehicle being recovered was - wait for it - a battery-powered invalid carriage, whose elderly driver inadvertently found himself on the M25 in the evening rush hour.

With a top speed of around 8mph - which cynics might say is fast enough for the M25 at peak times - the invalid carriage caused chaos. Motorists alerted police who tracked the carriage's progress on CCTV monitors until patrols got to it, by which time it had trundled to a halt on the hard shoulder with flat batteries.

For this unusual recovery a specialist in invalid carriages was summoned to the scene - Carts & Carriages.

The use of prohibited vehicles on the motorway can carry a fine of up to £2,500, but the police have indicated that the elderly driver - described as confused and badly shaken up - is unlikely to face prosecution.

Star Rescue - Big drop.
Big drop From Ben Davies of Pengegon Recovery in Cornwall comes this month's dramatic story of a recovery which took place after a van went through a small wall which was all that stood between it and a 300ft drop. The drop down a cliff face at Bassett Cove presented a challenge for the Pengegon team, and it fell to Paul Chataway to make the descent to the stricken vehicle.

And while some people might abseil for fun, at least they can choose their locations. Paul had no choice about where to make his descent, and it's a dangerous spot with high winds gusting round the sheer cliff face. Paul took down the winch wires and attached them to the damaged van while Ben, working 300ft above, marshalled three vehicles to carry out the recovery. The centrepiece was a Foden eight-wheeler with a 300ft winch capable of lifting 38 tonnes. Two other trucks were used to hold the casualty vehicle when it was being lifted across the cliff face - this was necessary to avoid outcrops of rock.

Living in Cornwall, Ben Davies is no stranger to cliff-top jobs. Other recent recoveries by Pengegon have included a car which reversed over the edge of a cliff, and struck a large ledge sticking out about halfway down, before coming to rest between two rocks at the bottom. The driver survived - he was thrown out through the windscreen when the car hit the ledge.

And in another incident an elderly driver who had recently bought an automatic car selected forward instead of reverse when trying to leave a cliff-edge car park. The car hit the barrier, turned on to its roof and slid downwards. "The build up of shale against the windscreen as it was sliding forwards slowed it down and stopped it before it reached the edge of the cliff," Ben recalls as he describes another lucky escape.

But back to the van at Bassett Cove. Its recovery took the best part of five hours.