Emergency services have attended the scene of several recent caravan accidents.
With more and more caravans on the road at the moment, there appears to have been a corresponding uptick in the number of accidents involving them … including at least two yesterday.
Two people were injured when a car towing a caravan flipped on the Arnhem Highway in the NT.
Police said they responded to reports of the accident near the Lambells Lagoon turn-off, some 55 kilometres southeast of Darwin, at about 10.15am yesterday.
The NT News reports that the two people who were in the car that crashed both received minor injuries.
There were traffic delays on the Arnhem Highway for a couple of hours while the caravan was removed.
Similarly, there were huge delays on the South Eastern Freeway near Mount Barker in the Adelaide Hills after a caravan accident just after 8am yesterday.
The Adelaide Advertiser said photos from the scene showed a caravan on its side blocking a section of the highway, amid thick fog.
The accident happened on the down-track heading into the city between Mount Barker and the Hahndorf on-ramp.
It is understood there were no serious injuries relating to the incident.
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The combination of a vehicle towing a caravan will always be unstable.
The more rigs on the road, the more “accidents” will occur.
Training & Special licence required – end of story
Absolutely, too many drivers with no previous towing experience towing huge caravans at too higher speeds.
I’ve been towing for 30+ years. I’ve had my 23ft van for about 1 year. Totally different from carrying tools and equipment. Training should be mandatory in my view.
No special license is going to stop the accidents.
As a professional Roadtrain driver, towing at least 3 trailers up around 130 ton, I believe that I am qualified to comment about towing.
Without exaggerating, I say that more than 50% of caravanners are a danger to both themselves and others.
Few people understand that the common car and caravan (PIG trailer) is the most unstable combination of vehicles on the road.
How Ma and Pa Kettle, who have never driven anything bigger than a Corolla, can retire, buy the Flash 4wd and caravan, and set out on “The Big Lap”. No idea about weights and stability, no towing experience, and no idea.
Such people, and there are thousands of them, are an accident looking for a place to happen. Fact.
I don’t know why more caravaners consider a 5th wheeler , more room in a shorter rig, more stable when towing and better fuel economy , generally a better safer towing experience .
Hving travelled on that hwy into Adelaide serveral times including early this year.
If it had fog as mentioned and in tradies rush hr which happens all the time between those exits, unless there is more info available, very hard to draw reason, i am not all the mentioned ideas of training etc are valid.
No surprises there. WA this week. Saw a holden Astra towing 1.5 tonne.
AND an Amarok with a trailer AND tinnie strapped to the roof. Where are the Cops?
If you’re not a witness you have no idea what happened. Oh except the towing “experts” who will come up with all kinds of rubbish.
The caravan dealer who sold our van to us, told us that our car was compliant to tow the van, when it was not.
It was under powered and could not make the hills.
We had to buy a V8.
Sorry Guy, but your car may well have been “compliant” to tow the van.
The fact that the vehicle was underpowered does not necessarily make the vehicle
non-compliant.
Axle carrying capacity, braking ability, GCM and GVM limits are some of the many factors affecting compliance.
As an aside, if your chosen V8 is an LC200 you still are likely to have problems, but if it’s a Y62 you’ll likely be OK.
Good luck with your choice.