The camaraderie of the road is one of the major things that helps make the grey nomad lifestyle so special … but, sadly, acts of kindness don’t always go according to plan.
Take, for example, the poor ‘Good Samaritan’ truckie who stopped on the Newell Highway about 40km south of Boggabilla to attend what he believed was the scene of a recent crash involving a caravan. After checking the scene to scene to see if he could help, the kindly driver was pulling away when he overturned his own prime mover and a trailer tat were loaded up with onions.
“He has stopped his truck to check to see if there is an occupant in the caravan and when he’s reversed his B-Double and prime mover, the B-Double has dropped into a culvert and as a result the prime mover and B-Double has rolled onto its side,” Inspector Stuart Campbell told the ABC. “The driver has suffered minor lacerations and was conveyed to hospital.”
To make matters worse, the caravan the truckie stopped to check on had actually crashed a week earlier, but its owners had failed to remove the damaged vehicle from the roadside.
Have you ever heard of an intended act of kindness that has not gone according to plan? Do you stop when you see fellow travellers on the side of the road looking like they need assistance? Have you ever stopped … and then wished you hadn’t? Or, perhaps, not stopped … and then wished you had? Comment below.
I blew a tyre out on our caravan last year and found that with the flat tyre I needed two jacks to remove the wheel. Another caravanner came along and stopped to assist. We used two jacks and changed the tyre. Without his help I would have been struggling, so the answer is yes, I would stop and render assistance if possible.
We blew a tyre on the van coming from the Sunshine Coast to Brisbane and NO not one van driver stopped nor any cars apart from a ute with three young people who asked if they could help. We had the RACQ on the way by then. Don’t always knock the young folk as to me they are most times more helpful than other Nomads who for some weird reason put the destination before the journey. Yes we would and have stopped to help others broken down where we were able
Without a second thought……(Especially if she is Pretty) Just Joking Ha ha ha!
yes i would stop i blew a tyre on my van and noone stopped to help me so i rang family and racv the family caught up with us and they had a scissor jack that would get under the axle and then had to stop the racv chap from coming i now have a trolley jack and it should fit no problem
Personally I would put the blame squarely on the shoulders of
(a) The Police
(b) The highway authorities.
In this day and age it should be general practice for the Police or Highway Authorities to put either crime scene tape(The checker pattern blue and white stuff) or some other tape to show the scene has been dealt with and no-one is trapped or injured. Common sense I would have thought.
We have stopped many times.It is the Australian Travelers Code of Ethics. From simply giving directions,changing tyres,winching cars back on to the road and even getting a caravan upright(and helping clean the mess inside).One day we will need help and hope someone will stop and help.
I was in a truck in Victoria and slowed to offer assistance to a rolled boat trailer. Found out it had happened about 2 hours earlier but none had called it. I had wound the electric window down and it wouldn’t go back up. Stopped at a truck stop and must have slipped getting out . Unconscious for 3o minutes after whacking my head and broke my upper arm. 6 months on Workcover and a MC licence for the trouble after the mob I was working for wouldn’t re-employ me. But, yes, I will always stop if safe to do so.
Yes we’ve stopped to help a lady, 60+ age, 20 klms west of Camooweal on the Barkly H’way. She’d been waiting for somebody to stop for 90 minutes as she’d run out of fuel. Although we had a diesel vehicle there was enough fuel for our gen set to get her into town. I couldn’t believe so many people passed her by and left her on the side of the road. I repeated the story a few times and so many people said they wouldn’t have stopped.Maybe wes topped as we lived in the country for so long, you never left anybody on the side of the road without help
We always try to stop and assist if we see someone in trouble, actually we stopped 2 times in the one day, down the sturt highway from Katherine to SA . Firstly to assist an indigenous family stranded, who had no water and they had car issues, after that a dad with 3 little children with a flat tyre, all in 40 deg. heat. But we have been broken down and no one has stopped, maybe because we have a big bus and they don’t think they can assist who knows. We always try and carry extra drinking water as you just don’t know, who you can come across, and how long they have been stranded.
perhaps the caravan owner hadn’t moved it off the road for the exact same reason the b double driver experienced into the culvert. not everything is black and white on our roads. yes we always offer assistance. thanks to our truckies too for offering help.
We were traveling in out-back Victoria some years back when we came across an old couple sitting on the side of the road with the Bonnet up on a old E J Holden.
They said they had been there for about 4 hours after their car had suddenly died,
we were apparently the first ones to stop on this busy highway, and offer them some help and a cool drink, on this very hot day.
I had them mobile again in around two minutes flat when looking at the motor I could the High Tension wire had come off the Distributor.
We often wonder how much longer they would have suffered if we hadn’t stopped.
Interesting question. I suspect not stopping and wishing you had might be worse than stopping and wishing you hadn’t hehe. I’ve heard a few stories about traps being set by thieves, so I think I’d be pretty choosy about who and/or what I was stopping for.
I remember stopping in vic to help a lady with a flat tyre. Comming from Qld it’s what we were taught to do.
My son and I got out of the car he’s 6ft 9in covered in tats I had my just out of prison haircut (realy short).
the lady calls out from inside the locked car that she had called the police, I said that they wouldn’t be here for ages and we would have her on the way in no time .
We Jacked the car up changed the tyre and were on our way in 5 mins. It wasn’t untill later that we realised the lady may have thought we were up to no good.
But We still stop to render assistance.
Allan
If your worried, hit the central locking and its safe to do so, pull up beside them,and wind down a window just a bit and ask if they need assistance.
This gives you enough time to access if its safe to get out of your car and help.
Come On! Its the Australian way of life to stop-an-help stranded travellers. Lets not get like the US or the UK and just pretend that you can’t see them.