There has been another dramatic caravan rollover, this time on the Stuart Highway just south of Katherine in the Northern Territory.
The vehicle was completely destroyed after the accident but, incredibly, the driver escaped with only a cut thumb.
A NT Police spokeswoman told the Katherine Times said that emergency services attended the scene near Tindal late yesterday afternoon.
“A car towing a caravan is believed to have overcorrected which caused it to roll on the highway near the entrance to the airbase,” the spokeswoman said. “Initial examination by St Johns was that the driver only sustained a cut to the thumb.”
Just yesterday, an accident involving a car towing a caravan near Perth left two people requiring hospital treatment. The debris from the destroyed van meant a major highway was closed in both directions for some time.
We just came up the stuart highway a week ago and i was continually passed by other vans . I was doing 95 but they left me for dead. No wonder there are so many caravan accidents. Just because the speed limit says 130 some people will try and do it
From my experience it seems that a lot of these people who have had little experience towing drive too fast! I witness this daily.
There should be a Licence to tow caravans, they should be speed limited & extended driving mirrors should be Law!!!
Agree wholeheartedly! Totally different approach to driving with a van/trailer. Need a course or years of driving to do this.
As long as they take off their mirrors before parking in supermarket car parks.
Extended or towing mirrors are already compulsory for caravans and horse floats
I have been a driving instructor for 32 years. As well as an emergency response officer attending a lot of accident. Been teaching towing and reversing courses since the 80’s. My recommendation would be that anyone towing a caravan longer than 7.5 meters with the vehicle to should attend a course finding out responsibility and consequences in towing. Because you are classed as a long vehicle.
Totally agree when i get my car and caravan i want to go to training learning how to back and cope with towing
I agree. We drive a motor home, generally around the 90 to 95km range and are often passed at speed by people towing large caravans. Having towed caravans for many years we are only too familiar with how easily something can so quickly go desperately wrong.
All drivers that tow caravans should be restricted to 100kms/hour
They are!
Drivers should do course on towing
Moving to the far left hand side of the road helps when passing an oncoming vehicle, truck or roadtrain up here.
There are a few caravanners who are not aware or experienced with the width of their tow. They are frightened or dont know how to line their towing wheels up with the edge of the bitumen without going off into the dirt. They hog the middle of the road line causing sudden wind push on their tow vehicle at high speed when passing oncoming traffic. Sometimes this can cause swaying, panic and overcorrection. They are too used to the double carriage ways roads over on the east coast.
Not saying this is what happened in this case. But I see it a fair bit…!
Agree with all. We hug the fog line all the time and travel at around 85 to 90. Continually get passed by other vanners doing incredible speed. WTF. Also use out UHF and communicate to trucks. The drivers appreciate the call.
Mismatching tow vehicle and van along with poor loading are problem areas. A separate licence for van towing along with easily accessible and reasonably priced towing course would be practical. Same course for Double horse flats too. 100kph is always too fast and endangers every road user. We as vanners should ALL get our act together.
Toured WA July 2013 for 3 mths with 2 tonne van with weight distrubution bars and friction antisway conntrol system fìtted and had no trouble at all even when roadtrains passed. I think all vans of 1 tonne or more should have at least antisway system fitted as law .
Does not matter how fast you go someone will always go past you or go faster.Many times coming up the east coast and boss says what are you doing are we doing the speed limit Yes but I,m the slowest. Stevo.
All guessing at what actually happened. Please know what caused this before passing your judgements.
We travel at 90 to 95 depending on road conditions. We always communicate with trickiest. We slow down on overtaking lanes for other vehicles to pass. Courtesy doesn’t cost anything.
Yes I thoughly agree with you I have been towing vans for 50 years and came across a no of accidents and most of those were caused by traveling to fast there should be a max speed for caravans of 95 km per HR I think Tassie has this max of 95.
My wife and I did a towing course in NSW several years ago before leaving to travel the country. With learning vehicle and van load limits and control is invaluable.
But sometimes you can’t cure stupidity or complacency.
I would like to hear the result of the investigation and cause.
I appreciate all comments and suggestions in the above. I find it’s not the oncoming traffic. It’s when a big truck with 2 or 3 trailers pass you going in the same direction is where most of the problems occur. The auction on your car and van from the truck makes it very difficult to hand. Especially when the draught causes the van to sway. Even if you have all the correct hitches and sway bars. Maybe the trucks can slow down as well as the Van’s. We all should work together.
We have just been to NT and had no problem with the road trains. We didn’t have any turbulence and kept in contact with trucks via UHF truckies were always appreciative when we slowed down and gave them plenty of time to pass. Better to arrive late than DEAD on time. I agree too many camera drive too fast. Needs to be a limit on speed
Some caravans are far to large for towing vehicle..
Wouldn’t take much to have accident with inexperienced drivers towing extra large caravans..
Maybe more medical checks on drivers over 70 might help also for towing larger vans over 21 feet.
95kph to is plenty fast enough and respect the truck drivers work place on the roads doing whatever is necessary to let them through and please DO NOT speed up on overtaking lanes just because the road is wider.