Be Prepared as Essex Police stop Caravans on A12
ALMOST 40 drivers have been stopped during a roads policing operation in Chelmsford targeting vehicles towing caravans and trailers.
Officers were stopping vehicles at the Boreham Interchange at Junction 19 on the A12.
In total 39 vehicles were stopped during the operation including 13 towing trailers, 19 towing caravans, two vans and three cars.
Of the vehicles towing caravans or trailers, 12 were found to have faults.
Four of those had either incorrectly fitted or no breakaway cables fitted at all. £50 fines were given and immediate prohibitions put in place on the trailers until a cable was fitted.
Some of the tyres fitted were over the recommended five years and leaflets and advice were given about changing these as soon as possible.
Five vehicles towing caravans or trailers were found to have no extendable mirrors fitted and were fine £50.
The drivers were found to be driving otherwise in accordance with their licence, fined £100 and given three points on their licence.
Four drivers were dealt with for using mobile phone behind the wheel.
Three fines of £100 were given out to drivers for index plate offences on trailers.
One van was also found to be over its allowed 3.5 tonne weight limit and the driver was fined a total of £300.
Pc Gary Winfield, of Essex Police’s Casualty Reduction Unit, said: “This was a successful operation, helping to keep Essex’s roads safe.
“Whilst these appear relatively small issues they still pose a risk.
“Any defect of a car, any caravan or trailer not attached properly, or any vehicle overweight could potentially pose a danger other road users.
“This operation highlights that Essex Police is determined to tackle these issues and anyone flouting the law will be dealt with.
“Road traffic collisions can have a devastating impact on those affected and we all have a responsibility to keep the county’s roads safe.”
Comments
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There's not really any answer to this. The Law is the Law!
What idiot thinks that its OK to tow without a breakaway cable fitted?
Why did someone think that it was OK for him/her to tow without extension mirrors fitted?
Those driving without proper licences were just taking a chance!
The use of mobile phones at the wheel should result in an instant ban!
The driver over the 3.5 tonne weight limit must have known that he was pushing it!
I change my tyres religiously at 5 years, and earlier if I have any concerns about their integrity. Safety is not something to be gambled with!
Sadly earlier in my Caravanning life I was also a Police Traffic officer called upon to deal with the result of far to many of these problems. I took the trouble to try to look at the root cause of many of the accidents that i dealt with. Many had the factors listed above incorporated in the causal factors. Tyre age was a common one.
So too was overtaking or excessive speed down hill, poorly and unevenly inflated tyres, Poorly and over loaded vans. Mis matched cars & caravans.
The towing of caravans is a bit like marriage, not to be entered into wantonly, carelessly and without a great deal of thought. If planned properly the marriage can last a long time, and be very fruitful.
Ive been married 48 years now, and caravanned for 40 of them! Trying to make 50 of the former!
TF
TF
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Ditto
Totally agree with all the above. IMHO, the fines should be much, much heavier too. Surely towing a caravan without extendable mirrors, or without a breakaway cable is driving without due care and attention?
We've all seen family saloons driving in the opposite direction on the M6 towing a twin-axle with the rear end of the car virtually touching the tarmac. It's nearly as stupid as using a mobile phone whilst driving.
Hopefully the Police and VOSA will step up their efforts this year in a more coordinated and widespread policy to rid the roads of the idiots. Those who do take the trouble to be legal and safe will then, hopefully, not have to endure 7 or 8 hour tailbacks, caused by the aforementioned.
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're break-away cables. The term used was missing or incorrectly fitted cable ...... we have various opinions on the gorum of how it should or shouldn't be fitted.
And 5 plus year old tyres can only be advisory.
And the rules 're thev3.5 tonne limit for newer drivers could be clearer otherwise people wouldn't be asking about 'towing licences' when there's no such thing.
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Oh !! You should see some of the decrepid trailers that arrive at the boatyard ,with boats on them !! !! Breakaway cables ?? some hope !! Brakes ?? some hope !! lighting boards ?? ?? ?? 
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Tyers are an interesting topic.
How many owners be it Car, Caravan, Motorhome etc understand about date codes and know how to read them. I would suggest a very small percentage.
I would also suggest that most drivers, when they have new tyres fitted, just pay the bill and assume what they have paid for are new as in recently manufactured, with cars it's probably the case but in the case of caravan tyres that are not really high volume fast moving parts. For instance, lets say a major caravan service centre buy's in a stock of popular sizes and the more they buy the bigger the discount they get so make more markup on them. They may have had them in stock for 18 months before they are fitted to your caravan and they may have already been a year old when the caravan dealer bought them from their supplier.
Food for thought
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Unlikely I think.
Not official yet, but will be announced after the general election and implemented in may 2018.
Cars built before 1977 will be exempted for the MOT test, at the moment it only applies to pre 1960 .
There is also talk of new cars being extended to 4 years for the first test.
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But when fitted to a car, tyres will likely be worn out before you need to think about how old it is. A tyre sat around at Michelin/Pirelli etc will have been stored correctly, and the date fitted will have as much significance as the date manufactured.
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Plod and VOSA are to be commended for the excersie, but I wonder how many caravaning 'idiots' are to be blamed for scattering their caravan across 3 lanes of a motorway. Last time out with the caravan we were very nearly taken out by a Mercedes Sprinter van driver trying to retrieve sonething from his passenger foot well. Trouble was, as he leaned over, he turned the steering wheel too. He came within a couple of feet of us despite me brakihg hard & swerving. It pays sometimes to have a large 4x4 as a tow car.
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I fully agree, but my post was more aimed at caravans and awareness by caravan owners
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Five vehicles towing caravans or trailers were found to have no extendable mirrors fitted and were fine £50.
As far as I am a ware this in itself is not illegal, the requirement is to be able to see down the side of the trailer in a set area.
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- And you've never had a cretin that squeezes in front of you on the motorway rather than tuck in behind or pull out of a side road at the last second causing you to brake harder than expected or force their way onto a motorway, just because they have to be in front of the caravan?
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Happened to me on M25 last year with some presumably blind richardhead in a white Leon FR, just a mile or so after passing an overturned caravan in the middle/outer lane. That outfit looked like a sensibly set up van and car driven by a mature couple, no idea how it had happened but at the time we crawled past the police still hadn't arrived. I am seriously considering getting a dash-camera..... I got pulled over 3 years ago on our way to Dover. The 13 pin plug had worked ever so slightly lose such we had no tail lights on the van. A car driver had seen we were not showing brake or indicators so called the police who chased after us and flagged us down. They were very friendly, helpful and realised it was a genuine error. We sorted out the connection and we were on our way, no fine or caution.
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Or in "Yachtie " speak ,,,,collision avoidance !!1 -
True. But a wobbly box on the back of a tow car might affect your chances of avoiding them.
Reading between your lines suggest that the problems might lie with me. Reading the road doesn't stop a HGV pulling out onto a roundabout that I'm already on, neither did it stop the f***wit in the Sprinter van above, or a prat that pulled left into my lane at great speed because she was leaving the motorway a few yards ahead.
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As long as we all remember to treat every other road user as an imbecile, hopefully we'll all reach our pitches safely and enjoy the delights of our 'towed boxes!'
As a footnote, does anyone else play the 'how many caravans will we see on this journey?'
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As JVB66 suggested "Defensive Driving" is what I was taught from a very early age. I passed my test in 1962, and since then have driven in very many different Countries, for over 1.3 million miles. I became a Police class 1 driver in 1974.
Since that time I have had no accidents, or suffered any convictions or offences. I believe implacably that the most important skill of all drivers is what I call "Situational awareness" - the ability to sense what is happening about you, and what other drivers are doing.
I am 72 now, still doing about 12k per year, towing about 3k. But I sense that my skills are starting to decay, and in about 2 years time I suspect that will surrender the license that I am so proud of. I promised myself that when I surrender it, it will be as clean as the day I received it, And I will not risk that position.
TF
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"I am 72 now, still doing about 12k per year, towing about 3k. But I sense that my skills are starting to decay, and in about 2 years time I suspect that will surrender the license."
That seems a bit harsh on yourself TF. Could you not just get yourself booked in with someone like the Advanced Drivers people and sit an assessment. ?
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Happens to me all the time and I'm not towing ,I drive a camper which is only small but I use it as my everyday car ,so when folk see it it's like a red flag to them I get overtaken undertaken ,had some idiot in a pick up truck on my right in the middle lane on the M62 ,when suddenly he pulled in front of me and went off to my left ,outside my house even thought it's a built up area is 40 MPH I am always getting overtaken It's like ohh it's a camper van must get past it it's going slow ,I do not drive slow just at the correct speed on whichever road I am on that the time !!!!
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TF I am 3yrs older than you and do about 9000 miles a year Buses and Trains do the rest,is it your back that makes you want to give up?i tend to need to move arround more when driving but much less than when we had motor caravans with their much firmer ride
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Not sure about the in correctly fitted breakaway cable point as there was an earlier thread where the governments own inspectors got it wrong so exactly what they regarded as correct may need to be clarified.
As for the rest then these are clear breaches of the legal requirements and those caught deserve all they got.
I do wonder how targeted they were or if this was a random stop. I have interviewed police many times in connection with accidents and what was clear that the more common stops of commercial vehicles was they were generally not random but targeted. They were looking for older lorries, those that looked to be in poorer condition or overloaded or operators with a record of problems so any statistics people tried to get from them would not be accurate. If the police were looking for problem outfits they might have increased the yield that way.
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Milo. Perhaps I should have said, that I have been an IAM member for nearly 20 Years!
To answer those who question why I said I might hand my license in in a couple of years, It is merely that I have seen far too many drivers go on for far too long. I never want to be in the position whereby someone suggests to me that its time to give up. So I suppose that what I really meant was, that as soon as I detect a lessening of my skills to any real extent, I will not risk spoiling my record.
To JVB, no its not my back. Driving is actually the most pain free activity that I retain.
TF
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It certainly is............
See my post on page 2.........
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) just yet.