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November/December Issue 59 - Flipbook - Page 20

NEWS
RECOVERY OF THE MONTH
A1 Recovery
20
Road Traffic Collision
in Langstone Harbour
- Engine flooded and
dipped headlamps
Some requests from a work
provider are interesting but
most are mundane run of the
mill accidents.
We received a job via RMS
with a good location postcode
and a cross reference outside
gates to an angling club. We
were unable to locate or get
the contact number to answer
and after a while you think
there is no debris so widen
the search area, but no trace.
Sometime later we get the
call from the work provider
asking “Where are you? The
customer is waiting outside
those gates” so upon arrival
the owner of the vehicle is
unlocking the gates which are
only just wide enough to get a
slide bed through.
Off we travel down a bumpy
track and discover many
fishing boats in a small inlet
beside a regularly used sand
and gravel wharf. At the far
end is a very narrow slipway
perched at an angle to the
wharf with a transit van sat at
the bottom of the slipway. Our
slide bed would not even get
onto the slipway fully to carry
out the winching and the tide
was coming in, so we made
sure the coastguard agency
knew the van was in the sea
with no people inside and
went home.
perched up on the rocky sea
defences at a weird angle. At
the bottom of the slipway is a
narrow weir built out of what
appeared as double stacked
concrete 45-gallon oil drums
that at low tide separate the
river from the sea but were
covered in mud.
At the edge of the weir the mud
was about 5 feet deep and
strewn with large boulders.
A team of two with a safety
line and pull string negotiated
the mud and climbed over
the sea defences until they
reached the van and pulled
across a securing rope to tie
to the van’s towbar, then up to
a lashing ring on the sea wall
because the tide was rushing
in and may have taken the
van further out to sea.
accident unit and a pickup
load of plastic swamp mats. All
the swamp mats had securing
rope to enable retrieval and
we started laying the carpet
of mats to winch down the
4x4. Then, the baby under lift
with our accident unit jammed
across the top corner of the
slip way - so with our 4x4
perched on the weir we used
it to winch boulders out of the
way to lay our mats flat on the
mud until we got close to the
van.
The twin winches were used
at height to lift the front of the
van and a cable from the 4x4
to add some steerage and
control. The one bonus is the
first mat got jammed in front
of the Transit’s rear wheels
and promptly pushed the rest
Now, mud on our coastline of the mats in front and up
looks fine until you break over the weir.
through the skin with your
boot - then the smell is like Then the Underlit transit and
a toilet! It also wants to claim 4x4 were winched back up
your wellies, so slow cautious the muddy slip way, and with
steps and controlled breathing some help from the incoming
are the order of the day.
tide, the mats were washed
by the sea whilst loading.
One hour before the next low
tide we were assembled with After just over 2 hours of nona 4x4, a baby under lift with stop work, now the cleaning
twin winches and a 3-axle starts.
Beleaguered
recovery
operators know only too
well that when called out to
an RTC on a carriageway
we are always harassed
by Highways England and
quizzed by perplexed Police
officers asking the same
question: “When will you be
done?”
Well, operators on our
coastlines have a much more
powerful boss to answer to
- the tide - so we planned to
attend at the next low tide and
carry out a site survey. The van
had then been swept out by
the tide and was further away,
Low Tide