Thread: Helping other motorists in trouble

Well done craig but we already knew you were of good character...now been elevated to great....

'Onya Craig. Good to hear of all you other AULRO members who do the same thing.

Have done the same thng a couple of times driving into Arnhem Land and towed a Pommie couple into the Barkley Homestead a few years back when their Bitsmissin died heading toward Camooweal.

Thankfully Derek (dm_td5) was 4km north of Erldunda not 100km south when his happened too.

Originally Posted by Stuuu

'Onya Craig. Good to hear of all you other AULRO members who do the same thing.

Have done the same thng a couple of times driving into Arnhem Land and towed a Pommie couple into the Barkley Homestead a few years back when their Bitsmissin died heading toward Camooweal.

Thankfully Derek (dm_td5) was 4km north of Erldunda not 100km south when his happened too.

Good for you Craig.
Like you Stuuu, we have stopped many times to help and hope others would do the same for us. Last year just out of Bullman we came across a couple who had driven their COMMODORE out of Gove, heading for Darwin. They'd hit a rock and put a hole in the sump the day before (surprised they got as far as they did!). They had managed to get a message to a recovery mob in Katherine and were waiting for the truck. They had no supplies and the blokes partner was very stressed out. We gave her a lift to the Mainoru Roadhouse as she was hanging out for a coffee.
Don't know how much the recovery would have cost. Probably would have been cheaper to fly to Darwin. He was a local too.

Originally Posted by BBC

........

The CO asked me what had happened to me on the way home yesterday. I related that I had went to the assistance of an elderly gentleman in the main street of Wodonga. The older policeman chipped in and said, "and CAPT, you saved his life, thanks". They had tracked me down because I was in uniform; nametag on my shirt.

............

Great story BBC, well done. I have done the St John course etc but dont know if I could actually do it in a real situation, hope I never have to find out....

I stopped to offer assistance to a car on the unsealed road between the Daintree and Cape Tribulation (unsealed back in '93 and not the thoroughfare it is now), they were ok, had just ran out of fuel and help was on the way. There were three blokes and one of them tried to steal the beer out of my car, the other two pulled him off, he then threw rocks at me as I drove off. They all missed (I was swerving like a lunatic) but would have smashed the windows if they'd hit.

I would always want to help but you do take a chance if you pull over to help, you are walking blind into an unknown situation. In daylight on a busy road its not so bad, but at night, quiet road and if I had my family in the car and the car in difficulty was not in some obvious accident, I would have to assess the situation carefully first and maybe pull over at a safe distance and call to them first or phone for help. It not quite so simple

The timing on this post is good. Had a bloke knock on my door two days ago. He was a tradie working in someones backyard half a street away. He asked for help as he had flattened his battery and couldn't get home.

Went down this muddy alley and found him and his car at the end of it. He had no jump leads and mine were at the holiday house. I whipped the battery out of the Disco and he tried to remove his battery. For some reason it wouldn't come out. As mine was replaced recently it was a newer sealed battery and I managed to attach the battery leads and simply hold them on while he started his Ford ute. I then put his leads back on and got him to tighten them up while I refitted my battery. Reset the clock and switched the alarm back on and I was cooking with gas in 5 minutes or so.

Young bloke was very grateful, funny thing was he was amazed you could disconnect the battery once his car had started. This amused me somewhat as this tradie was a sparkie !

Good onya Craig, well done mate. The world would be a better place if we had more people who thought like you in it.

As for you BBC you are a regular hero buddy !! Good for you.

Regards

Martin

There's always the danger of causing some damage when trying to help someone out, and then instead of gratitude, the person that you've tried to help seeks damages from you.


Of course, I'm not talking about life & death situations here, e.g. someone on the ground, but referring to 4x4'ing situations where someone is stuck or rolled over and you happen to come past them.

If they are 100% lucid and just in a jam, I'll only be happy to help if they sign a piece of paper to say that they won't sue me if something goes wrong. This is not a substitute to taking all the safety precautions but instead it just covers me if something does go wrong, e.g. I winch them out and the their only recovery point gets really bent because of it.

I would tend to help elderly people first and not worry about being sued. I guess a few words exchanged and I'll work out quickly whether the person is going to be grateful or an ingrate.

It's the world we live in. Good samaritans can get trampled on for helping out.

When I was learning to ride a motorcycle I found that everytime I was stopped by the road the first biker to come past would stop and make sure I was okay.


We were driving between Conondale & Kenilworth when two kids (approx 12 & 8) standing next to a tractor in their driveway desperately waved us down. The horror on their faces was disturbing and I expected to find someone under the tractor. Turned out that they had taken the tractor for a joy ride while Mum and Dad were out and couldn't get it restarted to return it to the shed. They said if I couldn't fix it then their Dad would kill them. I didn't touch it as I figured all I could do was make it worse. Wished them luck, went on my way and still chuckle every time I drive past their driveway.

Unfortunately these days it can be a tough call, I think one has to assess the situation, though would say could be different on a country road as opposed to a city road. Having said that, we were travelling one night down one of the country roads out near Beaudesert and came along a station wagon that had run off the road. Two guys were waving us down, my first instinct was to keep going as I had my partner and 2 children in the car and it was pretty much a deserted road, plus they looked pretty "lairy". ANyway wound down the window a smidge and asked what happened. Long story short, both had been drinking, and missed the bridge . They wanted to see if I could drag them out...with an extension chord........of course this snapped in 2 seconds. I rang RACQ for them and told them to wait as ultimately it was their fault they were in this predicament.

I have stopped when I am on my own in the car if it is night time, if my children are in the car it can be a different story....dependant on the area you are driving in,

Regards

Stevo