Interesting story on the challenge of a remote accident

[jazzeddie1234]

Found this on youtube

A reminder of how remote some towns are and when easy insurance jobs are very difficult when far from a major centre

 

[Drover]

That was one of the many reports I came across recently when I had to get insurance for the Jeeperific and Big Mal as QBE dropped van insurance, went back to the old mob may be a bit more exxie but at least never been stuffed around ........... He's certainly right West of the divide is another world and foreign call centres can't fathom the distances ..

 

[Hitting the road]

Having spent much of my working life as an Insurance Broker...I've heard too many similar sad tales! I really feel for the fellow and his wife going through what they did...
My advice though always was..."Do not ever buy Insurance based on Price!" Yet...majority of people do...then unfortunately many also might find out after a claim why the premium was cheaper than everybody else's...little or no service, or in worst scenario, total or partial claim refusal.

In the past I always recommended going through a Broker as well...especially as the majority of people do not read the PDS supplied by the Insurer regarding Terms and Conditions applying to the Policy. ..I still stand by that.
Many insurers, such as the insurer mentioned in the video, do not deal with Brokers, only direct with the Consumer, either imo too tight to pay the average 10% commission to the Broker...or...just not prepared to deal with an angry Broker on the phone chasing compensation for their client; I might add, the premium given to the Broker is generally the same as that quoted to the private individual. A good Broker will as a rule only add a $50 Broking fee to small individual policies...CIL by the way will deal direct with consumers as well as through Brokers, I had no issues with CIL over the years.

 

[DRW]

Having spent much of my working life as an Insurance Broker...I've heard too many similar sad tales! I really feel for the fellow and his wife going through what they did...
My advice though always was..."Do not ever buy Insurance based on Price!" Yet...majority of people do...then unfortunately many also might find out after a claim why the premium was cheaper than everybody else's...little or no service, or in worst scenario, total or partial claim refusal.

In the past I always recommended going through a Broker as well...especially as the majority of people do not read the PDS supplied by the Insurer regarding Terms and Conditions applying to the Policy. ..I still stand by that.
Many insurers, such as the insurer mentioned in the video, do not deal with Brokers, only direct with the Consumer, either imo too tight to pay the average 10% commission to the Broker...or...just not prepared to deal with an angry Broker on the phone chasing compensation for their client; I might add, the premium given to the Broker is generally the same as that quoted to the private individual. A good Broker will as a rule only add a $50 Broking fee to small individual policies...CIL by the way will deal direct with consumers as well as through Brokers, I had no issues with CIL over the years.

I received a quote that was $800 cheaper i procrastinated for a week then just paid my $1888 to my usual providers i was short on dollars after spending heaps on the van recently but with two big trips looming I wanted to be covered with a well known company NRMA

 

[Drover]

Yep, @DRW did the same , saw a couple under a grand it was tempting but old habits die hard, like my old man would say, break down your want someone who puts it on the truck then lets you know when its all fixed with minimum chasing up................. went with back to RACQ again, when you are out to buggery and tow truck needed you don't care about those extra dollars just get it sorted .................. If they get written off I will never get enough to get decent replacements though as they won't cover them for that much....lol,lol..... but I could buy a bigger boat.

 

[jazzeddie1234]

The other part of the story is interesting too. That he hit a dip in the road or something and couldn't recover the sway. That suggests an out of balance caravan...

 

[Drover]

The other part of the story is interesting too. That he hit a dip in the road or something and couldn't recover the sway. That suggests an out of balance caravan...

Might be, but a sharp dip, road kill bump or even a big hole will move the centre of balance so fast that a perfectly balance set up will suddenly turn to hell and if a spring or shock is lazy, tyre wrong pressure then the dynamics of gravity will play havoc as the suspension looses harmony and reverberates ............ the tow ball weight can be magic and a big dip can double it something loaded over the tag plate isn't on its own dangerous its the other things like poor suspension, bad tyre choice eg; muddies or mismatched pressures and a dip can combine them all to turn into hell and it happens so quickly most loose control, in fact if you don't react by instinct by the time you realize whats happening its too late as its all over and done ................................................... like the test tags on power leads, weigh tickets are only good for a short while and on the flat once your moving the whole thing changes as nature takes over ............

A tourist heading to Rainbow a few years back hit a dead roo and ended up as match sticks in the table drain, it wasn't a pretty sight at all, stayed hooked up, amazing.

 

[Hitting the road]

Heading back up the Bruce yesterday from Bris around 2.30pm...just short of the Nambour turn off to the left the traffic came to a screeching halt! Started crawling along stop start so turned on the UHF to listen for a heads up on what was going on further up.
A caravanner heading South had apparently lost control about a K in front of where we were, rolled the car, but the van had stayed upright it seems. The tug was upside down in a gully beside the road. Two Ambo's squeezed on to the Highway just in front of us from the Nambour exit.
We were about 500 metres just behind a crest and couldn't see the drama, when Claytons Towing said over the UHF they were closing the Highway for 15 minutes or so to pull the van on to a tilt tray.

Road opened about 15 minutes later and we crawled on...came up to the incident...there was a very sorry looking dual cab ute now on it's wheels off the left side of the road, looked like a late model Hilux, and had a canopy on the back. The tail gate was open and the back was chockers with stuff which was falling out.
The van had some damage to the front, it looked like an older fibreglass van...dual axle not an offroad type....

A couple of truckers commented on the UHF..."how did he do that?" My take is, he was heading South, down a bit of a grade at that spot and obviously lost control somehow...the van & tug had passed sideways through one of those openings between the opposing lanes and the tug had gone off the road on the North bound side and rolled, while the van stayed upright. As was commented...so damned lucky they didn't collect and car or two, or worse still and laden B Double coming the other way as they slid over the road!

Felt really sorry for them, their Holiday just turned to sh1t. No idea if the occupants were hurt as about 20 minutes had passed since the Ambo's got there and when we got there they were both gone...maybe a good thing for if there were nasty injuries they would have likely been still there tending to the occupants.

Just got to be so careful out there...I worry more about being hit by some one else out of control than things going wrong from my side! It has got to the stage nearly every day the Bruce Highway is closed somewhere due to an accident...

 

[Drover]

What is it about that area, so many seem to come to grief .................................................................. I'm the same its the other buggas that worry me, I try to keep clear of everyone .................................

Story time. ............................... One day as we rolled down a hill a van way up front near the bottom of the slope got the wobbles up, I hit my van brakes in prep for some fancy maneuvers, luckily this fella knew what he was doing as I saw his van brake lights come on but the smoke from the old Cruisers exhaust showed he was pouring on power, he held it together till he hit the uphill bit and could pull it out, it all happened in under a minute, its scary, I imagine he was just as happy as I was ................ luckily he could use all the road while he hung on if there was oncoming might be a different outcome ......

 

[Hitting the road]

Unfortunately majority of people instinctively brake should their van gets the wobbles...and the result of course is...

 

[DRW]

I traveled the Bruce highway to Brisbane and back every day from the coast for around 17 years, there are a couple of places 1 coming towards the Nambour turn off south bound and one heading south around Forrest Glen were the roads camber or something gives the van a wobble there is a spot on the hi-way south of Gympie as well???? Didn’t affect me a few days ago may have been resurfaced since but I can clearly remember them and I’ve seen lots of vans come to grief there over the years. Anyway we made it to Maclean safely in about 6 hours from Bundy meandering our way to Sydney then broken hill then port Lincoln and home via who knows lol hopefully we don’t come across any dramas along the way!!

 

[Drover]

I used to dread having a trip to Hervey Bay and running up from Brisbane, shocking bit of road and that was in 90's and 00's and when I had to drag the semi to Townsville I ran inland, now the trip from Gympie is a lovely run, in fact all the way to Sydney and beyond basically freeway, doesn't entice me though I'll stay on the western side of the Divide............. Have a good run fella paddles and sunscreen the go I think.