Dr Kev. - Kam Servicing Network.

Hello Again!

It’s a miracle! As I’m sitting here writing this I can see – are you sitting down – a fragment of blue sky and an actual, real, bona fide sunbeam! (No, I’m not talking about the motor car…) After weeks of rain, flooding, freezing conditions and arctic winds, the sight of sunshine reminds me that the shortest day is past and summer is nearly here! Of course, now I’ve said that, the rain clouds have rolled back in and I’ve probably cursed the Midlands to another six months of terrible weather. Sorry.

It was a very good job that we were open over New Year as there were many people who called us out for emergency rescues. As many of you will know, the area around our Sawley depot is prone to flooding, and this year was no different. In total, we pulled five cars out of the lake that formed up by the motorway – all of which then needed our attention. Three of them couldn’t be saved, they were old anyway but the water had been drawn up into the engine and really played havoc. The other two – an Escort van and a Ford Fiesta, are currently sitting in the workshop awaiting the insurance assessor.

There was another car stranded over the New Year period, but one that we couldn’t recover ourselves. The new shaped Ford Scorpio had been driven in to a puddle even deeper than most of the others and had stalled. The owner (who shall remain nameless!) then tried to restart the engine, but of course it wouldn’t play. That’s bad enough in itself, but just at that moment, the heavens opened once again and the nearby field, already full to the brim, overflowed. By the time the Kam Rescue Truck got there, the water was too high even for us to get through. We couldn’t leave the car there – the water would soon get into the cabin, but we couldn’t actually risk our truck getting stranded too. There was only one thing for it.

“Pete, it’s Kev.” Pete (name changed to protect his anonymity), is an old friend of mine and owns a recovery business. But this isn’t your usual recovery company – if the vehicle is less than 2.5-tonnes Pete doesn’t touch it! Since his speciality lies with large trucks, you can be sure that Pete’s recovery rig was a big one – just what we needed to get through the rising waters!

Once Pete arrived with his biggest truck, we drew straws to see who would be the lucky one to go out to the car and attach the winch hook. Under normal circumstances, this wouldn’t be too bad – but don’t forget the deep freezing waters! And guess who drew the short straw… Yes, yours truly. The boys in our truck gave me a reassuring thumbs up as Pete’s vehicle struggled its way through the flood – very encouraging of them…

Still, once you’d been immersed in the water for thirty seconds, you don’t feel the cold so much. It wasn’t easy finding a suitable location to attach the hook to, but I got there in the end and very slowly, the soggy Scorpio mounted the lorry. Once it was clear of the waters, we loaded it onto our truck, thanked Pete and headed back to the workshop, my teeth chattering all the way.

Once I was back in dry clothes, it was time to inspect how much damage had been wrought. The news wasn’t good. Not only had the engine ingested a quantity of water, but it had also suffered quite a bit of electrical damage. This wasn’t going to be a cheap job – so we called the owner and waited for the insurance assessor.

In fact, as I speak, all three vehicles are sitting there with their heads off waiting for the man with the clipboard. And, naturally, when we removed the heads, we found more problems – namely bent conrods. Thankfully each owner had their car insured fully comprehensively so they won't lose everything – but it is still going to take their no claims bonus away! And the ironic thing is that each of them got stuck on a road which had the “Danger – Flood” signs put up!

The moral of that story is that you shouldn’t try to be a hero and drive on (or through) water – it could cost you a lot of money…

One last thing before I sign off: all of our courtesy cars have been working flat out over the last few days and our four sodden motorists have all got one. So we are running a little low at the moment – but you know who to blame, don’t you?

Until next week,

Dr Kev Allen.