At 08:00 on the 1st February we recieved an emergancy call from our friends at JD Motors for a HGV vehicle that had rolled onto its side, the location was the Coxbridge roundabout on the A31 at Farnham.

Not knowing what we were faced with initially, our incident support manager made his way to the scene to asses what was needed, once onscene it quickly became aparent that the incident was casing chaos due to rush hour traffic and the luxury of time was not something we had. Another problem we had to resolve was the load of approx 26ton of sand that had been spilt across the roundabout. This had to be removed first to aid the recovery and the opening of the road.

Above is a picture showing casualty after the majority of the load of sand had been removed.

Our friends at Axtell Plant of Wormley Surrey responded to our calls for assistance and arrived to clear the majority of the load at 08:20 using their specialist grab lorries, whilst waiting for them to arrive calls to our control centre were made by the incident support manager to give a situation report and what vehicles were required to clear the incident, these were our Volvo FM Rotating Crane, our Volvo FM heavy recovery vehicle and our own spill management team (including bob cat for moving the remaining spilled load). JD Motors supplied their air cushion recovery team who utilised their high pressure bags to allow us to quickly strop the trailer and their low pressure bag on the tractor unit to assist in the righting of the whole combination. The majority of the spill clean up had been done by 09:15 aiding us to start with recovering the vehicle.

The two recovery vehicles working together aided us to right the vehicle by 10:30 and have the road fully open by 11:00, whilst the recovery was in progress our spill team cleared up the approx 1.5ton of sand left. The roundabout was left running for the vast majority of the incident, only being closed for about ten minutes during the righting process, then the inside lane flowing again whilst the casualty vehicle was prepped for removal.

A man was trapped for almost half-an-hour when strong winds blew a tree on top of his car on Thursday morning.

The 25-year-old was in his Ford Escort at the junction of Boxgrove Avenue and London Road, in Guildford, when the tree came crashing down at about 10.40am.

Emergency services, including an air ambulance, were sent to the scene, and a member of the public also helped with the rescue efforts.

Crew manager Steven Redditch, from Surrey Fire and Rescue Service, said: “Luckily, there was a passer-by with a chainsaw who was opposite the incident and helped the fire brigade cut down the tree.

“It slammed the roof on top of him [the driver]. Once we had cut down the tree, we cut the roof off and brought him out on a backboard.”

Mr Redditch said the rescue operation at the scene took 27 minutes.

A police spokesperson said the man was conscious throughout, and was then taken to the Royal Surrey County Hospital where his injuries were not thought to be serious.

First printed in: Surrey Advertiser Online

October 2007 saw the arrival of our latest investment in the heavy and serious accident side of our business. Replacing an older vehicle after 10 years in service this latest accident unit really is the most cutting edge in technology when it comes to accident recovery.

It is fitted with a Fassi 23 metre tonne crane, it is the largest capacity accident unit crane in Surrey and North East Hampshire giving it unrivalled ability at the scene of an accident. The slidebed has a capacity of 12 tonnes, meaning it can carry larger commercial vehicles and tractors on the bed. It also has a folding tailgate for extra length when carrying up to two vehicles on its flat bed.

Lastly it has a medium duty underlift capable of towing a laden 7.5 tonne lorry, allowing it to be used in a number of applications for both light and heavy recovery. The pictures below show its incredible ability when it came to lifting some vehicles out of a lake for environmental purposes:

August 2007 has seen the delivery of our new company flagship, a brand new Volvo FM 8 wheeled chassis fitted (supplied by our friends from Volvo Truck and Bus Basingstoke) with the latest in heavy recovery equipment, a Roger Dyson NRC 5065 Sliding Rotating Crane.

The vehicle was delivered at this years European Towshow with the custom number plate XO07 TOW which reads, 007 TOW. Managing Director Mark McAllister is seen in the following promotional video in a custom made tuxedo “Licensed to Tow”.

The vehicle is designed to be able to recover any commercial vehicle on the UK road’s and its rotating boom allows it to quickly and efficiently clear up an major incident involving a LGV and get the roads flowing again.

Watch this space to see the vehicle in action in our “Big Job’s” section of the website showing what this truly superb vehicle is capable of.

Have you ever accidentally put the wrong fuel in your vehicle?

On average 120,000 a year put the wrong fuel in their car according to the AA’s website so you are not alone if you, but what do you do?

Traditionally what happens is that you and your vehicle are recovered to a local recovery operator where your car or van is put on the ramps and the contaminated fuel is then drained out. You are charged for this service as it isn’t covered as a “normal” breakdown as it was caused by your error at the pumps. It can take an hour for the recovery truck to reach you then from there to the garage can be up to another hour, plus maybe two or three more whilst the fuel is drained out.

Surely there must be a quicker, cheaper way?

Yes - there is and it comes in the form of our new mobile fuel evacuation van.

We will come straight to you at the petrol forecourt or wherever your vehicle has ended up tow you to a place of safety where the contaminated fuel will be safely drained out using our state of the art equipment.

On average we will have you back on the road inside of an hour of arriving with you, then its simply a case of refueling and off you go, its that simple!

So keep our number in your phone and if it ever happens to you, day or night, 7 days a week just call us to come and rectify the problem on 0800 330 999 .

March 2007 has seen the delivery of one our new medium duty underlift vehicles. Designed to cater from a panel van to an 18 tonne vehicle, this vehicle is a true all rounder. It is fitted with the latest NRC crane on a 4 wheel chassis, which means that whilst great in the lift and tow role its also ideally placed when winching out commercial vehicles in tight spots.

January 2007 has seen the arrival of a pair of brand new Isuzu low sliders. These vehicles have been designed to be good all rounders with roadside assistance equipment fitted to allow them to not only recovery any vehicle with a payload of 2.9 tonnes but also render roadside assistance first.

The slidebeds mean that we now have 3 vehicles on the fleet with slidebeds with 5 degree loading angles, meaning the lowest of low vehicles are never a problem.

One is in our traditional company livery and the other is in the new Road Haulage Association Rescue and Recovery Group livery:

Due to the success of the low sliders in the business we have this month added another low slider on a 10 tonne Iveco chassis. Fitted with a crewcab the vehicle is designed to carry up to 6 passengers plus a load of up to 3.5 tonnes.

This means the vehicle is more than capable of handling nearly all light recovery tasks including very low heavy sports cars such as Lamborghini’s and Bentley’s.

November 2006 has seen us take delivery of one our latest investments in the commercial recovery side of our business.

The Belgian designed Trax Trailer was supplied through our friends at Boniface Engineering and has a payload on recovery duties of up to 50 tonnes. This allows us to move fully freighted commercial vehicles including tippers and articulated vehicles to a place of safety quickly and efficiently and get the traffic moving again.

The ingenious design allows the axles to be drawn up under the trailer on a hydraulic carriage, which in turn allows the bed of the trailer to be tilted, the tail gate folded down and a casualty can be loaded onto the back of the bed of the trailer.

Here you see the true versatility of the trailer in action with an articulated vehicle involved on an incident in the live lanes of the M25:

October has seen delivery of the latest generation of slidebed technology at McAllisters Recovery. We have just taken delivery of a Mercedes 815 supplied by our friends at Rossets Commercial Vehicles fitted with brand new “low slide” body which provides us with the lowest loading angle available at just 5 degrees!

 This vehicle is intended for prestige vehicle recovery and can be seen here at work recovering a top of the range Ferrari for one of our clients, damage free everytime! The wheel covers being used are standard on all our vehicles to ensure the condition of the vehicle is maintained from start to finish.