Safety on caravan sites - an example from the Caravan Club magazine, November 2006

For many years, the Caravan Club and many of its members have resisted calls for compulsory MoT-style testing of caravans. There are two central arguments - serious caravan accidents are few and far between (simply because there are not many caravans on the road) and many older caravans especially are a menace on the roads because of their appalling mechanical condition. Examples without a working handbrake are seen regularly at folk festivals.

However, the most important safety problem remains owners and drivers who know little or nothing about towing or potential hazards. This mirrors the position with ordinary cars - MoT tests in the UK are absurdly stringent on some minor aspects of safety (especially small areas of corrosion). This remains in effect a 'cash cow' for garages who can charge hundreds of pounds for poor quality welding that adds little or nothing to vehicle strength. The variation in standards applied in MoT tests is little short of a scandal - an issue to be covered elsewhere when I have time. Yet successive governments have failed to begin to deal with idiotic drivers who are a primary cause of serious accidents.

Caravan dealers charge £50 to £100 per hour for routine work - and no doubt they look forward to the days of compulsory testing in the UK, as has been the position in some European countries for many years. One consequence would be a large reduction of old caravans at folk festivals - and maybe some reduction in the total number of attendees.  

Whilst the mechanical condition of vehicles and caravans is therefore a minor cause of accidents either on the road or on caravan sites, some folk festival sites (especially Sidmouth) remain an especial risk because old caravans in poor condition and with inept people in charge continue to be parked above rows of tents. This has been an accident waiting to happen for years.

On a positive note, the UK government suggested in mid 2006 that MoT tests for cars should perhaps be undertaken at two-year intervals instead of annually - but wait for the even more absurd requirements for old vehicles to try and ensure that more of them are scrapped. Tests for caravans could be every two or three years. Strangely, motorhomes are subjected to a car-type (group 4) test instead of the more stringent group 7 test that applies to the Light Commercial Vehicles on which they are based. The ways of bureaucrats are strange indeed.

The photos shown below are all from 2006 and have been added to this page to enhance reader experience. (Not everyone spends their quality time in car scrap-yards!).

The rusty underside of a G reg (c. 1990) Ford Fiesta that had been subjected to some appalling 'garage welding' is typical of cars that should (on safety grounds) have been scrapped long ago. The strength of crumple zones in modern cars is illustrated in the other two photographs - a full frontal impact of an MR2 with a tree or lamp-post (amazingly the headlights are still in perfect condition) and a Corsa that is a little shorter than when it left the factory.