A breakdown or a road traffic accident requires specific interventions that must be subject to a set of rules. The aim is to keep everyone involved safe.
The Spanish Road Safety Strategy 2011-2020 included the Roadside Assistance Protocol of the Dirección General de Tráfico (DGT), presented in 2015. This protocol must be followed to the letter by roadside assistance operators, by the traffic police and by road users themselves. If there is one key word in this matter, it is safety. Between 2013 and 2014, at least 20 operators in the sector died while assisting travellers. Too many deaths for a sector that brings together 1,500 companies and more than 11,000 vehicles, according to DGT sources.
It was in 2000 that the GT-42 'Roadside Assistance Tow Trucks' working group was set up – within the Higher Traffic Council – to drive forward a protocol whose purpose was, and still is, to establish the right safety conditions so that each operator can act and work while avoiding risks as far as possible.
There are a number of tips and good practices that are key to ensuring that any intervention on the road – of whatever kind – is successful, and that every person involved takes on minimal risk: tow truck service, traffic officers, drivers, passengers.
Good practices
The work of roadside assistance companies is crucial and involves a level of danger that depends on each scenario. Whether the professionals are dealing with a light or heavy vehicle, a two-wheeler or a lorry; whether we are talking about conventional roads, whether or not there is a hard shoulder; whether the vehicle has stopped in the right-hand, left-hand or centre lane, if it is on a dual carriageway or motorway...
In any case, some of the good practices highlighted by the Protocol (which can be consulted in full here) are:
- Carry out a rigorous risk assessment.
- Signal the manoeuvre properly and in advance to other road users.
- Leave the vehicle on the side away from the flow of traffic.
- Remember that safety comes first for everyone.