AT THE HEART OF THE ROAD TRANSPORT INDUSTRY.

Call our Sales Team on 0208 912 2120

• Haulier Jock Carstairs used to regard British embassies as little pieces of England, ready to help at any time".

30th May 1991, Page 48
30th May 1991
Page 48
Page 49
Page 48, 30th May 1991 — • Haulier Jock Carstairs used to regard British embassies as little pieces of England, ready to help at any time".
Close
Noticed an error?
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.

Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

Keywords : Carstairs

Now he is disgusted by the service he claims he found available to British lorry drivers when they run into trouble abroad.

Carstairs changed his mind about embassies during a trip to Spain. His firm, Devon Refrigerated Transport, had been hired to deliver food products to Gibraltar. Due to the length of the trip Carstairs took driver Richard Kirsop along to split the work, On Thursday 14 March Carstairs was at the wheel, negotiating a mountainous road about 851m out of Madrid. He had just started his descent down a steep one-in-seven slope when the truck he was following suddenly braked: "I automatically braked too, but I felt the steering come away from me," he recalls.

"I was desperately trying to stop the wagon but I couldn't. I screamed to Richard: 'Get on the bed. I can't stop it.' He scrambled on the bed. Thank God he did. If he had stayed in the passenger seat he would have been sliced in half when we rammed into the truck in front."

PULLED FREE

Ca rstairs' truck was a wreck. Other truckers who had seen the incident managed to force the doors open and Carstairs and Kirsop were pulled free.

Both men were injured. Red Cross medics arrived within minutes, took one look at Kirsop, who was unable to stand and "had a hand the size of a football" and immediately decided to airlift him to hospital in Madrid.

Within 30 minutes of the accident Kirsop was lying in a hospital bed, receiving emergency treatment. He had shattered almost every bone in his hand, damaged his left kneecap and chipped several bones in his ankles. Carstairs, who had broken several ribs, was at the police station helping the police determine the cause of the accident.

"Kirsop's real nightmare began when he was released from hospital," says Carstairs. The driver was put into a taxi and sent to the British Consulate to arrange his trip home. The Consulate turned out to be two floors up. With help from the taxi driver Kirsop asked for somebody to come downstairs: "He couldn't even stand up properly, let alone walk up two flights of stairs," says Carstairs.

TAXI DRIVER

But Kirsop was told that no one was available to come downstairs. Eventually the taxi driver picked him up and carried him to the Consulate office.

"There he was treated like a terrorist," claims Carstairs. "He showed his papers, and then he was searched and made to empty all his pockets." After waiting for more than an hour Kirsop finally saw one of the Consulate officials. He asked for somebody to call the Devon Refrigerated Transport office in England so a flight home could be arranged. "At this point the attitude of the officials was unbelievable," says Carstairs. "Kirsop says after he asked for a call to be made to England, the official said: `What do you think we can do? We are not a travel company.' " Eventually the Consulate agreed to make calls home to arrange a flight, which was due to leave at 21:00hrs that night. Kirsop claims he asked the officials to book him a Madrid hotel room if a flight could not be arranged for that night — and says they refused.

The injured driver was left to wait in the Consulate foyer as all the staff finished work at 17:30hrs. Kirsop says once again he was left to struggle down the stairs alone — because no one told him that the building had a lift. Later he asked one of the night staff to call him a taxi to the airport. He claims this request was refused and he was left to hobble outside to flag down a cab.

The attitude at the airport was a welcome relief. The ticket, arranged by Devon's customer Pegasus, was waiting for Kirsop — along with a wheelchair.

Because of his injuries, British Airways gave him three seats to himself. And as he could not move his arm, the airline staff even spoon-fed him his dinner. At Gatwick, Kirsop was wheeled off the plane, through Customs and immigration and straight to his brother's waiting car.

Meanwhile, Carstairs was still in Spain. He had spent several hours with the police being interviewed about the accident. This had been sorted out relatively quickly because a Spanish lorry driver had stayed with Carstairs to help with translating. It transpired that a patch of grease in the road had contributed to the accident. By 21:00hrs news of Kirsop's ordeal had filtered through the lorry drivers' network back to Carstairs: "I was meant to go to the Consulate, but when I heard the story, I decided to grab a lift with another British lorry driver instead," he says.

Since arriving home Carstairs has written several letters of complaint and made numerous phone calls to express his anger at the way his driver was treated by the Consulate staff. He is convinced that Kirsop only received such bad

Tags

People: Richard Kirsop
Locations: Madrid

comments powered by Disqus