Product Safety information for a-frame users.
Following recent events, including threats to personal safety, I have redacted the company’s information from the above post. any comments mentioning them have also been deleted. No campaign is worth putting the world of myself and my family at risk. In the event anything untoward does occur, there are people out there who know the perpetrator including Lincolnshire Police.
Following a recent catastrophic failure of an a-frame towed car I have, this week, (17.11.21) formally called upon Trading Standards and the Vehicle Safety Branch (VSB) of the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) to implement a PRODUCT RECALL on specific a-frame installations.
The towed car suffered a sudden and unpredictable failure of the a-frame to car interface. Regardless of the cause of the initial failure,
CRUCIALLY, it should have had an emergency breakaway system installed in accordance with the Road Vehicles (construction & use) regulations 1986 [and amendments] and COMMISSION DIRECTIVE 98/12/EC.
The object of the emergency breakaway system is to stop the ‘trailer’ in it’s tracks and prevent the ‘trailer’ literally breaking away and going wherever, in this case mounting a pavement and scattering pedestrians.
As the company have ignored my request for more information, The number of vehicles affected is currently unknown but if your vehicle is one, a simple visual inspection will identify it.
Do NOT rely on any written statements like “Automatically sets itself up” or “Break-away safety features built in”. Without the ring highlighted, it has no emergency braking in place!
The product is from a company known as [redacted]. Their standard practice would be to install the emergency breakaway facility, identifiable by a ring ‘mini-cable-tied’ to the vehicles front grill, adjacent to the 13 pin electrical socket.
The ring is for the attachment of a supplied, breakaway cable. SEE PHOTO.
if your vehicle was converted by this company and is lacking the ring, it is ESSENTIAL that your car is drawn to their attention with a view to being modified. The company can be contacted at [redacted].
Failure to act is putting LIVES AT RISK!