On the 18th June after a nice week away in the van we arrived home and whilst unhitching the caravan in our drive there was a breakdown in communication between us. In short the car rolled slowly down our gravell drive, driver less. Viv tried to stop it, I tried to pull her clear, she slipped and the rear wheel ran over both legs (a Land Rover Discovery Sport is not a light vehicle). Her left ankle has two breaks and her right knee, by a miracle did not break but is very badly bruised, (as is her whole leg, and swollen. We are currently awaiting the results of an MRI scan to assess ligament damage. It'll be touch and go but hopefully we will see (those of you who are going) at the August meet if all goes well. I cannot stress enough the importance of good communication when un-hitching - especially on a slope. In this case the outcome could have been a lot worse.
Dave and Viv
IMG_0048.jpg - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)

Thankfully it wasn't any worse but it all sounds bad enough. Hope that Viv's injuries are continuing to mend and looking forward to seeing you again in August.

We hope all goes well with the recovery. Sounds awful.

As caravanning newbies this year, hitching and unhitching is always the most stressful aspect of the whole thing. We have a written checklist, but we always end up doing it differently each time!

My parents were caravanners 40 years ago and I swear the physical hitch and the process has not changed in all that time (apart from the god send of motor movers!). It amazes me that someone has not come up with a simpler hitch which is virtually foolproof - HGV's with trailers seem to have a better system.

I hope your wife makes a full recovery, I had a similar experience with my previous Puck. We were pushing up a slight incline on our drive when my foot slipped on some moss. I fell flat on my face with the Puck rolling towards me. Luckily Mrs Poptop managed to put the handbrake on before I disappeared underneath it

My Familia has a motor mover which stops that problem arising again...

The car has an electronic handbrake which comes on automatically when the engine is stopped. Unfortunately Viv got out of the car with the engine running to ask me what I had said whilst I was unhitching. The car hand brake was off but thankfully the caravan brake was on. A couple of winds on the jockey wheel saw the car rolling before she had managed to get in. Lessons learned - don't unhitch the van unless there is someone in the car and don't get out of the car without putting the hand brake on and or stopping the engine + make sure we can hear each other before doing anything. So no, I don't think the electronic hand brake played a part on this ocassion.

Except that you normally automatically apply the handbrake when you stop in that sort of situation and because the electric handbrake is not an ingrained action from decades of driving it can be forgotten. I had one on my Volvo V70 and over three years I never found it as intuitive as the between seats handle.

We have an automatic LR Discovery Sport with an electronic handbrake. Once your foot is on the brake and you have stopped, the handbrake is supposed to be automatically on until your foot hits the accelerator pedal - we were told. I repeatedly asked LR when we bought it about how it works, what happens if you come to a natural stop on an incline without using the brake etc and they said "just trust us, it works, you're safe". So, why did the car roll in this instance? or are automatics different? (forgive my ignorance).

We of course hope your wife continues to get better with a full recovery on the horizon but it must have been a terrible experience.

Best wishes for a speedy recovery to Viv and hope to see you both at the Meet.

Because our Disco Sport has a manual gearbox and the engine was running. The electronic hand brake only engages automatically when the engine is turned off. Viv got out of the car whilst the engine was running and at the same time I gave the last couple of turns on the jockey wheel which released the unoccupied car from the caravan. Unlike your automatic if I stop on an incline I have to manually flick the hand brake on but it disengages automatically when I pull away.

Sorry Viv to see you in the wars. All the best for a fast recovery and hopefully you can make it to Cambridge.
Best regards Chris and Keith

How ghastly, it looks so painful. I wish her a swift recovery!

First of all, we wish your wife a speedy recovery and hope she makes a full return to happy Eribaing.

When we had our Eriba getting it and our previous van up our narrow, inclined, gravelled drive was quite difficult (no mover, as I can reverse) but we both have mobile phones, which nearly everyone has these days, so I put mine on speakerphone while Jen (wife) advised on the clearance I had as we also had a dog leg to negotiate on the drive.

Someone mentioned the hitch system, I grew up in a caravan until I was 13, I'm now 65 and I can confirm that my "birth" caravan had a very similar hitch to those used today, the main difference was that it was made of "cast" metal.