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Herald Sun
a day ago
- Automotive
- Herald Sun
I broke down on the Nullarbor and learnt a lesson about tow trucks and insurance
It happened. My worst nightmare. Our car broke down in the middle of nowhere on a sweltering 45-degree day en route across the Nullarbor. Our panting dog relegated to the back seat, the roadside gravel too hot for her paws. In the company of 40,000 flies for the first few hours, two passers-by stopped to offer help. Two tattooed, shaved-head men with hands like hammers emerged from their ute and could have passed as extras in 'Prison Break'. I was terrified we'd end up being a statistic, while my husband's accent become more ocker as he chatted engine troubles. A bushy-bearded truckie was next, telling me that he did a u-turn further up the highway in his road train to come back to see if we needed water. We didn't. Our car and car fridge were fully stocked. We'd only left Perth about four hours earlier, embarking on our first road trip across Australia to see my parents who live 4,400 kilometres away on the Coffs Coast. The ground was too hot for my dog's feet. Picture: Dianne Bortoletto In somewhat of a blessing, I had two bars of mobile coverage, so I called RAC, grateful that we'd taken out the top Ultimate Plus roadside insurance. While waiting for the RAC assessor, the prison-break guys, who turned out to be diesel mechanics, plugged a computer into our Ford Ranger and confirmed that no faults were showing, but also that no fuel was reaching the engine. When I relayed this information to RAC - 'it's a fuel pump issue, we need a tow truck, not an assessor' - that I learnt my first lesson of what you need to do when you break down. RAC agreed to send a tow truck, but what RAC didn't tell me earlier, during business hours, was that we were responsible for finding a place to tow our car to for repairs. Also, we were responsible for finding our own accommodation. With country businesses well and truly closed and the sky getting darker, I was lucky to catch the manager of what I call the Murder Scene Motel who said that keys would be left in the key box for a dog-friendly room, ready whenever we arrived. Relief, we had a place to stay, assuming we could get there. We eventually learned we had a fuel injector problem. Picture: Dianne Bortoletto It gets worse. While waiting, a thunderstorm struck, freaking out the dog and soaking us as we tried to get the tight canopy back over the jam-packed ute tray. Then, when the tow truck finally arrived, he wouldn't let our scared little westie sit in his cabin, so she had to stay in our ute on the tilt tray, on her own, during a storm, for the hour-long trip to the Murder Scene Motel. The next important lesson is to know the difference in kinds of tows. The stay-and-repair tow is when your car is towed to a mechanic and insurance covers the cost of the tow and accommodation on a day-by-day basis up to the value of $180 per night, capped at $1,260. Which is fine if your car can actually be repaired. Ours could not. Despite waiting for parts and repairs for a new fuel pump, we were stranded in a wheatbelt town for five long, hot days immediately before Christmas, without a car. Little did we know, after getting picked up our problems were just beginning. Picture: Dianne Bortoletto If we'd chosen a recovery tow, our car could have been towed back home, or to our onward destination up to the value of $7,000 which must also cover the tow-truck's return leg. Where would that get us? Frustratingly, RAC could not answer that, but they confirmed it wouldn't cover 4,000 kilometres to the Coffs Coast. After much arguing and guilt-tripping pleas of 'It's Christmas!' RAC agreed to change our tow from a stay-and-repair to a recovery tow and transport our car back to Perth with two conditions; we paid for our accommodation, and we organised an accredited tow truck driver because, two days before Christmas, the only tow truck in town had already knocked off for the year. See also: 13 dumb mistakes Aussie caravanners make AAA Towing came to the rescue, sending a quote to RAC straight away for approval and deploying a tow truck from Perth within the hour. AAC Towing explained that tow trucks generally charge $5 per kilometre for a recovery tow, so $7,000 of coverage is 1,400-kilometre return trip. The final problem? A $20 fuse that the mechanic didn't replace when fitting the new fuel pump. Originally published as My Nullarbor nightmare: I broke down on a 45 degree day in the desert
Top Gear
2 days ago
- Automotive
- Top Gear
Omoda: smart tech makes cars ‘luxury' now, not engine performance
Tech TG gets the lowdown on what makes a fancy car from Omoda Jaecoo UK chief, Gary Tan Skip 1 photos in the image carousel and continue reading Gary Tan, UK boss of the Omoda Jaecoo outfit, reckons luxury isn't about horses under bonnets or the smell of polished burr walnut anymore. It's about gadgets, glowing things, and digitised comfort. Fancier car brands might roll their quilted-leather armrests and shagpile car mats at that, but speaking to Tan said: 'Nowadays, especially the younger generation, they want a vehicle to be as smart as their phone, so we feel that making a car very smart is another way of luxury.' Advertisement - Page continues below Air purification for your hayfever? Check. Acoustic glass? Check. Fragrance patterns? Sure, why not. Once the domain of fancy six-figure saloons, now such features are available in cars costing less than £30k, alongside karaoke kit, of course. Tan says dealer feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. 'Because the cars are so well specced and priced a segment below, customers have experienced features they never knew they needed. And once they've had them, it's quite hard to go back.' You might like Omoda has two trim choices to keep things simple, but shrewdly, it's also offering 70,000 miles' worth of RAC breakdown cover to build trust... and for those times you accidentally change the interface language into Turkish. Smart enough to drive itself? Not yet. Tan says there's more work to be done locally, highlighting roundabouts, potholes and poor data connectivity as critical obstacles to this development; 'The UK has very unique road conditions so we don't feel ready. Plus, in the UK, the internet speed is different from other countries.' Advertisement - Page continues below And by different, we presume he means 'slower'. What do you reckon? Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Look out for your regular round-up of news, reviews and offers in your inbox. Get all the latest news, reviews and exclusives, direct to your inbox.
Time of India
2 days ago
- Time of India
Sassoon hospital's suspended senior doctor held in 2022 kidney racket case in Pune
Pune: Police on Wednesday night arrested Dr Ajay Taware, the suspended head of Sassoon General Hospital's forensic science department, in the 2022 kidney transplant case at Ruby Hall Clinic after securing his custody from Yerawada central jail earlier in the evening. Taware, who had been in jail since his arrest on May 27, 2024, as a co-accused in the blood sample swap case linked to the Porsche Taycan car crash on May 19 last year, was the head of the Regional Authorisation Committee (RAC) for organ transplant as well as the Sassoon Authority Committee and was the medical superintendent at the time when the transplant process took place and was completed at Ruby Hall Clinic. RAC is responsible for scrutinising organ transplant papers related to the proposed donor and the receiver, sent by the hospital where the transplant is to be performed, and clearing them on establishing all credentials. "We arrested Taware based on a five-member state health department inquiry committee's report of May 2022 that has indicted him and four others in RAC for misusing their position to aid kidney swap transplant based on bogus persons and forged documents," investigating officer ACP Ganesh Ingale told TOI. "The health department's then deputy director for Nashik region, Dr Raghunath Bhoye, headed the panel." Pune police commissioner Amitesh Kumar, when asked why it took so long (three years) for police to arrest Taware in this case, said, "We took a review of the case again, and post-consultation and study took the call to arrest him." by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Giao dịch CFD với công nghệ và tốc độ tốt hơn IC Markets Đăng ký Undo On Thursday afternoon, Ingale and his team produced Taware before judicial magistrate first class SR Badve, who ordered the doctor's remand in police custody till June 2. "A total of nine swap kidney transplants were authorised and conducted during Taware's tenure as the RAC chief and police needed time to thoroughly investigate these matters," prosecutor Digambar Khopde told the court. The prosecutor submitted that Taware by virtue of being the head of RAC and the Sassoon Authority Committee had all the hospital bodies under his control and as a medical superintendent, he was well-versed with the administrative aspects and rules, processes and documentation work relating to organ transplant. "It was RAC's responsibility to see that the papers of the donor and the receiver were genuine and that no financial transaction was involved behind the transplant proposal. Still, RAC gave its go-ahead to the organ transplant based on bogus persons and forged papers," the prosecutor said. Khopade submitted that police needed time to investigate who else were part of the process to clear the swap kidney transplant, whether money was exchanged in the process, how RAC failed to notice the difference of age between the wife of the organ receiver and the woman who posed as the wife of the receiver at the time of interview before RAC, and other aspects.
Time of India
2 days ago
- Time of India
Pune doctor in Porsche row arrested in 2022 kidney racket case
Representative image PUNE: Pune police arrested on Wednesday night Dr Ajay Taware, the suspended head of Sassoon General Hospital's forensic science department, in the 2022 kidney transplant case at Ruby Hall Clinic after securing his custody from Yerawada Central Jail earlier the same evening, reports Vishwas Kothari & Asseem Shaikh. On Thursday afternoon, investigating officer ACP Ganesh Ingale produced Taware before judicial magistrate first class (JMFC) SR Badve, who ordered the doctor remanded in police custody till June 2. Taware, who was in jail since his arrest on May 27, 2024 as a co-accused in the blood sample swap case linked to the May 19, 2024 Porsche Taycan car crash, was the head of the Regional Authorisation Committee (RAC) for Organ Transplant as well as the Sassoon Authority Committee and was medical superintendent at the time when the transplant process took place and was completed at Ruby Hall Clinic. "We arrested Taware based on a five-member state health department inquiry committee's report of May 2022 that has indicted him and four others in the RAC for misusing their position to aid kidney swap transplant based on bogus persons and forged documents. The department's then deputy director for the Nashik region, Dr Raghunath Bhoye, headed the inquiry panel," Ingale said. Pune police commissioner Amitesh Kumar, when asked why it took so long (three years) for the police to arrest Taware in this case, said, "We undertook a review of the case again and post-consultation and study took the call to arrest him." With inputs from Gitesh Shelke
Wales Online
2 days ago
- Automotive
- Wales Online
Backlog of learner drivers waiting for tests hits new high
Backlog of learner drivers waiting for tests hits new high It comes as the UK Government has announced a number of measures to tackle the issue The waiting list of UK learner drivers waiting to take their practical test has now exceeded 600,000, the RAC reports. It means it is the longest queue ever recorded, according to new statistics. At the end of April 2025, 603,352 future driving tests had been booked. The findings are based on an analysis of Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) data, and represents a 16% increase from 521,190 at the same time last year. A total of 610,000 practical driving tests were completed between January and April, which is down from 718,000 in the first four months of last year. UK Government transport secretary, Heidi Alexander, called on the DVSA to ramp up its efforts to reduce waiting times and enhance access to driving tests as part of the government's Plan for Change. And to facilitate more driving tests and reduce these barriers, she announced several key measures. Individuals in other DVSA roles who are qualified to conduct driving tests will be asked to return "to the frontline" to assist with practical driving assessments. And the number of permanent trainers will be doubled in order to quickly upskill new driving examiners. Ms Alexander said: 'We inherited an enormous backlog of learners ready to ditch their L-plates but being forced to endure record waiting time for their tests. 'We simply cannot deliver on our Plan for Change if thousands remain held back, with their aspirations on pause. 'I am instructing DVSA to take further action immediately to reduce waiting times which will see thousands of additional tests made available every month. We're acting fast to get Britain's drivers moving.' Five Welsh test centres had waits recorded of 24 weeks on February 3, which is the maximum wait. These are in Llanishen in Cardiff, Newport, Rhyl, Bangor, and Newtown, according to data from a freedom of information request to the DVSA by the AA Driving School. It shows the average waiting time to book a driving test has steadily risen in the last year from 14.8 weeks in February 2024 to 20 weeks in February 2025. Article continues below Elsewhere in Wales Pembroke Dock is the testing centre with by far the lowest wait at four weeks, followed by Pwllheli on five weeks. The following is an at-a-glance guide on the waiting list for driving tests across Wales, recorded on February 3, from most to least weeks. Click here to read more.
