Man stranded for 19 hours after van breaks down

Mr Brick said he waited about 19 hours for the family van to be recovered

A man has said he was left stranded in his van outside West Midlands Safari Park by a recovery service for 19 hours after breaking down.

Merlin Brick, 46, from Cross Houses, near Shrewsbury, went to the safari park with his wife, Rebecca and their two young children on Tuesday.

Their van, an ex-patient transfer ambulance adapted for Rebecca, who has quadriplegic cerebral palsy, stopped running, and despite having full RAC cover, Mr Brick said he was left waiting to be recovered until about 11:20 GMT the following day.

Mr Brick called on the breakdown service to be more "compassionate" to the needs of vulnerable customers. The RAC has been contacted by the BBC for comment.

The family's van broke down at about 16:00, which they raised with the RAC, and a patrol was arranged, which arrived at about 17:00.

After examining it, they managed to move the vehicle just outside the park's gates so it could be recovered after the site shut, Mr Brick said.

Of the patrol, he said: "He deemed that recovery would be necessary, and in his report he stipulated that we had a child of four, a child of 16 months, and that Bec was in an electric wheelchair."

The van is an adapted ex-ambulance

After this, Mr Brick said the family was told they would receive an approximate time for recovery, which came through at about 18:00, with the recovery time estimated to be between 21:20 and 00:20.

At 18:03, he said they called the RAC, and were told customer service would be made aware of the long wait.

Mrs Brick's father-in-law, who had treated them to the day out, came to collect her and the two children and drive them to their home about 50 minutes away, but Mr Brick decided he needed to wait with the van.

"It all fell on Vincent [father-in-law] to do all the personal care for my wife, look after the two children, whilst I was slowly freezing waiting in an abandoned vehicle outside the safari park," he said.

He said he was constantly checking on his recovery status, but the estimated time of arrival (ETA) for the recovery team kept shifting.

"It got worse with updates as to the ETA… the next one was 11:20 to 04:30, after that, it refreshed again and it was 00:50 to 01:20," he said.

However, when he checked again at half past midnight, it said recovery would be between 08:00 and 12:00.

"I had an anxious time, my father-in-law is in his 60s, he's got a four-year-old and a 16-month-old to look after," he told the BBC.

"We were on the slip road up to the safari park, you could hear the lions making funny noises in the night."

He said hearing the animals did not bother him, but he was constantly worried about his wife being at home without him and that his father-in-law did not know how to use the ceiling hoists.

'More compassion'

Mr Brick has a full policy with the RAC, which includes roadside rescue, recovery and onward travel.

He said the company had agreed to compensate him, but he thought their response should have been quicker, due to his wife's disability.

"If you've got vulnerable people, surely it makes sense to get them out of the situation as soon as possible," he said.

The company told him they would reimburse onward travel, but he explained he had not been in the right mindset to arrange it.

"If you haven't got a pot of money to sort that out, you need your hand holding," he said.

"It's about changing policy and about being more compassionate and more empathetic... rather than any financial rewards."