The advice everyone half remembers is to get out and stand behind the barrier. It is sound advice, and it was written for roads that have a barrier. Around Kingston upon Thames very few of them do, so it is worth understanding what the drill protects you from, because that part still applies.
Two things hurt people at the roadside: sitting in a stationary car that gets hit from behind, and stepping out into a live lane. Leaving by the nearside doors deals with the second. Standing well back, with something solid between you and the carriageway, deals with the first, because a parked car struck at speed does not stay where you left it. Neither risk cares how briefly you meant to be there.
On the A307 Richmond Road, or crossing Kingston Bridge in traffic, there is no verge to retreat onto and nothing to shelter behind, so your judgement does that job instead. Get as far left as the kerb allows, hazards on, everybody out through the passenger side, then put distance and a wall or railings between you and the traffic before you ring us.
Recovery cover pays somebody to move the car. A mobile fitter finishes the job instead: one call, a technician sent to where you are stopped in KT1, stock already loaded, and the wheel back on before the recovery truck would have arrived. The Norbiton phone and the Canbury phone ring the same fitter, any hour. Midnight in Hampton Wick, midday in Coombe, the same call either way. A KT1 address in Kingston Hill and one in Kingston town centre are the same round.
Burst tyre replacement in Kingston upon Thames is part of our wider 24-hour emergency callout cover. For burst tyre replacement in Kingston upon Thames, call 07717 389637 or send us your details for a price.
Very little of the textbook roadside drill fits the roads here. The one-way system around Clarence Street, the approaches to Kingston Bridge and the crawl along the A307 Richmond Road put you in slow heavy traffic with a kerb and a shopfront where the manual assumes a verge and a barrier. What carries over is the principle: passenger side, distance, something solid behind you.
Opening the driver's door puts you standing in the lane you have just left, with your back to whatever is coming. That is the whole risk in one movement. Climbing out through the passenger side is undignified and it keeps metal between you and the traffic.
Parapets and a narrow footway leave no run-off at all. If a tyre lets go halfway across, easing to the far side at walking pace is worth the tyre, because stopping in the middle is worse. Then get everyone onto the pavement.
A driver near Kingston Hall Road stood leaning on the offside wing with a phone to their ear. That is the one spot to avoid. A dozen paces back onto the footway costs nothing, and we would sooner find nobody near the car at all.
Only if getting out would put you into moving traffic, which on a narrow stretch it sometimes does. Otherwise no. A stationary car with hazards on is something for a distracted driver to hit, and rain is the smallest of your problems.
On a quiet side street with level ground, if you are confident, yes. On a through route, no. Kneeling at the offside with traffic a metre away is how people get hurt, and the spare under most boot floors is a restricted speed wheel.
No. When a tyre loses its air at speed the casing folds and destroys itself within a few revolutions, so what we lift off the rim is shredded cord rather than a tyre with a hole in it.
Whatever you can actually see. A junction, a bridge, the nearest shop, the direction you were travelling. If your phone will give you a location, read it out. Guessing at a road number you are unsure of wastes more time than saying so.
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