A family of five endured a 12-hour nightmare after breaking down on a motorway in 32 degree heat. Fahd Darr and his wife and three children were left stranded beside the M3 on Monday as they drove home to Manchester following a weekend in London.
Despite phoning the RAC, they had to wait in Mr Darr's boiling hot BMW for hours before help arrived. The situation left Mr Darr's autistic son, Azlaan, so distressed that he began biting and scratching himself, and trying to jump out of the car.
Assistance eventually arrived at 6.15pm — four hours after the family first called for help. But the ordeal did not end there as they were then allegedly "dumped" at a service station and waited another two hours before finally getting a taxi and being dropped off at home at 2am. The RAC put the delay down to an "unexpectedly high number of vehicles needing to be recovered by flatbed trucks".
Mr Darr, from Whalley Range, Manchester, told the Manchester Evening News: "We were heading back and my car started shaking terribly. I pulled up straight away, called the RAC and told them I had broken down on the motorway and needed urgent assistance. They said they aimed to be with us within 60 to 90 minutes because they were very busy."
The family waited by the motorway in scorching temperatures as a heatwave hit the UK on Monday afternoon. "I have never seen weather that hot in the UK," said Mr Darr, 38. "We had two bottles of water in the car but the water was so hot that we could not even drink that. My eldest child has autism and was biting his arms and hands, scratching his face and trying to jump out of the window and open the door.
"We were on the side of the motorway so my wife was holding him for the whole four hours so he would not try to open the car door. We couldn't get out of the car either because he might have run on to the motorway. My other two children were getting agitated too. I can't even explain how bad it was."
When nobody came to their aid after an hour and a half, Mr Darr phoned the RAC again. He said the call handler told him they were "really busy" and "everyone is in the same situation". When help eventually arrived, the family were taken to a nearby service station but it was not until 9pm that the RAC booked the family a taxi to Manchester. They arrived back home at about 2am.
Mr Darr said: "It was just a shambles. If they told me they didn't think someone would be with me for four hours, I would have made different arrangements. It was a traumatic experience for my children. My son could not understand the situation and he doesn't speak so he can't express his emotions.
"His face is all scratched so we have had to put steroids on it. We're trying to get them to forget about it. I still don't know when my car is coming back. I need to get it back because my son won't get into a new car. For a child with autism, every change is a big thing."
An RAC spokesperson said: "Due to an unexpectedly high number of vehicles needing to be recovered by flatbed trucks in Monday’s hot weather, we were unfortunately not able to reach Mr Darr and his family more quickly. Rather than having to wait to be taken the rest of the way home with their car, we arranged a six-seater taxi to take the family 180 miles back to Whalley Range. Since then, we have apologised to Mr Darr and kept him mobile with a hire car."
