A worried woman says the AA are putting lives at risk after being told they refuse to prioritise lone females on the roadside at night because 'that's equality'.
Dr Helen Mott slammed the breakdown rescue service after she was advised they do not base call outs solely on someone's sex or gender.
The 52-year-old was stranded on Wednesday and says she feared for her safety.
With the evening fast approaching, the anxious mum told the operator she felt she was in a vulnerable position.
She was stunned when they told her that she had to wait her turn - as they don't give any kind of priority to those who consider themselves at risk.
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The British motoring association has drawn heavy criticism on social media for its stance.
After tweeting about the exchange it provoking anger from other female motorists as the AA were forced into an apology.
Dr Mott told The Sun : “The operator gave me an estimated time which was knocking on for a couple of hours.
“I asked the call handler why they treated men and women the same and didn’t prioritise lone women. They said there’s no difference and they just said that’s equality. They’ve been trained to say it.”
After being picked up an AA truck less than an hour later, she tweeted the AA to confirm what she was told over the phone was the company's official policy.
They said: "Hi Helen, you've been advised correctly. We don't prioritise based on gender, we do consider the location so as an example we would prioritise someone on a motorway over someone in a supermarket carpark."
Other twitter users expressed their outrage and women’s safety campaigners criticised the AA's stance.
Sophie Francis-Cansfield, of Women’s Aid, was quoted as saying she believed women's safety should be prioritised, as one is murdered by a man every three days in the UK.
The AA later doubled down, and its president Edmund King intervened on Twitter and said the group does prioritise vulnerable customers after all.
When asked if the motoring association makes no difference between a 'stranded female driver and a stranded male', King said: "Of course we do, and we use common sense and prioritise women but by the letter of the law we can't say that."
He later clarified: "It hasn't changed. The wording of our initial response not great and we apologised.
"We prioritise anyone at risk but more often than not it will be lone women. In breakdowns involving lone women where there is any concern raised they receive the highest level of care and priority."
Another AA spokesperson told the Mirror: "We accept that the wording of our initial response wasn’t great and have apologised. In fact, we prioritise anyone at risk but more often than not it will be lone women.
"In breakdowns involving lone women where there is any concern raised by the customer, they receive the highest level of care and priority."
Research from the Femicide Census calculated that across the UK, 1,425 women were killed by men in the 10 years to 2018. This is around one killing every three days.
