Accident recovery in Richmond and Twickenham.

Central Richmond has streets laid out long before recovery trucks, with tight corners, restricted access and heavy pedestrian traffic. Richmond Hill is steep as well as narrow.

A van is frequently the only vehicle that will get in. Where a larger vehicle is genuinely needed, it may have to work from a distance with the damaged car moved to it — which is a slower job, and worth knowing about in advance.

The river also matters: with few crossings, a blocked bridge approach means a long detour rather than a short one.

Chertsey Road is fast dual carriageway running out towards the M3, and the character of incidents on it is quite different from the town centre — higher speeds, heavier damage, and vehicles that often cannot be rolled.

Where a car will not roll or steer, it is lifted rather than winched, so tell us the state of it when you call.

On international and cup days the roads around the stadium close, parking is suspended over a wide area and pedestrian volumes are very high. It is one of the few situations where a recovery may genuinely have to wait for the crowds to clear.

Tell us if it is a match day. We would rather plan around it than send a vehicle into a closed road system.