Accident recovery in Ealing.

The gyratory combines a high volume of merging traffic with several lanes and limited sightlines, and the A40 approaches it at speed from both directions. Shunts and side-swipes are routine, and multi-vehicle incidents are not unusual.

It is a poor place to be standing next to a damaged car. If the vehicle can be moved and it is safe to do so, get it off the gyratory before anything else. If it cannot, stay well clear of live lanes and call 999.

For the recovery itself, the constraint is where a truck can safely stop and load. Sometimes that means the vehicle is moved a short distance first, and sometimes it means waiting until traffic can be managed.

The town centre is congested, bus-heavy and lined with loading bays and controlled parking. A stopped vehicle here blocks something almost immediately, and the recovery has to work around buses rather than the other way round.

The multi-storey parking serving the Broadway carries the usual height restrictions, so a van is frequently the practical answer for anything inside.

Much of Ealing is generous Edwardian and Victorian streets — wider than Acton or Chiswick, and often with driveways — which makes access comparatively straightforward.

The exception is the controlled parking zones around the stations, where a damaged vehicle in a permit bay continues to accrue penalties while you wait on an insurer. That is usually the reason to move it into storage sooner rather than later.