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Sleeping en route


Alan Zoff
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Hi all, well lets look at this with a few facts. The first is that any form of gas attack is a no no, its just a tall tell, I have heard about attacks in spain and on the boarded regions of france, always east euopeans are the attackers. Not at any time as a police report been available to back up these so say attacks. Fact, yes there as been a rise in break ins of motorhomes along motorways and this as been in line with the rise of east euopeans on these roads. Fact, parking along side HGV,s does not but of attackers. Fact better locks on motorhome doors does help. Fact dogs but off would be attackers no matter how small. Fact being careful where you park up will cut down the odds of an attack. Fact on the whole you are a lot better off sleeping in your car or motorhome here in france etc then in the UK.

Just enjoy, but always take care. Michael   

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Can someone please tell us what this marvellous gas is?It appears to be able to be carried in a reasonably small container yet there is sufficient volume available to "knockout" the people in a caravan or motor caravan even with the vents open.
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But you can buy a detector HERE

Beats me how you could add just enough gas to incapacitate an adult without killing a child or dog say.  Then the villan has to enter the'van without being overcome as well.  Also seems to me that the papers would be full of it, especially in the Silly Season.

 

Ah, found one in the Times

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Just back from two days of cross-channel trucking to Northern France. I parked in an aire overnight and wasn't attacked in any way. Next week I'm doing some longer distance cross-channel trucking, possibly 5-6 days. Will see what comes of parking in an aire overnight then.

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The Royal College of Anaesthetists have published a FAQ debunking this popular 'gassing' myth:

There are persistent reports of holidaymakers being anaesthetised by the injection of ether into a caravan or motorhome, and then robbed. Is there any truth to this rumour? How much ether would be needed to make someone unconscious long enough to rob them, but without causing death?

It would not be possible to render someone unconscious with ether without their knowledge, even if they were sleeping at the time. Ether is an extremely pungent agent and a relatively weak anaesthetic by modern standards and has a very irritant affect on the air passages, causing coughing and sometimes vomiting. It takes some time to reach unconsciousness, even if given by direct application to the face on a cloth, and the concentration needed by some sort of spray into a room would be enormous. The smell hangs around for days and would be obvious to anyone the next day.

There are much more powerful agents around now, some of which are almost odourless. However these would be unlikely to be able to achieve this effect, and the cost would be huge enough to deter any thief unless he was after the crown jewels. Potential agents, such as the one used by the Russians in the Moscow siege are few in number and difficult to obtain.

Finally, unsupervised anaesthesia is very dangerous. In the Moscow siege about 20% of victims died from asphyxia, because their airways were unprotected. If the reports of holidaymakers being anaesthetized by injection of ether into a caravan or motorhome are true we would have expected a significant number of deaths or cases of serious brain damage to have been reported.

Here's an interesting post from another forum:

I am not an MD, rather a physicist, but with the help of an anesthesist I did some time ago this calculation for a German motorhome forum:

If you want to flood an average motorhome with a very effective narcotic gas (e.g. Isoflurane) so that in the Luton the concentration is high enough to narcotize, then you need about 240 litres of gas, provided that the motorhome is absolutely airtight and the gas spreads homogeneously.

Both assumptions are incorrect, motorhomes are not airtight and all narcotic gases are heavier than air, so probably about 1000 litres would be needed. 

And, by the way, as the gas does not spread homogeneously, it would almost certainly kill all inhabitants sleeping below the Luton level.

Engine starting spray mainly consists of Ether, and Ether has in fact been used as a medical narcotic not too long ago. However, being much less effective than modern narcotics, you would need about 14,000 litres (yes, fourteen-thousand!) of gaseous ether for the above mentioned purpose. That would mean about 40 litres of liquid ether. The average engine starting spray can contains 0.2 litres, so just figure out how many cans a thug would need...

In addition Ether is highly explosive, so just the content of 7 cans would suffice to blow up your entire motorhome.

Remember, when you're parked overnight in an aire, your fridge pilot light will be lit....[:-))]

 

 

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This crops up periodically on the UK Motorhomes facts website, which is where I first saw the report from the royal College of Anaesthetists debunking it.  As has also been pointed out it looks a lot better on your insurance form to say "been gassed" rather than "had a few beers and went to bed and forgot to lock the doors".  I have not seen it reported in the French camping car press and I for one chose not to believe it. 
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Look for the caveat "apparently" when they report people having being gassed...[;-)]

The autoroutes near to the ferries and on the approaches to the Spanish border have long been target areas for thefts from campers/caravans.  The Home Office is just being seen to be proactive in their advice, and the current wave of 'we woz gassed' tales gives a nice scare story on which to base their advice.

The common sense approach has always been not to overnight in those high risk areas, but to get off the motorway and find a nice quiet municipal site for the night.

But of course, that would cost a handful of euros, wouldn't it...?  [blink]

 

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[quote user="Alan Zoff"]Isn't it great when you get "expert" advice that says exactly opposite things? Has the Foreign Office been taken in, too?[/quote]

I would rather take anaesthetic advice from an anaesthetist than the foreign office!  As Sunday driver says look for the caveats - apparently/reported to have been etc.

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