Our Coverage of Islandmagee

That is normal and it is not a problem. Describe what happened rather than diagnosing it: what you heard, what the dashboard showed, whether it cut out or would not start. That is usually enough for us to bring the right kit.

The road name and direction of travel, the make, model and rough age of the vehicle, whether it is electric, hybrid or automatic, what has gone wrong, and whether you are somewhere you can safely wait. That is enough for us to send the right unit first time.

On the coast road the honest answer is usually that a vehicle cannot be left where it stopped. There is rarely a verge wide enough to be clear of a live lane, and a car parked half on the carriageway on a bend is a hazard to everyone behind it. We plan on recovering on the visit rather than coming back. We will give you a straight answer for your actual location when we see it, rather than a general rule that may not fit.

Once you are on the A8 you are on dual carriageway, which changes the rules entirely. Everyone out through the nearside, behind the barrier, hazards on, and nobody on the offside for any reason. Get as far to the nearside as the vehicle will go, hazards on, everyone out through the nearside doors and behind the barrier or well up the verge. Do not attempt any repair on the offside, and do not stand between the vehicle and oncoming traffic while you wait.

Stay nearby if it is safe, because we may need the keys and someone to confirm where the vehicle is going. Nearby means off the carriageway and behind a barrier where there is one, not sitting in the car waiting.

If you have cover that includes this, use it, and we will say so rather than talk you out of it. Check what your policy actually includes first, because home start, roadside and recovery to a destination are often priced and limited separately.

Usually yes, with the permission of whoever controls the land, and provided the ground is firm enough to work on. Soft ground after rain is the constraint far more often than access is.

Islandmagee is served by the B90, effectively the only through route on the peninsula, with the Larne Lough shore on one side and open sea on the other, and we cover all of them. Telling us which one you are on, and the direction you were travelling, matters more than the address, because a job on a fast road and a job on a village street are handled completely differently.

We do not publish a blanket response time, because it would not be honest: Islandmagee is reached by the B90, effectively the only through route on the peninsula, with the Larne Lough shore on one side and open sea on the other, and the real answer depends on the traffic on those roads at that hour and on where our nearest available unit is when you ring. What we will do is give you a realistic time when we take the call, and tell you if it changes. If you are somewhere genuinely dangerous, say so immediately, because that moves you up the list.

Nothing on Islandmagee is motorway or dual carriageway. Every road here is single carriageway, and several of the lanes are single track with passing places. Because there is no fast road on the peninsula, the drive out is slower than the map distance suggests, and we would rather say that plainly than quote a time that assumes an A road the whole way.

Yes. Alongside Islandmagee we regularly attend Ballystrudder, Ballycarry, Mill Bay, Whitehead, Mullaghboy, Magheramorne and the rest of the East Antrim coast, all as part of our County Antrim coverage. If you are between two of those, give us the road rather than the village and we will find you.