Last night just after 8pm, I was traveling into London down the M11 with the wife (in the car not the lorry) just after passing past J5, things start to slow up, and then come to a complete stop, for the next 50 minutes we slowly crawl towards the city, eventually we see the cause of this congestion an Audi A6 has broken down in the fast lane (at this point we are the section where the M11 is down to two lanes, but has a very wide hard-shoulder). Parked in front of this broken down car is a Metropolitan Police Mitsubishi Shogun, all lights flashing as the two officers and the driver of the car are stood leaning against the hard shoulder having a bloody good laugh!
Now a Mitsubishi Shogun has a rated towing capacity of 3.5tonne (I know this as my father has one), why the hell was this car not towed onto the hard shoulder?
I know that there will be people coming along and saying, his brakes may have been locked on, or it could have been stuck in gear, etc. Well I’m sorry but this is BS, drag the thing onto the hard shoulder and let the traffic move. This is a common occurrence everyday all over the country, and its starting to take the biscuit, broken down and crashed cars, holding up every other road user, while the police or traffic officers, site there in a vehicle that is more than capable of clearing the scene in a matter of minutes. If they are not going to use these 4x4s for what they are designed, then get them a Ford Estate car to keep all their cones in!!
This doesn’t happen in Canada, USA, Australia, etc. My brother-in-law broke down in German on the Auto-Bahn last year and was towed to the nearest services by a German police 4x4 in under 20 minutes!
Sorry to rant, but its starting to take the biscuit.
I see this all the time and wonder the same. Probaly worried they will be sued for causing damage at a later day,
I can see the TV adverts offering no win no fee advice now
couldn’t agree more, always thought they and the HA could do just as much with a Pug Expert van, and get more cones in the back so they could reduce the three lane road to a single track, preferably with chicane in it to really bollox things up
i oftenwonder if they’re putting something in the water to turn people into blithering idiots, would explain why tony blair got elected three times
your car is breaking down so do you use the motion to run it up onto the grass verge, so safer for everyone, or do you keep it rolling preferably till its right on the entrance to a roundabout so it can cause utter mayhem, we all know the answer to that one
A couple of weeks ago I groaned as I headed South on the M6 having just left Lymm services and the radio traffic report said “Delays M6 road works J19 due to a breakdown.”
After 45 mins of crawling along in the resulting tailback I came across the cause of problem. Some berk sitting in his car 100 yards from the off ramp at J17 with a flat tyre. He was too thick to drive off the motorway and make life easier for everyone including himself. Oddly enough there was no sign of a Hato or plod either.
A heavy 4x4 like a Disco is capable of moving an artic (albeit slowly) maybe this is the reason they are used in the UK? Re the Audi, if it was an allroad or quattro i would imagine they have left it alone until proper recovery turned up, towing these can mash gearboxes, these things are so fragile they have an ECU controlled gearbox which can detect tyre diameter down to the last millimetre, even if one tyre needs replacing due to a puncture they have to be replaced in pairs…
AndrewG:
A heavy 4x4 like a Disco is capable of moving an artic (albeit slowly) maybe this is the reason they are used in the UK? Re the Audi, if it was an allroad or quattro i would imagine they have left it alone until proper recovery turned up, towing these can mash gearboxes, these things are so fragile they have an ECU controlled gearbox which can detect tyre diameter down to the last millimetre, even if one tyre needs replacing due to a puncture they have to be replaced in pairs…
A couple of years ago I was sat in a lay by on the A1 near Doncaster (before they were all closed for H&S reasons) and a womble came along side me and asked me to ,I’ve to the fromnt of the bay so his mate could tow in a loaded artic. Would never have believed it if I hadn’t seen it. Nowadays, as others have already said, they are more happy to sit there causing chaos while they wait for the recovery truck to come to the rescue.
Too many people see the “stop” light come on and take it literally and stop dead rather than limp off somewhere sensible.
Our yard gate has a “keep clear” sign on it yet someoene abandoned a knackered Clio last year right in front of it, complete with “broken down” notice. Like that helps when I can’t get by? What did help was a sling, D shackle and our JCB.
As someone who works in recovery and more specifically a police contractor we often see this. They will not touch anything to do with the incident mainly as they leave us to do it all. Sometimes they expect us to be there in super quick time but don’t give hard shoulder clearance lol… highways are even bloody worse
If it clears my incident as soon as possible, I always give clearance to hard shoulder run. As there is no CCTV on my stretch of the motorway, our control always contacts the patrol to get permission if the route is clear. All vehicles we attend in live lane get assessed to see if they can be dragged to the hard shoulder, if the patrol is sat behind a vehicle with a lane closure on , it means that the vehicle is too badly damaged to tow, or it has suffered a complete loss of oil/fuel onto the lane, it is easier to clean one lane, than drag it across all 3 lanes contaminating them, meaning a complete carriageway closure, I know what you guys would rather have. Plus our vehicles are now equipped with electronic load cells which measures the forces taken to move a vehicle, once it reaches a certain limit, we have to stop to save damaging the patrol vehicle.
In the distant past the Northumberland plod had Land Rovers. In bad weather they were always parked in known trouble spots on the A1. They would hitch onto the front of vehicles in trouble and usually the extra bit power and traction they provided got things moving again. Sadly it doesn’t seem to happen now, H&S bollox probably. Regards Kev.
I was empty and rear-ended another truck right outside O’Hare airport in Chicago at about 5pm, rush hour and the cops got there quick, saw there were no injuries, they grabbed a passing Ford F350, got a strap from their car and he towed me across 4lanes to the shoulder.
From when I had the accident to the road being cleared was about 15mins.
Juddian:
couldn’t agree more, always thought they and the HA could do just as much with a Pug Expert van, and get more cones in the back so they could reduce the three lane road to a single track, preferably with chicane in it to really bollox things up
i oftenwonder if they’re putting something in the water to turn people into blithering idiots, would explain why tony blair got elected three times
your car is breaking down so do you use the motion to run it up onto the grass verge, so safer for everyone, or do you keep it rolling preferably till its right on the entrance to a roundabout so it can cause utter mayhem, we all know the answer to that one
Sodium Flouride to be precise,re something in the water,good for the teeth you see,as opposed to naturally occuring,Calcium Flouride…the ■■■■’s were keen on this poison to subdue the populace of concentration camps apparently,Birmingham UK has it’s reservoirs full of it more than anywhere else.Lots of convincing evidence online.
Juddian:
couldn’t agree more, always thought they and the HA could do just as much with a Pug Expert van, and get more cones in the back so they could reduce the three lane road to a single track, preferably with chicane in it to really bollox things up
i oftenwonder if they’re putting something in the water to turn people into blithering idiots, would explain why tony blair got elected three times
your car is breaking down so do you use the motion to run it up onto the grass verge, so safer for everyone, or do you keep it rolling preferably till its right on the entrance to a roundabout so it can cause utter mayhem, we all know the answer to that one
Sodium Flouride to be precise,re something in the water,good for the teeth you see,as opposed to naturally occuring,Calcium Flouride…the ■■■■’s were keen on this poison to subdue the populace of concentration camps apparently,Birmingham UK has it’s reservoirs full of it more than anywhere else.Lots of convincing evidence online.
Every day’s a school day here, some of you blokes are wasted driving lorries.
If they got 20 coaches and filled 'em with some of you lot and drove 'em to the Houses of Parliament to replace the utterly useless bleeders currently troughing therein, the country would be on its feet again in a matter of days.
A 4x4 is well capable of towing an artic.
I have towed my own trucks with an XJS Jag many times to start them, in the days when I had too much money and didn’t give a ■■■■.
Things do change btw,… ok I still don’t give a ■■■■, but I have no money now.
Our patrol cars are more than capable, you can imagine the outcry if we used them beyond their capability leading to expensive repair bills, we would be accused of wasting tax payers money.
BossHogg:
Our patrol cars are more than capable, you can imagine the outcry if we used them beyond their capability leading to expensive repair bills, we would be accused of wasting tax payers money.
What a load of bull!! So the fact that you can’t remove a vehicle just in case it might cost a bit of compo, what does that compare to the fact that the motorway is at a standstill and that millions are being lost in revenue of all sorts. Move the obstruction to the hard shoulder, surely that would be the better option, get the motorway up and running.
Same old same old usual BS , can’t do that, it might end up in court etc. don’t want to be sued etc.
Wouldn’t happen anywhere else but the UK.
i call them TICK AS TUCK. 
no common sense at all. 
thank you for your rant. 
you’re welcome. 
