Roadside workers injuries/fatalities

So I’m not sure how much speed if any this will gain but I’m going to try to push for a new motoring law over the whole of the uk, in the us this is called a “move over law”

This requires drivers nearing a stopped emergency vehicles (including recovery vehicles and roadside maintenance vehicles) that have lights activated (blue or amber), unless otherwise directed by a law enforcement officer, to:
Vacate the lane closest to the emergency vehicle, if the highway has two or more lanes traveling the direction of the emergency vehicle; or
Slow to a speed not more than 20 miles per hour (mph) less than the posted speed limit when the posted speed limit is 25 mph or more; or
Slow to a speed not more than five mph when the posted speed limit is less than 25 mph.
A violation is punishable by a maximum fine of £200.
Obviously I will be after some signatures for a petition nearer the time but firstly I would like some statistics but don’t know where to find them.
how many a week/month/year;
recovery operatives, emergency vehicle operatives and roadside workers are killed or injured during the course of their duties by 3rd party vehicles failing to slow down or move over. I’ll be contacting some breakdown firms to see if they can provide any assistance but I thought here would be my first port of call.
Any other useful help or information would be appreciated.

Good luck with that, you are trying to change a law in a country where it’s almost compulsory to have same ■■■ marriage and legal to take pictures up someone’s skirt.

We already have Driving without Due Care and Attention and Dangerous Driving which covers roadworks etc.

Wheel Nut:
Good luck with that, you are trying to change a law in a country where it’s almost compulsory to have same ■■■ marriage and legal to take pictures up someone’s skirt.

We already have Driving without Due Care and Attention and Dangerous Driving which covers roadworks etc.

That about covers it.
Trying to tie someone down with a new offence,specific speed reductions, needing speed guns, and tape measures to prove the exact details, only to see a numpty escape because of a small loophole and a clever brief? Nah. The rules are clear enough, bad drivers won`t obey any new laws more than the existing ones.

good idea, something i do anyway…but you yourself wont change any laws…sorry…what we need to cover this is, more and more little boxes that tell us of a road or lane closure, then maybe drivers will not plough into the back of a broken down vehicle on the hard shoulder…but like i said…not enough warning boxes…too much money…not cost effective against a human life/lives.

While I understand your concerns and what you are trying to achieve and I always try and move over if possible, I personally think on a busy motorway or Dual Carriageway this could lead to more collisions as vehicle try and find a gap or slowdown from motorway speeds to 20mph.

Was worth a shout, we all know the general public don’t take notice of closed lanes on motorways I’ve been at the incident point on a motorway where people have drive 3 miles down a closed lane to merge right at the accident, or the other week they closed the m25 completely and were diverting off at the junction and people were still drive if through 4 lanes with red x’s above their heads. We need gantry cams or something that fine people for driving through closed lanes. Makes my blood boil

Frost89:
So I’m not sure how much speed if any this will gain but I’m going to try to push for a new motoring law over the whole of the uk, in the us this is called a “move over law”

This requires drivers nearing a stopped emergency vehicles (including recovery vehicles and roadside maintenance vehicles) that have lights activated (blue or amber), unless otherwise directed by a law enforcement officer, to:
Vacate the lane closest to the emergency vehicle, if the highway has two or more lanes traveling the direction of the emergency vehicle; or
Slow to a speed not more than 20 miles per hour (mph) less than the posted speed limit when the posted speed limit is 25 mph or more; or
Slow to a speed not more than five mph when the posted speed limit is less than 25 mph.
A violation is punishable by a maximum fine of £200.
Obviously I will be after some signatures for a petition nearer the time but firstly I would like some statistics but don’t know where to find them.
how many a week/month/year;
recovery operatives, emergency vehicle operatives and roadside workers are killed or injured during the course of their duties by 3rd party vehicles failing to slow down or move over. I’ll be contacting some breakdown firms to see if they can provide any assistance but I thought here would be my first port of call.
Any other useful help or information would be appreciated.

We pay Mps for this kind of stuff,think I’ll stick to driving.

Good drivers already do this as standard.

Bad drivers - don’t.

It doesn’t need “laws” - just a helping of common sense.
Don’t forget that it doesn’t help much when people parked on the hard shoulder for ANY reason - DO often have this rather bad habit of parking up next to the rumble strip side of the hard shoulder, rather than the crash barrier side, as far away from the rumble strip as possible! :unamused:

Broken down drivers and attending VOSA/Police have been killed by passing vehicles “skimming” the rumble strip, only to collide with a parked vehicle, or pedestrian right next to the halted vehicle…
Are there any stats as to how many Ambulance/Fire crews have been killed in this manner though? :question:

As others have said we’ve do have laws that could deal with those that put road workers and recovery workers lives in danger, but due to the reliance on cameras for road traffic enforcement at the determent of Traffic patrols, the existing laws and any new law would be difficult to enforce.

Having read the rest of your post, I’m sure statistics are available; maybe the department of transport have something. If you have no luck with them, you could actually try your local MP (some do work for their constituents :open_mouth: ) or journalist, maybe one who works for a magazine covering the recovery industry to help you get the information.

As for sticking to driving and letting MP’s sort it out, parliament normally is last on any sort of bandwagon, it’s often up an ordinary person to step up and push the issue and get it into the public attention before the lawmakers wake up and take notice.

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=150370

Your not the first to think this and won’t be the last either.

The average driver does not give a toss about anyone but themselves, they ignore all the road laws we have at present and who is going to enforce yet more rules, half of the existing laws don’t get enforced as it is.

Any half decent driver already does exactly what you are asking for, slowing down moving over and paying close attention to their driving and what is going on around them.

More laws aren’t the answer, more training, periodic reviews of driving etc the driving test is far too easy and people who shouldn’t be driving can be taught to pass a test.

I still fail to see why we are so backward as a nation, have a word with the breakdown companies that provide vehicles that are not fit for use leaving you guys to work on cars at the side of the road.

All broken down cars especially on motorways and dual carriageways should be attended to immediately by a repo type truck as they use in America, drive up back under, lift and steadily move the vehicle to the nearest safe place before anything else is done, vehicle and passengers moved to a safe location. then the diagnosis work can be done in a safer area or repair. Or maybe spec lifts only for motorway work as an option, a quick way of getting under the wheels and lift a quick strap and away.

I also believe the breakdown companies bear some blame in this, sending our patrols to first see if the car is fixable even when a driver who knows what he is on about tells them its something serious like headgasket etc. Lets send a patrol van out to try and fix it at the side of a motorway, no good ok well send a recovery truck that’s 2 guys that have been at the side of the road now. or using those patrol vans with a ridiculous tow dolly that takes time to set up. The company has a serious duty of care to workers in that line of work and profit dictate what workers have to do.

Even a quick worker with a beavertail is going to be there a considerable amount of time getting a vehicle and passengers loaded up onto a beavertail.

No matter what you do you cant account for inattentive or just bad drivers full stop.

bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-n … e-44511623

A few weeks ago northbound A1M Washington early hours , had been passing tyre debris in the carriageway for a couple of miles , so was expecting to see a truck on the hard shoulder .
Sure enough there was an artic parked with the hazards on , just in case the driver is about to leave the cab or is already checking his truck I pulled out to give some room only for an East European ‘Flip Flop’ to undertake take me as we approached the stranded truck without a care .
Had anybody been working on the truck …well thankfully there wasnt .
Before anybody takes offence at ’ Flip Flop’ thats a lot better than what I called him , bloody idiot .

I was actually thinking of some kind of “Statistics Subdivision” here.

There are seperate stats for example that have “All UK road deaths” and “Driver Road Deaths” and even “Commercial Driver Road Deaths”.

What I’m looking for here, but not finding so far - are

Roadside Deaths - Police
Roadside Deaths - Road Workers
Roadside Deaths - Ambulance Crews
Roadside Deaths - Fire Crews
Roadside Deaths - Vehicle Passengers
Roadside Deaths - Broken Down Drivers

If it should turn out that there are hardly any “Ambulance Crews” being killed compared to say, “Police attending” - then clearly we should look at what Ambulance Crews are trained with to keep their stats so low, whilst what the police are doing so badly wrong, that they keep getting killed whilst turning up to rescue someone else who’s already broken down earlier, for example… :bulb:

What you are suggesting is impossible in English law.

English law is based upon what a reasonable person thinks, which is why ignorance of the law is not a defence.

You are asking for a law to be made that will require very specific wording to cover your very specific circumstances, it will never work, which is why no law maker or ‘reasonable person’ will ever give it the time.

In fact, this sort of thinking smacks of a tabloid reader whose just read the article that the tabloid journalist wants him to agree with.

No point in a new law if there’s nobody there to enforce it.

A lot more prosuctions would help - you tend to notice when your mate suddenly starts asking for lifts

When your mate is a fit bird though - you start offering rather than asking. :blush: :stuck_out_tongue:

Winseer:
I was actually thinking of some kind of “Statistics Subdivision” here.

There are seperate stats for example that have “All UK road deaths” and “Driver Road Deaths” and even “Commercial Driver Road Deaths”.

What I’m looking for here, but not finding so far - are

Roadside Deaths - Police
Roadside Deaths - Road Workers
Roadside Deaths - Ambulance Crews
Roadside Deaths - Fire Crews
Roadside Deaths - Vehicle Passengers
Roadside Deaths - Broken Down Drivers

If it should turn out that there are hardly any “Ambulance Crews” being killed compared to say, “Police attending” - then clearly we should look at what Ambulance Crews are trained with to keep their stats so low, whilst what the police are doing so badly wrong, that they keep getting killed whilst turning up to rescue someone else who’s already broken down earlier, for example… :bulb:

Not exactly what you`re looking for but from 2016, a FOI request gave stats from 2014:
whatdotheyknow.com/request/ … 3.pdf.html
In 2014 there were 85 fatalities on UK motorways, of which 4 involved vehicles on the hard shoulder, or slip road etc.
No mention if the victims involved were workers of any description.
I daresay there is better info out there somewhere though.

EDIT. 2016 there were a total of 96 motorway fatalities. but can`t see any figures for those involving hard shoulder.
assets.publishing.service.gov.u … 016-01.pdf

Winseer:
I was actually thinking of some kind of “Statistics Subdivision” here.

There are seperate stats for example that have “All UK road deaths” and “Driver Road Deaths” and even “Commercial Driver Road Deaths”.

What I’m looking for here, but not finding so far - are

Roadside Deaths - Police
Roadside Deaths - Road Workers
Roadside Deaths - Ambulance Crews
Roadside Deaths - Fire Crews
Roadside Deaths - Vehicle Passengers
Roadside Deaths - Broken Down Drivers

If it should turn out that there are hardly any “Ambulance Crews” being killed compared to say, “Police attending” - then clearly we should look at what Ambulance Crews are trained with to keep their stats so low, whilst what the police are doing so badly wrong, that they keep getting killed whilst turning up to rescue someone else who’s already broken down earlier, for example… :bulb:

You might struggle to get anything of statistical significance from available figures.
For instance there were 529 deaths of workers in road traffic collisions in 2016 but these will include all types of drivers (e.g. reps, motorcycle couriers, truck drivers, etc). These are mostly not “reportable” fatalities for the purposes of HSE.

According to HSE there were 31 fatalities of workers ‘ hit by a moving vehicle’ for the year to June 2017. Average is 25 per year since 2012. However these are not necessarily all road deaths. They could be on construction sites, warehouses or transport depots,etc.

In terms of Motor vehicle repair workers the latest figures I can find were 14 deaths in total caused by moving vehicles over the period 2002-2012. Again not necessarily on roads.

There are approximately 15-20 pedestrians killed on motorways each year (either from getting out of their vehicles or by walking across/along the motorway.)

Dig out of that what you can…

zaax:
A lot more prosuctions would help - you tend to notice when your mate suddenly starts asking for lifts

Dipper might be interested in this :laughing:

mick palmer:
A few weeks ago northbound A1M Washington early hours , had been passing tyre debris in the carriageway for a couple of miles , so was expecting to see a truck on the hard shoulder .
Sure enough there was an artic parked with the hazards on , just in case the driver is about to leave the cab or is already checking his truck I pulled out to give some room only for an East European ‘Flip Flop’ to undertake take me as we approached the stranded truck without a care .
Had anybody been working on the truck …well thankfully there wasnt .
Before anybody takes offence at ’ Flip Flop’ thats a lot better than what I called him , bloody idiot .

It’s a long time since I drove a lorry in the UK, but we have motorways hear too. :wink: I’ve always moved over half a lane to prevent cretins undertaking. Although I haven’t used the UK’s “smart motorways,” I still think they’re the most dangerous idea anyone’s come up with. We have freeways/motorways here that used to be two lane each way and nice to drive on… until they were turned into three narrow lanes with no hard shoulder, just a little lay by every now and again. :unamused: