Last Friday I had the misfortune to have to spend a day trying to work in the UK after having arrived from Bilbao on Thursday night. It would be reasonable to assume that to commence work in the midlands on Friday morning drive to Surrey to load and then drive to Poole to ship out would be a fairly simple and not too time consuming process. How wrong can you be??
Very it would seem. The journey down to Surrey all of 157Km took a not too bad (for the UK) 2.5 hrs, the final leg however from Surrey to Poole was unreal - it took the best part of 4 hours!!
The reason of course is the blithe way in which the British Police just decide to close roads due to traffic “incidents”. Last Friday there were about 7 different closures on various motorways during the afternoon - those on the M25 and M3 affected my journey.
Do those who stomp around dressed like Imperial State Troopers (coppers) and their various bosses have any idea how much all these closures must cost in wasted fuel, lost business and the like, do they even care - I doubt it. But more importantly WHY are these roads closed? Oh please dont tell me - its not the 'elf n safety fetish again is it■■?
Hombre me old Amigo Espanol, the reason that these sort of things are done by our wonderful Police ,are to make yourself, and others who had the foresight to move to Spain,and other countries in Europe and further afield,realise what a sensible decision it was that you made, when you decided to abandon the Dis-UK and move abroad. You must realise that for everyone of you who leaves, we import 5 immigrants of varying ethnic backgrounds.(and they are the ones that we know about). In fact we will be getting a few hundred extra this very day, when the Mayor of Calais burns that camp to the ground, and it,s inhabitants get stuck on a ferry and shipped over here. I wish to zb that I could set sail for Europe, and then head South for Malaga as soon as I got loaded. I,m zbin stuck here coz my missus won,t move.She sez we are too old FFS. Hasta la recuerdo; Vaja con Dios.(or summat like that). Next time the boss loads you for the UK , tell him to take it his zbin self.
Hombre:
But more importantly WHY are these roads closed? Oh please dont tell me - its not the 'elf n safety fetish again is it■■?
The decision to close a road is not, I suspect, taken lightly.
I was travelling N/B M1 J39 the other week. S/B was closed (traffic was simply diverted off and back on the “on” slip, it was night time/light traffic)
The reason:-
There was a body in the carriageway.
What would you suggest they do in this situation
Maybe form a “rolling roadblock”, and simply drag the body to the side of the road, and THEN try to establish what happened.
I don’t know how foreign police do things but the UK police have 2 things to consider at a road incident - safety and whether that incident is regarded as a ‘crime scene’
Hombre:
But more importantly WHY are these roads closed? Oh please dont tell me - its not the 'elf n safety fetish again is it■■?
The decision to close a road is not, I suspect, taken lightly.
I was travelling N/B M1 J39 the other week. S/B was closed (traffic was simply diverted off and back on the “on” slip, it was night time/light traffic)
The reason:-
There was a body in the carriageway.
What would you suggest they do in this situation
Maybe form a “rolling roadblock”, and simply drag the body to the side of the road, and THEN try to establish what happened.
Hombre:
In a word YES!! their bloody dead for Gods sake.
moving the body may destroy vital evidence so it stays where it is until all the evidence is collected - then the body is removed - that is the way UK police work - if anyone does not agree with that then they can approach their MP to have the rules changed or choose not drive on the UK highways
There must have been a plague of corpses raining down upon the UK last Friday then given the number of closures.
I do of course fully understand that if a body is found idly lying in the carriageway then the road would need to be closed, not least to stop some nasty trucker driving over it to see if it explodes or just goes “pop” - but this was not the reason for all if any closures on the day in question. More than likely they were due to the Police and their overtly PC (pardon the pun) risk aversive health and safety policies.
On the same subject, what gives highways agency workers (incident support unit) the right to block an on slip with their vehicle? I understand that the Police and probably those pretend traffic police doing it, but not some blokes in a highways agency cone lorry. I refer to the onslip at Jcn 7 M3 being closed as I exited Jcn 7 to reroute onto the A30. I was under the impression only the Police could direct traffic.
Hombre:
but this was not the reason for all if any closures on the day in question. More than likely they were due to the Police and their overtly PC (pardon the pun) risk aversive health and safety policies.
So what was the reason?
Hombre:
On the same subject, what gives highways agency workers (incident support unit) the right to block an on slip with their vehicle? I understand that the Police and probably those pretend traffic police doing it, but not some blokes in a highways agency cone lorry. I refer to the onslip at Jcn 7 M3 being closed as I exited Jcn 7 to reroute onto the A30. I was under the impression only the Police could direct traffic.
Maybe they were instucted to block the sliproad by the police/pretend Police who were too busy sorting out the aftermath off a multiple/fatal/(insert any accident you can think of)
ROG:
I don’t know how foreign police do things but the UK police have 2 things to consider at a road incident - safety and whether that incident is regarded as a ‘crime scene’
The way its handled is done by guidelines written by none other than Brunstrom from North Wales.
The way the guide was written was heavilly critised by a ex high ranking police office, wish i could find the link to the article.
Basically the critism was that he was basically lifted it from the way the police deal with a murder case, where the crime scene is sealed off, to look for DNA, weapons and stuff. The critism was that the amount of time roads are closed and the way they are closed is unneccessary for most accidents, since the cause can usually quickly be found and the scene can be photographed rather than waiting for hours on end on people appearing to look at the scene.
Hombre:
But more importantly WHY are these roads closed? Oh please dont tell me - its not the 'elf n safety fetish again is it■■?
The decision to close a road is not, I suspect, taken lightly.
I was travelling N/B M1 J39 the other week. S/B was closed (traffic was simply diverted off and back on the “on” slip, it was night time/light traffic)
The reason:-
There was a body in the carriageway.
What would you suggest they do in this situation
Maybe form a “rolling roadblock”, and simply drag the body to the side of the road, and THEN try to establish what happened.
In a word YES!! their bloody dead for Gods sake.
or simply they could errect one of those white tents around the crime scene, cone it off, make sure everyone is wearing hi-viz make so they’ll all be safe, get the HA put on their matix signs DEAD AND ALIVE PEDESTRIANS ON CARRIAGEWAY including ones 700 miles away and bob’s your uncle, road can open and vehicles can pass either side of the tent. not quite sure what they would do with the guide ropes though
Kenny1975:
The critism was that the amount of time roads are closed and the way they are closed is unneccessary for most accidents, since the cause can usually quickly be found and the scene can be photographed rather than waiting for hours on end on people appearing to look at the scene.
Fully agree it could be done quicker and the Highways Agency have started to supply equipment to the Police to speed the process up. I have been at incidents where there appears to be no reason for a closure, so i will always question it with the Police and see if we can at least get some lanes back and restore some traffic flow.
That said, there is a culture in this country that says a road must be closed to investigate an accident. Its about time there was pressure put on the Police to stop doing this. Very few other countries act the same way, ive been in France and seen 3 full body bags on the hard shoulder and wreckage dragged out of the way, the next 30k were the safest bit of road ive ever been on.
The family of the dead will always want an explanantion as to what happened yet the answer is often obvious. Sometimes its bad driving on the part of the dead or someone else, sometimes its a mechanical fault and that wont necessarily be found at the accident scene, sometimes its stupidity, sometimes its just an accident, they happen. The point is that in a lot, but not all cases, theres no need to have a major route closed for a long period of time, its just that the rules and laws of this country dictate a certain way of doing things and its currently not open to much deviation.
I dont have any answers but i do always question the reasons for a closure and i will work from within to reduce them, but i can see a long uphill battle with the powers that be to get anywhere.
i think there is a HA on this site that could reply to this but i have seen this sort of stuff happen and they don’t just do this for the fun of it they do it for all sorts of reasons
The reason is simple, a total lack of common sense.
Ok a dead bloke laying in the road is a bit unusual, but even in that case, if the body is near, say a bridge, well you don’t need to be Sherlock Holmes to work out what happened different if it’s in the middle of nowhere then forensics may be useful. Yes the family may want to know details, but I’m pretty sure they’ll be happy enough with a simple ‘he/she jumped off a bridge’ is it nessecary for them to know the exact trajectory of the descent?
Too many people in great (now with a lowercase g) Britain have ‘non’ jobs that are only in existence to bollox things up, thanks Tone/Gordon
Their I think we have the answer - overpaid box ticking nincompoops with “non jobs” forever attending meetings and diversity sessions at tax payers expense, thinking up ways to justify their overpaid pointless occupation. For some good examples of these jobs and the breathtaking salaries they pay have a look in the Guardian carrers section.
newmercman:
The reason is simple, a total lack of common sense.
Ok a dead bloke laying in the road is a bit unusual, but even in that case, if the body is near, say a bridge, well you don’t need to be Sherlock Holmes to work out what happened different if it’s in the middle of nowhere then forensics may be useful. Yes the family may want to know details, but I’m pretty sure they’ll be happy enough with a simple ‘he/she jumped off a bridge’ is it nessecary for them to know the exact trajectory of the descent?
Too many people in great (now with a lowercase g) Britain have ‘non’ jobs that are only in existence to bollox things up, thanks Tone/Gordon
Who is to say the dead bloke jumped and was not pushed or thrown over?
the motorway is only shut in certain cases, serious injury or fatal rta’s, major obstruction (eg truck on its side…) it costs a fortune to shut the motorway so it is never done unless it has to be and as we all know it causes mayhem all around. if its shut due to a crash recovery is usually a major part of the time its closed.
Oscardog i can imagine the reponse you get when you turn up and start questioning the police as to why the motorway is closed
What equipment are the hato’s supplying to the police?
The UK police are just a bunch of muppets. If they all failed to turn up for work, I doubt anyone would notice.
Think of the woman that called for assistance over a two year period asking for help with regards abuse from teenagers. The police refused to help. She ended up in so much despair she burned herself and her disabled child alive rather than go through any more.
Yesterday, another story of a 48yr old man being arrested for “placing his hand on the shoulder” of a hooligan. A member of a gang that had been, for days, throwing apples at his house, him and his wife. Several times this man had called 999 and got no response. The moment a local thug gets “touched”, the police are straight round.
UK police are totally useless and unfit for purpose. They literally get away with murder.
SuperSmiley:
ME…ME…ME …Just stay in spain…we don’t need you!!!
Oh how I wish I could, nobody in their right mind would want to go there (except illegals). Sadly the work I do requires it. You can rest assured that as soon as I find another job which does not involve being in the UK I will be taking it.
