got stuck for a couple of hours on the a1 in the aftermath of the 12 car smash, behind me was a gritter that must have been stuck for a hour plus, eventually a cop car comes down the hard shoulder the wrong way, stops, talks to him then drives off , about 15 mins he comes back up with another gritter[ assume he was in que] , gritter behind pulls out and follows and cop car escorts them up hard shoulder.
do gritters have to sit there in que till cops arrive to ■■■■■■ them, are they not deemed emergency services in these weather conditions.
seemed a bit daft to have two gritters sat there for at least a couple of hours betwween them
Probably something to do with the siren as some daft eejit could get out of car stand in hard shoulder trying to wish the Jam away and get packed into the snow by said gritter.
Polis where probably just checking it was clear to run up the hard shoulder.
The Hard Shoulder is for Emergency use only i.e Breakdowns
It’s an offence to drive along the Hard Shoulder so you can guarantee that had the 2 gritter drivers used their common sense they could still be prosecuted for driving down there.
However, once the Police are instructing the drivers to use the Hard Shoulder they cannot be prosecuted
It’s just the pathetic red tape thios country insists on having in place
(I use to be a gritter driver and the do’s and dont Gateshead Council had in place were stupid, but, they had to be adhered to)
it is the law that you need a police ■■■■■■ or police permission/HA permission to drive along the hard shoulder.
a while back i did just this to jump the queue of stationary traffic on the M42…everyone was honking horns and making all the usual hand signs to demonstrate thier disgust…and then the HA officer made a song and dance when i came across the problem case blocking the M42.
all was forgiven as i started dismantling the dash of the foden which had jacknifed after his bloody air blower thingy came unplugged behind the dash where some plonker had connected it to the handbrake feed,applying the handbrake at 56mph on a fully loaded milk tanker. 5 minutes later pipe re-connected,dash looks like a grenade has gone off in it,we’re all parked up on the hard shoulder and all traffic moving again.
i had rang in for permission prior to the hard shoulder run,but it still took a while as people try to block you thinking you’re just queue jumping not going to fix the thing blocking the road.not such a problem in the wrecker as mondeo man doesn’t like trying to head off a truck.
todays little trip out started at 6am,a slight dusting of snow saw me on the m6 nr corley towing one in during which it started to snow properley.didn’t see any gritters at all.then back to the workshop for a few jobs,then take a repaired vehicle(tow truck) down to essex at 1pm.by now the weather was getting pretty bleak.
off i go down the m6 where i see one of the new orange gritters but it’s not actually gritting.the lights are lit but no grit.maybe empty me thinks.along the A14 to the M11still no gritters,the further south the worse the weather but everything is still going.when i get to the drop off the sideroads are just solid snow and the roads through the village are slushy.the snow is a bit deeper than ankle deep.still no gritters.
now here,the day starts to go downhill.i don’t hang around and head for home in the spare van(a VW caddy) all going ok,roads very slushy but still going ok until i get back on the A14 where i have a fuel problem.now the fast lane of the A14 is packed snow and the slow lane is slushy,as i’m dropping down to low speeds which is forcing trucks into the fast lane,i call it a day and pull into a layby and wait for my mate to come down and tow me home.by now it’s about 5pm,and still NO gritters then about 6pm 2 come along together and then they appear at random interval,some gritting,some not.
the upshot is there didn’t seem to be a dayshift operating on the A14.the laybys are just packed snow and we had a right game getting out the layby when towing the little van back.
on the way back there were plenty of gritters but some were not gritting so i presume they were empty.
with the weather the way it is you’d expect to see them everywhere/all the time so to speak.
do you think they are short?
or is it a strategy of some sort? maybe it’s not worth gritting when it’s just getting washed off the road.
i’m not knocking them as they do a cracking job,the new orange trucks look great but the old fodens are still running on the M6 from the junction 2 depot.
The question should maybe read “are there enough gritters,if so are they deployed in enough time”.
i couldnt get out of the street in the town i live in early this morning due to snow.fair enough,i dont live on a main road/route,i dont expect my street to be gritted.
so with an impending day off looming,i opted to walk my children to school.
the main road through my town is busy at the best of times,and i was astounded it was covered in snow and compact ice,not even a hint of slush.the gritters had been nowhere near.
i ask myself why?,its not like they didnt have enough warning,or its not an essential main route,or does it like everything nowadays,come down to cost.
even those who saw the posts last time it snowed,about the a1 and a19(amongst others),that had not been gritted.why not?
its beyond me.
wrechtech you are, as usual, right. Having done a limited amount of hard shoulder recoveries, i believe only emergency service vehicles (i.e those fitted with blue lights) can run it without direct permission. Recovery vehicles & service vans can do so if attending the incident concerned & ONLY with Police permission. (I accept your point that maybe HA can also now give permission? They hadn’t been thought of when i was doing it!)
So what if you’re stuck in a queue in lane 1, dying for a P, & only say 2 or 3 car lengths, or maybe, if your’e in an artic, say 1 truck length from the slip into a services?
Would you or wouldn’t you?
buck73:
The question should maybe read “are there enough gritters,if so are they deployed in enough time”.
i couldnt get out of the street in the town i live in early this morning due to snow.fair enough,i dont live on a main road/route,i dont expect my street to be gritted.
so with an impending day off looming,i opted to walk my children to school.
the main road through my town is busy at the best of times,and i was astounded it was covered in snow and compact ice,not even a hint of slush.the gritters had been nowhere near.
i ask myself why?,its not like they didnt have enough warning,or its not an essential main route,or does it like everything nowadays,come down to cost.
even those who saw the posts last time it snowed,about the a1 and a19(amongst others),that had not been gritted.why not?
its beyond me.
We have a tractor pulled one, working for Darlington Boro Council. it was out almost constantly from 6pm last night, until 9pm tonight when it rained, we are now on standby. We mainly do smaller big roads, (I know that doesn’t really make sense) Like bus routes etc, I was on all night last night, and to be honest, I thought we were fighting a losing battle. I had a few hours kip early morning, and when I went back out, it was mainly slush, so we went down a grade of road.
I can’t speak for all councils, that was us.
Where i live in Penicuik they wait till there is a crash or until a w-end before they grit the roads!!! As for the poor old people they are trapped on their houses every year for no reason apart for the fact the council can only clear the paths on overtime days so if it snows on monday and if it hasnt melted by friday then every man with a hi-viz is out on saturday and sunday? Im not having a go at the hard working guy who has to clear the roads but at the system
Driveroneuk:
So what if you’re stuck in a queue in lane 1, dying for a P, & only say 2 or 3 car lengths, or maybe, if your’e in an artic, say 1 truck length from the slip into a services?
Would you or wouldn’t you?
I have contemplated that sometimes, especially when in queue of traffic and your only say 1 or 2 artic lengths from your junction, you think “Do I don’t I?”
No doubt its illegal but providing you don’t take the ■■■■ you probably get away with it…….he says. Sods law though I’d have a undercover cop car sitting behind me.
However saying that i was on the M40 8am and was about to come off at junction for warwick and people were using the h/s as an extended slip road for the junction, so i joined them and everyone else coming off at that junction follwed suite, as any one else seen this during rush hour??
Oh Highwayman can I have your mobile number so if I’m stuck in a queue in your neck of the woods I can give you a quick call and I can then use the h/s and be on my merry way.
Driveroneuk:
So what if you’re stuck in a queue in lane 1, dying for a P, & only say 2 or 3 car lengths, or maybe, if your’e in an artic, say 1 truck length from the slip into a services?
Would you or wouldn’t you?
I have contemplated that sometimes, especially when in queue of traffic and your only say 1 or 2 artic lengths from your junction, you think “Do I don’t I?”
No doubt its illegal but providing you don’t take the ■■■■ you probably get away with it…….he says. Sods law though I’d have a undercover cop car sitting behind me.
However saying that i was on the M40 8am and was about to come off at junction for warwick and people were using the h/s as an extended slip road for the junction, so i joined them and everyone else coming off at that junction follwed suite, as any one else seen this during rush hour??
Oh Highwayman can I have your mobile number so if I’m stuck in a queue in your neck of the woods I can give you a quick call and I can then use the h/s and be on my merry way.
I’ve probably told this before as it’s one of my favourite stories.
A few years ago whilst stuck in traffic, about a mile from a junction, a car slipped onto the hard shoulder, and flew up it, about four or five cars thinking ‘If he can do it…’
Yeah it was a plain wrapper
Another one a few months ago, pulling out of Gateshead on the A1 S just before the A1 and woooooooooooooosh a bloody whiteish transit van, flew up my inside on the hard shoulder, stayed there all the wat to the services, going like a nutter n’arl
pecjam23:
Oh Highwayman can I have your mobile number so if I’m stuck in a queue in your neck of the woods I can give you a quick call and I can then use the h/s and be on my merry way.
It’s expensive, it’'ll cost you a full english for everyone on my crew, every day till you retire
People have been moaning about how the country comes to a standstill with a little bit of snow and how they’ve had 2 weeks warning to prepare for it. All I hear on the radio is Joe Public saying what a cockup it is without the first idea about anything.
The gritters were out in force and working around the clock.
You cannot just hire in some extra gritters and operators to cope as there aren’t anymore out there.
Maybe there aren’t enough of them but if the government announced that they were going to buy another 500 there would be an uproar about the cost of the equipment and the manpower to cope with the miniscule amount of snow that we do get.
Other countries like Canada can cope with much greater levels of snow but that’s because they get so much of the stuff reguarly that they have got the kit to deal with it.
8wheels:
This is a no win situation for the authorities.
People have been moaning about how the country comes to a standstill with a little bit of snow and how they’ve had 2 weeks warning to prepare for it. All I hear on the radio is Joe Public saying what a cockup it is without the first idea about anything.
The gritters were out in force and working around the clock.
You cannot just hire in some extra gritters and operators to cope as there aren’t anymore out there.
Maybe there aren’t enough of them but if the government announced that they were going to buy another 500 there would be an uproar about the cost of the equipment and the manpower to cope with the miniscule amount of snow that we do get.
Other countries like Canada can cope with much greater levels of snow but that’s because they get so much of the stuff reguarly that they have got the kit to deal with it.
it’s all got a bit mixed up-is this all one thread now?
no worries-i’m not moaning about gritter drivers they do a cracking job-i was just wondering if there are enough,after all the snow we’ve had hasn’t been that bad,but any lane covered in snow with trucks still going along at 56mph is a jacknife risk and the results are worse on roads like the A14 where theres little protection from going off road into something hard.
i agree that we could probably not afford another half dozen gritters never mind 500.
hey there’s an idea we could build them here,chassis as well.
in rugby today i noticed a tow along gritter abandoned at the side of the road with the chassis broke right after a bad set of speed bumps.
what about grit bins-where have they all gone■■?
5 minutes later pipe re-connected,dash looks like a grenade has gone off in it,we’re all parked up on the hard shoulder and all traffic moving again.
