Thanks for all the good reply posts guys.
I was working the night this happened, obviously I can’t go into what the incident was, but if that driver hadn’t called it in, it would probably not have been seen until morning when daylight came. It was also because it was a trucker that called it in that we believed it was a genuine incident and had to be found at all costs.
What I was trying to get over in my post was how you can note your location even if you can’t stop for some reason. It ties it down to within 500 yds (yes, I still work in old money!)
If you do stop, then you can tie it down even further by the small marker-posts previously mentioned by others.
These give the same “numbers” but are every 100 meters (yds for old folk) they don’t however tell you which c/way your on, they do also show you the shortest way to a motorway phone (see the piccy of a telephone handset on the side)
These free to use, phones come through to us, not the police or the RAC (That RAC advert did no good what-so-ever!) it immediately gives us the marker-post location on our system, and because the call has come from there, different/better procedures in signalling for whatever is reported come into place, plus any incident where police need to know, only requires a press of a computer key, and they have all the details.
The system of numbering the c/ways, which included deciding which is the A or B c/way is SUPPOSED to be, that from the largest city that the motorway starts from, or from the main motorway interchange, is noted as the start of the motorway, with the c/way going away from the start being the A c/way, and on the returning c/way being the B c/way.
The junction numbers USUALLY also go up in numbers along the A c/way, and down in numbers as you travel down the B c/way.
But like all things, there’s always exceptions. (I can only talk about the NW) The M62 was supposed to start from Liverpool, so the eastbound c/way is the A, and the westbound is the B, with the junctions numbered accordingly.
A few miles south you have the M56, this “starts” from Manchester, so the in complete contrast to the M62 the westbound c/way is the A, and the eastbound is the B
2 other motorways close by are the M53, where the A c/way is southbound, yet the M57 (just over the Mersey) the A c/way is northbound
The M55 screws thing up completely, the junction numbers go up 1-4 from the M6 join, but on the B c/way not the A c/way as the normal rule suggests.
The M66 is upside down, with the A c/way southbound towards Manchester, not away.
You have to know your network. This is mine! (Top bit is missing from this map, it goes right up to the very end of the M6)
truckerjon:
Motorways going from London have the A carraigway going “away” from London, and the B going “back” to london! Can’t remember off the top of my head, what the M25 is.
Didn’t the railways do something similar years ago? The direction towards London was the the “up line” and away was “down line”?
alamcculloch:
I phoned in an incident once. I was connected to a call centre in Wales had to spend time phoneticaly spelling out place names like Forgandenny and Forteviot.Great fun why cant a 999 call go to some place local?
I think i’m right in thinking that if you use a landline (no 999 landlines by the side of a motorway I know) it will go straight to the local 999 operator and police comtrol room, but a mobile call can go anywhere in the country.
bazza123:
I think i’m right in thinking that if you use a landline (no 999 landlines by the side of a motorway I know) it will go straight to the local 999 operator and police comtrol room, but a mobile call can go anywhere in the country.
Wouldn’t know about that, but there’s talk of all of our (■■■■■■■■ 999 calls being answered in Warrington from as early as next year! I can just imagine little Johnny falling off his bike halfway up Builder’s Lonning and the operator asking “Postcode please?”!
Harry Monk:
speedyguy:
fingermissing:
Why are they in kilometers not miles when are the other signs are in miles
If you took the rolly eyes out it would be a sensible question,
Even with the rollyeyes, it was a sensible question
Road distances are marked in miles in the UK and logic suggests that these signs should also be marked in miles, since mixing imperial and metric measurements when measuring the same thing is bound to lead to tears before bedtime.
Anyway, motorways have had little red, white and blue sticks telling you exactly where you are every 100 yards for donkey’s years.
It’s a similar sort of sensible question as to why bridge heights are in feet & inches yet garage canopies are in metres.
I used those numbers once to pin point a location and the 999 operator didn’t have a bloody clue what i was on about, so there needs to be some education in the ops room too
DaiDap:
I used those numbers once to pin point a location and the 999 operator didn’t have a bloody clue what i was on about, so there needs to be some education in the ops room too
Unfortunately this is a big problem. the majority of police call takers are not motorway trained, some forces worse than others. So if you do have to call it in on 999 instead of the SOS box, be adamant that the operator puts the marker-post down on the log before they send it to the motorway desk even if they don’t know what you’re talking about, tell them that motorway channel operator certainly will.
We get some excellent locations passed to us from these call handlers, eg; “Highway disruption (that’s the default for their logs) M6” that’s it. No description of what the incident is, where it is, direction, nothing! This is not an isolated case unfortunately, motorway operators have been into the force control rooms and given training, but no no avail. Normally the informants phone number comes along with the log, so we now just recall them to get the correct details (providing they answer!)
The real Biffo:
obviously I can’t go into what the incident was,
could you not give us a vague clue or a comparison? sounds like it was “off” the motorway but it had to be closed for 3 hours and the truck driver caught it out the corner of his eye but didnt think anything off it till he was further down the motorway
i realise your bound by the offical secrets act and will be hanged from a VMS gantry if found guilty by the HA storm troopers which we dont want. but just wondering what he saw, as one of us could see something similar in the future say and also discount it thinking the 999 operator would just laugh, which i have thought before, seen something on or near the motorway and thought i woud just get laughed at by the operator and probably charged with wasting police time. but then again they might not of and send someone down but them i’m a miles away and think it would be pointless now, sometimes you just dont know whether to ring in or not, sure some other truck drivers have thought that before?
Blue signs in kms, white poles in yards, motorway signs in miles, heith in the cab in feets and inches, but height on the cannopy on the gas station in metres, fuel sold in litres, but fuel usage given in miles per gallon…
I have nothing against this barbaric units of this strange island, but why on Earth you cannot stick to one system only? Choose one and just stick to it. Irish choosen the civilised one, it’s OK, but if you stick to miles/yards/feets/stones I’ll be all right with that as well!
I see that we hav all learned something new here but we are only a small percentage of the UKs road users, so there is thousands of people that dont know what all the street furniture is all about.
personally I thing the HA, Vosa police Ect should sponsor ads on telly I mean when the likes of hollyoaks takes a break the start of the ads question should be set like what does this sign mean■■? then just before hollyoaks comes back on then the answer is shown. simple but effective way of teaching everyone what half these signs mean.
I agree I have often wondered that that sign in question actually mean’t, had a hunch it was for location but wouldn’t of known to use it if I ever had to make that emergany call. Now all I need to figure out is what those letters painted on the hard shoulder in circles mean where you join the M5 northbound from the M4 see if I can remember, from the “Alpha side” (east bound), after cross the 1/2 free bridge
chris mc:
personally I thing the HA, Vosa police Ect should sponsor ads on telly I mean when the likes of hollyoaks takes a break the start of the ads question should be set like what does this sign mean■■? then just before hollyoaks comes back on then the answer is shown. simple but effective way of teaching everyone what half these signs mean.
Unfortunately that sort of thing is not in their remit or their budget, something like that is down to the government itself (& I’ll bet my shirt that it’s not in their budget right now!) but I agree, education about such stuff to the populous is sadly lacking. (Hands up those of you that remember the Reginald Mole-Husband adverts… What a crap driver he was!)
My first post was to give you more tools to make sure that the information you pass on is even more informative, enabling us to deal with it quicker and better, sending the resources to the right place straight away.
Why I initially posted on here was because we know that if a trucker calls something in, then it’s not going to be a wild goose chase, you guys don’t call in the bits of rubbish, or smoke blowing across the c/way from someone’s bonfire, you filter out that sort of stuff, but tell us about the stuff that really is a genuine problem.
Thanks again to all for taking the time to read it.
The real Biffo:
Unfortunately that sort of thing is not in their remit or their budget,
But I can’t see why they just don’t write it on the sing itself? Even in small letters… If you drive, it does not matter, but if you broken down, you could read them…
chris mc:
I see that we hav all learned something new here but we are only a small percentage of the UKs road users, so there is thousands of people that dont know what all the street furniture is all about.
personally I thing the HA, Vosa police Ect should sponsor ads on telly I mean when the likes of hollyoaks takes a break the start of the ads question should be set like what does this sign mean■■? then just before hollyoaks comes back on then the answer is shown. simple but effective way of teaching everyone what half these signs mean.
I bought 2 friends a copy of the latest edition of the HWC for xmas soon after it came out, neither of them have read it!
Had one of them telling me the other day that an oblong sign with white background with “max speed 50” on a curved m/way slip road was compulsory!
Although I only drive part time I’ve called several things in over the years. Last was a lone female stood on one of the high bridges over the M62 on Windy Hill looking down at the traffic. It was raining very heavily & going dark, she did not appear to be dressed for the weather. Now I have the HA no. in my phone, but previously used to call on 999, explain it was not (usually) a dire emergency, but that I am a lorry driver & have observed something I think they should be made aware of.
I have almost always been thanked for calling it in.
Another, on a slightly lighter note as no harm came to him, was an elderly man pushing his pedal cycle, on a nice sunny day, the wrong way along the hard shoulder just west of Burtonwood services on the M62.
Wasn’t you parked on M55 J3 on Wed eve just before dark was it Biffo?
An excellent, informative post from Biffo & others.
As an ex Fireman, now lorryist, I call in everything I think of which is relevant, from a broken down car with it’s arse sticking out of the hard shoulder to a full blown multi-vehicle incident (RTA in old speak) with numerous casualties and have always tried to use the roadside markers, big or small to give a location and never had a problem.
I’ve also been on the other end in the past and had to drive 1 way, then another for miles on end to try & locate an incident & firmly believe in giving as much information as possible the the telephone operator, no matter how long it takes, even ignoring casualties for a few minutes to 'get it right’
It’s also good to hear that calls from Professional Road Users are taken that little bit more seriously than some others, thanks fellas
It may be a topic Rikki, CM & T&D could cover in the magazines to!
For decades motorways have had marker sticks every 100 yards with a unique location identifier on them which the emergency and recovery services have maps of, so why spend £££££££s putting a load of extra ones in that do the exact same job? Typical Labour thinking.
