So when I arrive at an RTI the first thing I've got to take in to account is my own safety.. I stop my car at a pre-set and pre-specified distance away from the accident scene, this is for my own safety and yours if you are standing near your car in the lane of a live dual carriageway..
I then put on my yellow jacket and try to get out of the car without getting knocked down by the next car to come along and not see the shiny stripy police car covered in flashing blue & red lights that's entirely blocking a lane... and they swerve out of the way (despite having had well over 200 metres to change lanes based on the line of visibility in front of them)..
First things first, IS ANYONE INJURED? DOES ANYONE NEED AN AMBULANCE? check that, if nothing serious I start bunging out traffic cones around the scene of my accident whilst calling the control room for an Ambulance etc.. Reason for this is so that no one else becomes a needless casualty, specially me because I can't help anyone if I'm creamed by some ones Ford Galaxy or similar.
It's a dual carriageway so I have 6 - 8 cones to set out a 100 metre taper.. so I walk off to a 100 metre distance and start putting out cones from the edge of the carriageway to the line at the middle of the two lanes then the last cone or two between my car and the accident scene so that the fire truck or ambulance have a sterile area to pull in to..
What amazes me is that STILL even with a police car blocking a lane 50 metres from the accident (generally) and 100 metres of cones behind that and a clear view of the police car and cones for 100+ metres behind the accident and signs saying "POLICE SLOW" or "POLICE ACCIDENT" out another 50 - 100 metres behind this people STILL wait until the very last minute to merge out in to the other lane causing everyone else to brake hard or take evasive action, or for me to look up and think "OH CRAP" because running through my mind is the fact that someone is going to plough through all my cones, then my car, then me................. see a POLICE sign??? Please SLOW DOWN and LOOK at what is going on!!
WHY don't people read the road a little further than 50 metres in front of their bonnet?
Then when being waved out by another police officer they for some reason decide that means they should just STOP in the MIDDLE of the road bringing EVERYTHING to a halt. OMG how dangerous is that? I've seen it on so many occasions now that it scares me... even when passing through other counties I've been stuck behind someone who decided to do that..
Is it that when the blue lights flash drivers suddenly lose the ability to think? I don't think so because 99% of drivers do just fine and pass around the accident (rubbernecking as they go mostly) and then carry on in their daily lives.. but 1% seem to just lose the ability to pass by without scaring the life out of everyone standing inside of the cones.
Please, DON'T RUBBERNECK, Please MERGE OUT SOONER, Please, Please, Please, DO TAKE NOTICE OF WHAT IS GOING ON.. read the road, it's simpler.
I know however that even with all the precautions it's still one of the most dangerous places for me to be, or anyone else to be.. so for those IN AN ACCIDENT on any road, but most importantly on a dual carriageway, if you CAN get out of your car get out on the NEARSIDE closest to the grass on the side of the road and then STAND BACK AWAY FROM THE CARRIAGEWAY AND THE WRECKAGE!!
I had one person at an accident once say they were going to stay at the side of the car (nearest the LIVE CARRIAGEWAY) because of the animals in the car.. WHAT? NO.. MOVE AWAY FROM THE CAR AND THE ROAD!!
Please think about your own safety as well.. anything IN the car is going to stay there, even if there is someone stuck in the car they are safer there than YOU ARE standing BESIDE the car... so get off the road.
Oh well.. very next accident I go to will probably be exactly the same. I guess it's a problem with having a lot of dual carriageways passing through my patch in every direction. Single lane roads are great because we just shut them down but dual carriageways just scare me every time.
Reality Check: Is crime up or down?
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re-posted from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-41149778
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[image: police in uniform stand in a huddle] Image copyright Getty Images
Whether crime i...
6 years ago
After many years of friendly banter and piss-taking of Traffic Div, as an outsider, I started to work with them. Dual carriageway/Motorway accident scenes are the most dangerous places I have ever worked, and I include every one of my firearms ops, which run into the hundreds, in that comparison. You either learn to walk/run backwards whilst facing traffic or you die ;)
ReplyDeleteEcho that, had a couple of times when I have had to dive sideways or be killed.
ReplyDeleteOf course the other favourite is the road block, panda across width of road, cones in front, nice sign saying road closed and a bobby in a bright yellow jacket. There is always a couple of eejits who ask 'Can I go through?' WTF are they on!!
Also if one has a flat, drive with it, the price of a tire and/or wheel is not worth your life.
ReplyDeleteHere in the States, the Freeway is the most fearsome place to get stuck.
I never pedestrian cross the street even when I have the right of way as I do not want to be dead....right, before I see the whites of their eyes as so many people travel with their curtains drawn and a martian antenna stuck in a lug hole.
Dungbeetle
One day, not too far into the future every vehicle requiring a license will have installed a WiFi emergency receiver that will wake up the driver and alert him to a hazard, it will sit next to that other hazard indicator Radar, the alert will have a sound of a sweet voice begging and a nice set of colored lights when activated.
ReplyDeleteIt will be activated by a directional [10/15 * deg ] cone set out when it is required for drivers to stop or slow down, at 6o mph the stopping distance is approx 300 ft plus the reaction time of wake up time plus decision time of another 300 ft, so warning should be available at 1000 ft from the cone.
Dungbeetle
Rather you than me Southern.
ReplyDeleteOn the Ambo service I remember the Emergencey Crossover Points on the motorway. There must be better ways of commiting suicide.
So, you aren't a REAL copper aftefr all then. Just on eof the nuber plate squad who plonks cones in the road and persecutes motorists in order to meet your quota
ReplyDeleteI think one of your commenters may be one, or all three, of these:
ReplyDeletehttp://200weeks.police999.com/archives/1995
Hogday, you may be right. Brilliant bit of footage there from Jay Leno though.. ;)
ReplyDelete[QUOTE]
Anonymous said...
So, you aren't a REAL copper aftefr all then. Just on eof the nuber plate squad who plonks cones in the road and persecutes motorists in order to meet your quota[END QUOTE]
Anonymous, clearly you have NO CLUE about anything. Every police officer in this entire nation has at SOME POINT in their career (even the Chief Constables) stopped a car, coned off a road, performed traffic stops, and as you put it persecuted motorists.
Wait for my next post about why I stop cars.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteSouthern.
ReplyDeleteI thought you had already called the vermin exterminators in!
Sadly Tom I seem to have missed one miscreant. Bloody hell.. glad I didn't post the check to the exterminators yet!
ReplyDeleteOh well. Zapped his comment anyway.
Pete,
ReplyDeleteThat would depend on where I was educated you feeble-minded fool.
Again, another person who clearly cannot read as I never said English as my first language and as I speak 4 of them I'm pretty sure I can be forgiven for the odd spelling mistake or misunderstanding over which word to use.
How many languages can you speak, read or write?
An Oaf is a clumsy or stupid person, or a lout, I doubt that I fit in to that category at any point, never have done, never will.