Would an RAC man phone the police?

[86DA]

This morning just outside Exeter on the M5 northbound, we saw a RAC van on the hard shoulder.

Just behind it presumably a broken down car and 2 marked police cars.

Why would the police be in attendance for a breakdown?

Would the patrolman have called them?

Just curious.

[anonymous-user]

Anything is possible.

[anonymous-user]

Parking in front of a broken car is a big no no for breakdown operators on any motorway. It might have been the police reminding him?

[Adam_W]

Seen it before on some traffic cop program, breakdown driver called the police as the guy had been drinking.

[86DA]

My first thought was drink driving, especially with 2 marked cars.

[ging84]

The break down services work with hato and the police, they need to be in constant contact, to sort out motorway recoveries, or you'd have multiple people coming to pick up the same car.

[anonymous-user]

I got recovered by the AA around a year ago and asked the guy if he has ever had to call the police out to a recovery.

He said he'd done it a couple of times when he could repair the vehicle he was called out to at the side of the road and could tell that the person be was attending was very clearly over the limit and intended to continue their journey.

[wolf1]

Adam_W said:

Seen it before on some traffic cop program, breakdown driver called the police as the guy had been drinking.

Done it myself when I used to work for the AA. Guy had called us out for a puncture but when I got there he had bounced off a trafic island causing the puncture and also making a mess of his car. Opened the door and he stank of alcohol. I kept stalling him under the pretence of calling the office etc and deploying the recovery dolly but I had called the Police and they were pretty sharpish getting there.

[wolf1]

86DA said:

This morning just outside Exeter on the M5 northbound, we saw a RAC van on the hard shoulder.

Just behind it presumably a broken down car and 2 marked police cars.

Why would the police be in attendance for a breakdown?

Would the patrolman have called them?

Just curious.

More than likely the traffic officers were on scene prior to the RAC and were fending off till the RAC turned up. Hence why the patrol was infront of the car.

[Zoobeef]

279 said:

Parking in front of a broken car is a big no no for breakdown operators on any motorway. It might have been the police reminding him?

I agree, all towing is done from the rear nowadays.

[barker22]

Zoobeef said:

279 said:

Parking in front of a broken car is a big no no for breakdown operators on any motorway. It might have been the police reminding him?

I agree, all towing is done from the rear nowadays.

Just to add to this, sometimes they send a small transit type van (no good for towing much other than a small hatchback) so they call for a recovery vehicle.
I wouldn't fancy being the RAC and trying to build up speed behind a broken down vehicle, How far would they have to reverse

[Martin4x4]

wolf1 said:

Done it myself when I used to work for the AA. Guy had called us out for a puncture but when I got there he had bounced off a trafic island causing the puncture and also making a mess of his car. Opened the door and he stank of alcohol. I kept stalling him under the pretence of calling the office etc and deploying the recovery dolly but I had called the Police and they were pretty sharpish getting there.

Good on you.

Simply out of interest do you do this through your control centre or call Police directly?

[wolf1]

Martin4x4 said:

Good on you.

Simply out of interest do you do this through your control centre or call Police directly?

Called the Police directly. If I left it to the call centre they would have ballsed it up spectacularly.

[anonymous-user]

wolf1 said:

Adam_W said:

Seen it before on some traffic cop program, breakdown driver called the police as the guy had been drinking.

Done it myself when I used to work for the AA. Guy had called us out for a puncture but when I got there he had bounced off a trafic island causing the puncture and also making a mess of his car. Opened the door and he stank of alcohol. I kept stalling him under the pretence of calling the office etc and deploying the recovery dolly but I had called the Police and they were pretty sharpish getting there.

What did you code it off as?

It would be interesting the hear the company's official line on this. It was mentioned on training and we were told that if we were certain that the driver was not fit to drive we should act out trying to fix the vehicle and thej provide a recovery.

In theory you'd do the same and contact the police if there were signs of drug taking (baggies, cannabis smell, etc) in the vehicle, but then in that case I'd be calling them every other week.

[wolf1]

279 said:

wolf1 said:

Adam_W said:

Seen it before on some traffic cop program, breakdown driver called the police as the guy had been drinking.

Done it myself when I used to work for the AA. Guy had called us out for a puncture but when I got there he had bounced off a trafic island causing the puncture and also making a mess of his car. Opened the door and he stank of alcohol. I kept stalling him under the pretence of calling the office etc and deploying the recovery dolly but I had called the Police and they were pretty sharpish getting there.

What did you code it off as?

It would be interesting the hear the company's official line on this. It was mentioned on training and we were told that if we were certain that the driver was not fit to drive we should act out trying to fix the vehicle and thej provide a recovery.

In theory you'd do the same and contact the police if there were signs of drug taking (baggies, cannabis smell, etc) in the vehicle, but then in that case I'd be calling them every other week.

Coded off as refused service. My AM kicked off asking why I didn't just recover it, My exact words were 'Because he's a and I'd do it again, do we have a problem with that?' that was the end of that phone call.