Cameras on motorway
Discussion
Hello John,
Not in my force, the cctv is there to show congestion and generally for safety reasons, the camera's are not calibrated.
However, if you had your afterburners on, the operator may put a shout onto the radio that a vehicle was attempting to break the sound barrier, and a traffic car, if near may bimble up to the next junction if they are available. We had a similar job, an Audi tt was making excellent progress, 120 ish, stopped just before it went over the severn bridge, turns out it was stolen. Funny thing is, it probably wouldn't have been stopped if it was driving at 'normal' motorway speeds as the owner hadn't realised it was stolen until they were called.
Hope it helps a bit.
Mike.
Not in my force, the cctv is there to show congestion and generally for safety reasons, the camera's are not calibrated.
However, if you had your afterburners on, the operator may put a shout onto the radio that a vehicle was attempting to break the sound barrier, and a traffic car, if near may bimble up to the next junction if they are available. We had a similar job, an Audi tt was making excellent progress, 120 ish, stopped just before it went over the severn bridge, turns out it was stolen. Funny thing is, it probably wouldn't have been stopped if it was driving at 'normal' motorway speeds as the owner hadn't realised it was stolen until they were called.
Hope it helps a bit.
Mike.
I once went on a bit of a jaunt up ye olde at night about 10 ish..M5...getting on at worcester....as i started to go down the slip road, saw this vw golf come flying past on the dark side of the ton....
Well, me being me, i just hadda go and see what he was about....so i did.
About a half mile or so further on i came flying up behind him, well over the 120, him being in the middle lane, me being in the overtaking lane..( naturally
)
Matey boy lost the plot at this point skewing across into lane 1 and slamming the brakes on as i shot past...i can only think he thought i was a copper...
Didint get pulled by any of the BIB's, so had a thoroughly enjoyable tazz..
Folks do the funniest things..
Well, me being me, i just hadda go and see what he was about....so i did.
About a half mile or so further on i came flying up behind him, well over the 120, him being in the middle lane, me being in the overtaking lane..( naturally
) Matey boy lost the plot at this point skewing across into lane 1 and slamming the brakes on as i shot past...i can only think he thought i was a copper...
Didint get pulled by any of the BIB's, so had a thoroughly enjoyable tazz..
Folks do the funniest things..
I read today in the Times about a pensioner driver who became exhausted and confused after losing his way on a road trip from Cheshire to Sussex last December.
After about 12 hours on the road, driving up and down the M40 he gave up and stopped near Banbury, straddling lanes two and three.
Two men were killed in the subsequent collisions caused.
It turns out that CCTV evidence showed this old fella driving erratically and colliding several times with roadside cameras and signage prior to the fatal event.
It just seems crazy that none of the CCTV operators could pick up on this vehicle in the hours beforehand and alert the police to intercept shepherd him safely off the motorway.
I was always under the impression that there were live observers of motorways in CCTV control centres with hotlines to Traffic cops?
After about 12 hours on the road, driving up and down the M40 he gave up and stopped near Banbury, straddling lanes two and three.
Two men were killed in the subsequent collisions caused.
It turns out that CCTV evidence showed this old fella driving erratically and colliding several times with roadside cameras and signage prior to the fatal event.
It just seems crazy that none of the CCTV operators could pick up on this vehicle in the hours beforehand and alert the police to intercept shepherd him safely off the motorway.
I was always under the impression that there were live observers of motorways in CCTV control centres with hotlines to Traffic cops?
courty said:
I was always under the impression that there were live observers of motorways in CCTV control centres with hotlines to Traffic cops?
The RCC operators have more to do than watch CCTV and for example the Eastern RCC covers part of the M1, A1, A14, M25 (Heathrow to Dartford), M40 and M4 - thats a hellova lot of miles of road for The operators often have to rely on reports from Police or members of the public.In the NW motorway control room (with 14 motorways) during a day shift there are 10 operators, these cover all the jobs, phones, signals, deploying patrols, liaison with emergency services, recovery agents, roadworks crews, etc. etc. There are also over 500+ CCTV cameras just in the NW.
Nightshift, there are just 5 operators.
The CCTV is mainly used to find reported incidents so that signals can be best set, the correct types of resources can be deployed, and most importantly, to the correct location. It's also checked after a serious incident occurs to see if what happened was captured by the camera, If it had, it's then burned off to disc and can be used as evidence.
When you see pictures of a control room with CCTV showing on screens in the background, that when an incident has been found after being reported, the camera display is copied over to one of the slots on the wall so that several incidents can be monitored at any time by everyone in the room without having to dial each camera in on individual desk monitors.
You can also view cameras yourself. go to "Traffic England" http://www.trafficengland.com/
The Map of UK motorways comes up, go to "Alerts" on the top toolbar, it will then list all items where delays are over 15 minutes, if any lanes are closed, it will show you which are affected.
Now go the smaller toolbar on the left of the map, click "LAYERS" camera will be at the top of the next list available, click "Cameras" zoom in the map to the area that you want to look at and click each camera. any cameras with a red cross through them, are either disabled due to the nature of the incident, or are off-line for some reason.
http://www.trafficengland.com/
Nightshift, there are just 5 operators.
The CCTV is mainly used to find reported incidents so that signals can be best set, the correct types of resources can be deployed, and most importantly, to the correct location. It's also checked after a serious incident occurs to see if what happened was captured by the camera, If it had, it's then burned off to disc and can be used as evidence.
When you see pictures of a control room with CCTV showing on screens in the background, that when an incident has been found after being reported, the camera display is copied over to one of the slots on the wall so that several incidents can be monitored at any time by everyone in the room without having to dial each camera in on individual desk monitors.
You can also view cameras yourself. go to "Traffic England" http://www.trafficengland.com/
The Map of UK motorways comes up, go to "Alerts" on the top toolbar, it will then list all items where delays are over 15 minutes, if any lanes are closed, it will show you which are affected.
Now go the smaller toolbar on the left of the map, click "LAYERS" camera will be at the top of the next list available, click "Cameras" zoom in the map to the area that you want to look at and click each camera. any cameras with a red cross through them, are either disabled due to the nature of the incident, or are off-line for some reason.
http://www.trafficengland.com/
Edited by Gafferjim on Sunday 18th November 08:32
Edited by Gafferjim on Sunday 18th November 08:32
Forums | Speed, Plod & the Law | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff