M62 Wombles

[gazza285]

Massive traffic congestion today on the M62 near the M621 junction at Birstall, there was a car that has broken down in lane three. Wombles in attendance, closing both lanes three and four, with traffic backed up for a good few miles, and very slow progress.

It brought to mind the 1979 documentary on the Windy Hill section of the M62, where the old boy coppers would have hooked the car up to the Range Rover and dragged it out of the live lanes, fifty yards would have taken them to the J27 slip road, where there is a hard shoulder.

What would be the reason for not instigating a temporary stop and moving the car?

[gazza285]

It would seem that some manufacturers state that EVs can be towed, and some say they cannot.

[gazza285]

Vasco said:

Did it *really* make a significant delay to your journey ? . What would you have done with all those valuable minutes ?
Presumably, if it was a person seriously ill/dying in the car you would have still been so upset at the delay to your day?
People just need to chill out more when driving, there's far too many idiots on the road already.

If it was minutes I wouldn’t be bothered, my usual seventy minute journey took two and a half hours, so quite a delay. Also bear in mind that on a normal day that section of motorway sees 15,000 vehicles an hour, a lot of which will be HGVs running on limited driving time, losing an hour in traffic will mean quite a few of them not making their delivery slots, or running out of driving time. It has cost my boss £150 in extra overtime, I have no idea what the total economic cost would be.

It doesn’t wind me up, I’m still on the clock, it just seems such a waste of time and resources to have a vehicle capable of towing, with equipment in the back of it to facilitate towing, and not using it to the detriment of getting on for 25,000 people.

Edited by gazza285 on Sunday 25th February 14:26