Ask a Highways England Traffic Officer anything
Discussion
Crazy4557 said:
You may be able to help me understand a phenomenon I see on a regular basis when travelling on the motorway network and that's the overhead gantries lighting up warning of trouble ahead like accident or pedestrians in the road etc etc . But you keep travelling only to find the NSL sign showing after a few miles or so and nothing has happened, no people, no accident and absolutely no reason for any warnings.
Do you know why this happens so often? I now have no faith in the signs as they are wrong 9 out of 10 times and always assume there is no issues.
The incident could have been cleared by a patrol ahead of you, you're seeing the last of the signs before they get cancelled. Or a vague location was given and signs were set for that location, only to find the informant had given the wrong information. Do you know why this happens so often? I now have no faith in the signs as they are wrong 9 out of 10 times and always assume there is no issues.
PF62 said:
Why do your control centre staff and managers feel the need to wear a fake police uniform?
http://www.highways.gov.uk/about-us/the-motorway/m...
In what way is it fake?, It's a navy blue uniform, correct me if I'm wrong, police wear black. When we wear shirts, we have navy blue epaulettes and tie not black. http://www.highways.gov.uk/about-us/the-motorway/m...
Aeroresh said:
Are you allowed to lift traffic cones now? Still think the old ISUs were more effective. I get what the HE are trying to do but it doesnt work very well.
I used to be on the network a lot in in previous job incarnation and the number of partols you’d see parked up hiding somewhere on service roads, etc having a kip, wasnt great! Also failing to report defect issues which later lead to serious incidents....I know of at least one instance after a fatal where HE Traffic Officers backdated a defect report to before the actual crash!
The whole thing needs a shake up imo.
We've always been able to lift cones. ISU (or MRT as it is now) aren't allowed in live lane unless they have a crash cushion or rolling block from us. We now carry tablets to photograph defects and forward them to control so everything is date time stamped. We don't park up and hide, we have designated park up points where we wait to respond to incidents.I used to be on the network a lot in in previous job incarnation and the number of partols you’d see parked up hiding somewhere on service roads, etc having a kip, wasnt great! Also failing to report defect issues which later lead to serious incidents....I know of at least one instance after a fatal where HE Traffic Officers backdated a defect report to before the actual crash!
The whole thing needs a shake up imo.
One of our guys had the book thrown at him just for carrying a spider wheel brace, the amount of times they turned up at someone with a puncture who didn't have a wheel brace is unreal. It's not that we won't help, believe me, after losing a good friend and colleague on the hard shoulder, I don't want anyone to spend longer than need be. If it comes down to it, if someone physically can't change a wheel, I will stay with them and let them sit in their vehicle in the warm and dry, I'll put a hard shoulder closure on and stand in the rain monitoring the traffic until recovery arrives. I won't leave until the wheel is changed and the vehicle is on its way. I take my job seriously and the safety of the traveling public on my patch is of the utmost importance to me, as it is to my colleagues too.
We are still an operational organisation with a rank structure to identify responsibilities. A traffic officer patrols/control centre, a team manager runs a team of traffic officers and an operations manager runs a county/control centre. The bars on the epaulettes identify who is what, and our collar numbers identify individual officers, what's the problem with that?
We are easily distinguishable from the police due to our orange/yellow jacket, our colleagues in DVSA on the other hand.
https://goo.gl/images/zjVMt8
https://goo.gl/images/zjVMt8
It's not just office based staff, the uniform is company wide irrespective of the location they work. When I was a civilian detention officer for the police, I wore a uniform with epaulettes and a collar number and I only worked in the cells.
Edited by BossHogg on Monday 1st January 16:30
yonex said:
I always thought that these guys were just Police helpers really, now I know they have even fewer roles? All credit for people helping on the roads but there has to be a better way than paying a task force of people with little responsibility? It would obviously cost more but I can't see the value, I'd pay for more traffic cops and would love to see the bill for TA staff used in other ways.
Little responsibility? Minor non injury RTCs, live lane debris, breakdowns, abandoned vehicles, pedestrians, carriageway defects, infrastructure damage, traffic management for serious/fatal RTCs fuel spills, rolling road blocks for carriageway repairs, lane closures for offside wagon tyre changes vehicle fires etc, carriageway clearance to reopen lanes after RTCs, rolling blocks for attempted suicides, sitting with damaged vehicles waiting for recovery, arranging recovery for people without any. We do this on a daily basis. One of our own was killed by a speeding motorist while waiting for recovery of RTC damaged vehicles. The list of what we do is extensive. The majority of which doesn't require a police officer, they can put their skills to better use. PF62 said:
Nice of you to focus on the colour, but to be honest I always think back to the very dark blue uniform the police used to wear.
However you don't seem to have covered the point of why control center staff and management feel the need to have a uniform with epaulettes and gold braid.
Do any other staff in civil service departments which are not military or law enforcement also wear 'fancy dress', especially as they are employed in non-public facing roles?
Our control room staff, In the eyes of the law, are traffic officers. They have to have collar numbers for PNC and signal setting purposes. As the traffic management act states a traffic officer can only apply their powers whilst in uniform some lawyer would probably try and use not wearing a uniform in the control to get a client off.However you don't seem to have covered the point of why control center staff and management feel the need to have a uniform with epaulettes and gold braid.
Do any other staff in civil service departments which are not military or law enforcement also wear 'fancy dress', especially as they are employed in non-public facing roles?
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