Discussion
Suicidal............
M23 s/b saturday. What looked like a small (extinguished) car fire on the hard shoulder. HATO vehicle parked in lane 1 with lights going. cones laid out with almost no "lead in" i.e at 60 degrees to the carriageway about 10 yards behind. Thiry yards up the road is a sucidal moron standing in the middle of lane one waving everybody out. Didn`t think these wannabee proper coppers were allowed to work in live traffic.
Waste of money.......
Serious accident on M25 approaching M23 last night. No less than 3 HATO vehicles parked within the oned off area as traffic crawled past. Would theynot have been better deployed somewhere else given that there was at least 6 miles of traffic? Helping with a diversion perhaps? Waste of bloody time and money.
Get rid of them and replace them with something capable of clearing the road. How many accidents/near misses have been caused by these people just sitting at the side of the road with their lights flashing attracting rubberneckers ?
M23 s/b saturday. What looked like a small (extinguished) car fire on the hard shoulder. HATO vehicle parked in lane 1 with lights going. cones laid out with almost no "lead in" i.e at 60 degrees to the carriageway about 10 yards behind. Thiry yards up the road is a sucidal moron standing in the middle of lane one waving everybody out. Didn`t think these wannabee proper coppers were allowed to work in live traffic.
Waste of money.......
Serious accident on M25 approaching M23 last night. No less than 3 HATO vehicles parked within the oned off area as traffic crawled past. Would theynot have been better deployed somewhere else given that there was at least 6 miles of traffic? Helping with a diversion perhaps? Waste of bloody time and money.
Get rid of them and replace them with something capable of clearing the road. How many accidents/near misses have been caused by these people just sitting at the side of the road with their lights flashing attracting rubberneckers ?
So far I've been desperately trying to maintain an open mind about these guys, putting down initial failings to my prejudice against all things not-police on the roads.
But these stories just keep coming and I've seen them in action with my own eyes and frankly the cracks are beginning to show.
There's a real opportunity here to get properly trained professional traffic people doing genuine good and helping out the police, but it looks very much like it's being squandered by putting hard of thinking people behind the wheels of these HATO vehicles.
I do hope they don't squander the idea. Although given everything this gubmint has touched so far has turned to poo there's little to suggest they won't!
SM
But these stories just keep coming and I've seen them in action with my own eyes and frankly the cracks are beginning to show.
There's a real opportunity here to get properly trained professional traffic people doing genuine good and helping out the police, but it looks very much like it's being squandered by putting hard of thinking people behind the wheels of these HATO vehicles.
I do hope they don't squander the idea. Although given everything this gubmint has touched so far has turned to poo there's little to suggest they won't!
SM
Posted this on another thread a couple of days ago.
On the one hand, HATOs are serving a purpose. My mate who is a recovery driver is well happy that he can now turn up on scene to find an additional brightly coloured vehicle plus set of blokes in dayglo jackets to keep an eye on the traffic whilst he risks his neck changing a wheel or whatever.
On the other hand, they are (indirectly) a menace. I was on the M4 on Sunday in lane 3, following someone (at a safe distance, I might add) at around 85mph. On seeing a HATO wagon parked up on the hard shoulder dealing with a breakdown, they decided that the best course of action was to stand on the brakes and get their speed down to about 60mph. Totally nonsensical, and bloody dangerous to boot. Not specifically the HATOs fault - but sadly any liveried-up vehicle, whether plod or not, causes panic braking these days.
They also cruse along at 60mph in lane 1 causing more braking and muppets refusing to pass them because they think the HATOs can pull them for speeding, no doubt.
A good idea, but in today's climate where drivers perceive that everyone in a vehicle with yellow stripes on it is looking for speeders, they do cause a lot of problems.
On the one hand, HATOs are serving a purpose. My mate who is a recovery driver is well happy that he can now turn up on scene to find an additional brightly coloured vehicle plus set of blokes in dayglo jackets to keep an eye on the traffic whilst he risks his neck changing a wheel or whatever.
On the other hand, they are (indirectly) a menace. I was on the M4 on Sunday in lane 3, following someone (at a safe distance, I might add) at around 85mph. On seeing a HATO wagon parked up on the hard shoulder dealing with a breakdown, they decided that the best course of action was to stand on the brakes and get their speed down to about 60mph. Totally nonsensical, and bloody dangerous to boot. Not specifically the HATOs fault - but sadly any liveried-up vehicle, whether plod or not, causes panic braking these days.
They also cruse along at 60mph in lane 1 causing more braking and muppets refusing to pass them because they think the HATOs can pull them for speeding, no doubt.
A good idea, but in today's climate where drivers perceive that everyone in a vehicle with yellow stripes on it is looking for speeders, they do cause a lot of problems.
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