Police using motorway instead of hard shoulder?
Discussion
On the M11 between Cambridge and Stansted a few Sundays ago. maybe 5pm. Traffic was stopped both lanes full. After a while a white van with blue lights flashing and siren going comes along no other markings followed 5 mins later by an identical one. What was strange is, although the hard shoulder was clear both vans insisted on driving down the middle between both lanes of stationary traffic and getting everyone to move out of the way. Why would they use a stationary motorway instead of the hard shoulder? Hard shoulder would have been much faster. Thought maybe there would be an obstruction on the hard shoulder further along but saw nothing (also no reason for the traffic jam really, other then heavy weight of traffic)
Bing o said:
Hard shoulder - chance of coming across broken down vehicle.
Generally full of all the shit that gets swept off the motorway.
Like asking an F1 driver why he drives on the same line as the car in front rather than the marbles on the side...
Even with the possibility of coming across a broken down vehicle, and with all the crap on there I would have thought it would still be quicker than going through the middle of 2 lanes of stationary traffic.Generally full of all the shit that gets swept off the motorway.
Like asking an F1 driver why he drives on the same line as the car in front rather than the marbles on the side...
I guess not though.
Here is what happens sometimes when you run the hard shoulder etc where all the dirt is containing nails sharp metal etc.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4wshImVcN4
The example starts at 5 minutes in though.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4wshImVcN4
The example starts at 5 minutes in though.
V8 EOL - Rich said:
That example shows how lorry drivers cant see behind them given the crap viability the get from the mirrors.
50/50 if you ask me.
As for 50/50.Not if you ask me.Lorry is not allowed in lane 3 crap viability or not.So should not have been there to collide with,therefore lorry drivers fault.50/50 if you ask me.
Regarding the lorry, I agree 50/50. If you are driving at 130, you cannot expect someone to be anticipating you are there, especialy given the lorrys limited view behind. ( on the other hand, what was he doing pulling into lane 3, when it was about to merge with lane 2 before the roundabout anyway.) Whats the betting that the lorry driver was given full blame for the incident?
Whats the betting the silver BMW driver is still to this day blissfully unaware what a narrow escape he has had.
Regarding the hard shoulder, it looked like he got his puncture from the ( non existant ) lane by the central resevation, not the hard shoulder. You would expect this to have more debris on it, as it really is never used, unlike the hard shoulder, which propably does get more stop start use.
Out of interest, every time PC Langley smashes a car, does he have to go through a full investigation? The tyre incident did not look like his fault. The lorry I do think was 50/50. Yes the lorry driver was technicaly wrong, but he could not have reasonably expected someone doing that speed up behind him, and, as the road was on a curve, even looking in his mirrors, he may really not have been able to see the car coming up behind him. At the end of the day, the tax payer has to mend the damage to the police cars. However, as a tax payer, I appreciate the very nature of what he is doing may mean a few bent cars. What I really don't want, is for the tax payer to then have to pay for hours of bullshit investigation as well. He may have made an error of judgement, or he may have been unlucky. Lets not spend hundreds of man hours deciding. Just let him get on with his job. Obviously, if one person has too many "errors of jugdement / unlucky's" you have to look into it. Any BiB car to comment? I have no axe to grind, just interested.
Whats the betting the silver BMW driver is still to this day blissfully unaware what a narrow escape he has had.
Regarding the hard shoulder, it looked like he got his puncture from the ( non existant ) lane by the central resevation, not the hard shoulder. You would expect this to have more debris on it, as it really is never used, unlike the hard shoulder, which propably does get more stop start use.
Out of interest, every time PC Langley smashes a car, does he have to go through a full investigation? The tyre incident did not look like his fault. The lorry I do think was 50/50. Yes the lorry driver was technicaly wrong, but he could not have reasonably expected someone doing that speed up behind him, and, as the road was on a curve, even looking in his mirrors, he may really not have been able to see the car coming up behind him. At the end of the day, the tax payer has to mend the damage to the police cars. However, as a tax payer, I appreciate the very nature of what he is doing may mean a few bent cars. What I really don't want, is for the tax payer to then have to pay for hours of bullshit investigation as well. He may have made an error of judgement, or he may have been unlucky. Lets not spend hundreds of man hours deciding. Just let him get on with his job. Obviously, if one person has too many "errors of jugdement / unlucky's" you have to look into it. Any BiB car to comment? I have no axe to grind, just interested.
Complete arrogance. The lorry was indicating so why didn’t he think defensively especially given the speed? Then he has the cheek to go on about the lorry driving not anticipating his actions. Utter twaddle! He should have anticipated that the lorry driver was moving as indicated into lane 3 (regardless of who was right or wrong because that doesn’t matter when you’re dead squashed up against the barrier). Even more prevalent if as in the comments that lane 3 filters off. It’s not that he fked up, he’s only human but the piss boiler is he blames the lorry driver entirely.
Edited by polus on Thursday 2nd August 21:50
polus said:
Complete arrogance. The lorry was indicating so why didn’t he think defensively especially given the speed? Then he has the cheek to go on about the lorry driving not anticipating his actions. Utter twaddle! He should have anticipated that the lorry driver was moving as indicated into lane 3 (regardless of who was right or wrong because that doesn’t matter when you’re dead squashed up against the barrier). Even more prevalent if as in the comments that lane 3 filters off. It’s not that he fked up, he’s only human but the piss boiler is he blames the lorry driver entirely.
I imagine that PC Langley recieved some very strong words of advice regarding that incident.Edited by polus on Thursday 2nd August 21:50
The Officer was lucky (on both counts) got to feel for the lorry driver though as even had he checked his mirror then the police car was invisible....check the angles...the road was bending to the left the police vehicle was to the right......."if you can't see my mirrors I can't see you"
So it's a clear motorway, coming to a roundabout, 3rd lane is about to disappear...a lorry in lane 1 starts to indicate right...you've already seen it's a clear motorway so it's not the start of an overtaking manouver surely an adavanced driver would think.....why's he doing that and how far is he going to come over bearing in mind I'm doing 120mph, he's doing 56mph we're coming to a roundabout and this lane disappears......surely it wouldn't take a brain scientist to guess where the lorry is going???
So it's a clear motorway, coming to a roundabout, 3rd lane is about to disappear...a lorry in lane 1 starts to indicate right...you've already seen it's a clear motorway so it's not the start of an overtaking manouver surely an adavanced driver would think.....why's he doing that and how far is he going to come over bearing in mind I'm doing 120mph, he's doing 56mph we're coming to a roundabout and this lane disappears......surely it wouldn't take a brain scientist to guess where the lorry is going???
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