Caught driving on hard shoulder!
Discussion
Driving south on M1 last night, approaching M25, the all-too-common scenario – all lanes obstructed as the cops cleared a shunt, a few shuffled lanes from left and right a bit, then gave up and decided to sit and wait. But at least three 'lateral thinkers' decided that they had better things to do and slid past on hard shoulder, with their hazard lights on...!
About 10-15 minutes later the road was cleared and we all moved forward and what a delight it was to see that Plod had pulled over the three hard shoulder drivers, presumably for a stiff b
king and, hopefully, charges! To my mind, they should be charged with dangerous driving, because there is a very good chance that they would either have 1: Run into the accident, which had been moved on to the hard shoulder, or 2: Got stuck there, not able to get back onto the main carriageway further down (which was presumably their intention), and obstructed emergency services/ambulance.
It's one thing if you're in a long jam and your exit ramp is only 50 yards, makes sense to get off asap and alleviate the jam, taking care to check behind first, but these guys had been taking the piss and were a huge distance from the next exit, just looking to undertake the jam as far as they could. Serves then bloody well right that they got caught...!
I think I was in the same jam - one of the perpetrators was a VW Transporter van?
With regard to the incident, it looked like some sort of tactical stop rather than an accident. 3 or 4 marked S-Max police cars and a couple of unmarked cars with blues in the rear windscreens. Saw one rather large bloke in cuffs at the side of the road.
With regard to the incident, it looked like some sort of tactical stop rather than an accident. 3 or 4 marked S-Max police cars and a couple of unmarked cars with blues in the rear windscreens. Saw one rather large bloke in cuffs at the side of the road.
Edited by dougc on Friday 26th March 10:45
sometimes I am taken with the idea of pulling onto the hard shoulder and lifting my bonnet, just to try to work out what that worrying noise was when the car was stuck in the traffic.
If I did it when there was a long queue of "far too important people to be caught in a traffic jam" using the hard shoulder, that would be a shame.
I'm guessing under the letter of the law I would be just as guilty as the hardshoulder drivers, so whilst it occurs to me I never actually do it. But if I saw someone do it, I would happily let them back in to the stream of traffic when they had checked out the cause of the worrying noise.
If I did it when there was a long queue of "far too important people to be caught in a traffic jam" using the hard shoulder, that would be a shame.
I'm guessing under the letter of the law I would be just as guilty as the hardshoulder drivers, so whilst it occurs to me I never actually do it. But if I saw someone do it, I would happily let them back in to the stream of traffic when they had checked out the cause of the worrying noise.
EU_Foreigner said:
Aren't there areas where they actually open up the hardshoulder for driving to eleveate the queues? Around Birmingham I seem to remember.
The hard shoulders have actually been modified to act as "proper" lanes when they need to be used.Safety refuges have been added at regular intervals for anyone with problems
I did that last year, road was blocked due to a 2 van shunt and by the looks of it it only just happened so left the cue and (slowly) drove over the hardshoulder up to the accident and when a bib approached my vehicle i put down my little sunvisor sign and asked if any help was required.
He then thanked me, said he didn't think so, but asked me to wait a second while we went back to check if any occupants wanted/needed any medical assistance.
He then thanked me again for stopping and send me on my way so i then had a completely empty strech of motorway to my self where there's not been any traffic getting through.
Saw a couple more cars on hardshoulder and talking to that bib when i left in the distance, still wonder what happend to them.
Must admit this is what i usually do when there's no ambulance's yet on scene (or if it apprears to be a big rta), i drive up and offer my help. Never had any problems so far. Half the time they're happy i stop (as then the medical side of things turns into my responsibility) and i stay and play, and the other times i just get thanked and send on my way.
Doesn't allways get me home quicker though, remember once where i stopped and turned out we needed the fire brigade to cut the roof of and do a full c-spine immobilisation extraction. So whilst the bib opened up 1 lane again and the traffic (in which i was waiting earlier) was driving again, i spend well over 1,5 on scene helping with the extraction.
shuvitupya said:
EU_Foreigner said:
Aren't there areas where they actually open up the hardshoulder for driving to eleveate the queues? Around Birmingham I seem to remember.
Only permitted when the overhead signs allow it though!Edited by shuvitupya on Friday 26th March 13:03
Anyone who has been through the system on the M42, when in operation will realise the traffic flows easier with less “stop/start”. Only bottlenecks appeared to be at junctions, but steps have been taken now to allow hard shoulder running across some junctions
In fact I don’t think I’ve seen the hard shoulder running with anything above 50mph in operation.
It is continuously monitored on CCTV and any problems that arise (on the hard shoulder) the gantry sign immediately show it closed again, and the motorway reverts back to 3 lane operation.
covboy said:
shuvitupya said:
EU_Foreigner said:
Aren't there areas where they actually open up the hardshoulder for driving to eleveate the queues? Around Birmingham I seem to remember.
Only permitted when the overhead signs allow it though!Edited by shuvitupya on Friday 26th March 13:03
Anyone who has been through the system on the M42, when in operation will realise the traffic flows easier with less “stop/start”. Only bottlenecks appeared to be at junctions, but steps have been taken now to allow hard shoulder running across some junctions
In fact I don’t think I’ve seen the hard shoulder running with anything above 50mph in operation.
It is continuously monitored on CCTV and any problems that arise (on the hard shoulder) the gantry sign immediately show it closed again, and the motorway reverts back to 3 lane operation.
The hard shoulder running does seem to work, and we're getting at least 2 area's of it up here in the NW very soon.
As for using the HS to get past stopped traffic, you're so right guys about not using it unless told to, I can recall a number of times lately when both Police, Fire and Ambulance crews have been delayed in getting to the scene of an accident because of these selfish drivers.
Unfortunately, the police priority at that moment is to get to the scene of the RTC, but sometimes there'll be a police patrol at the junction, just in case it needs to be closed, they do like to take car numbers! Remember also, they don't need to stop you there and then to have a word, but can just send an invitation by post to appear at the local Mags court. I've seen an officer preparing 25+ such envelopes ready to be sent out.........!
If the incident is likely to be protracted, and is in the outer lanes, not likely to be moved until recovery arrives (ie, it's too damaged, or is wrapped around the street furniture etc for HATOs or police to drag across) then we try to get the officer at the scene to agree to H/S running past the incident. This can only be done providing there are electronic VMS signs that we can set to tell drivers to "return to main c/way" after the incident, then once set, we'll set "Accident, use Hardshoulder" prior to the incident location.
Most of the times, we'll try to get everything onto the H/S, or H/S + lane 1, so as to allow the other lanes to be opened, as it's considerably safer for the various agencies to deal with things then..
As for using the HS to get past stopped traffic, you're so right guys about not using it unless told to, I can recall a number of times lately when both Police, Fire and Ambulance crews have been delayed in getting to the scene of an accident because of these selfish drivers.
Unfortunately, the police priority at that moment is to get to the scene of the RTC, but sometimes there'll be a police patrol at the junction, just in case it needs to be closed, they do like to take car numbers! Remember also, they don't need to stop you there and then to have a word, but can just send an invitation by post to appear at the local Mags court. I've seen an officer preparing 25+ such envelopes ready to be sent out.........!
If the incident is likely to be protracted, and is in the outer lanes, not likely to be moved until recovery arrives (ie, it's too damaged, or is wrapped around the street furniture etc for HATOs or police to drag across) then we try to get the officer at the scene to agree to H/S running past the incident. This can only be done providing there are electronic VMS signs that we can set to tell drivers to "return to main c/way" after the incident, then once set, we'll set "Accident, use Hardshoulder" prior to the incident location.
Most of the times, we'll try to get everything onto the H/S, or H/S + lane 1, so as to allow the other lanes to be opened, as it's considerably safer for the various agencies to deal with things then..
NBirkitt said:
It's one thing if you're in a long jam and your exit ramp is only 50 yards, makes sense to get off asap and alleviate the jam, taking care to check behind first,
That didn't work either for a load of people a few weeks back. All stop for about 5 mins. Then 1 go's past on the shoulder, then another and quickly it's a full lane of moving traffic up to the junction. Problem is the junction can't cope with the flow and now it's a full queueing lane, next to 3 other full queueing lanes. If the emergency services had needed to get past it would have been a problem.Then of course the main carriageway started to move, and you have people trying to filter out of the HS/junction as others from the queue were trying to get to the exit. It was a right fuster cluck.
SCOTTE999 said:
you will get a nice fine and 3 points for driving on the hard shoulder to skip traffic.
What is the actual charge then? I'm not disagreeing with the punishment, it's a MUCH more valid reason for 3 points than ignoring pointless limits. I just don't know the name of the offence.Hooli said:
SCOTTE999 said:
you will get a nice fine and 3 points for driving on the hard shoulder to skip traffic.
What is the actual charge then? I'm not disagreeing with the punishment, it's a MUCH more valid reason for 3 points than ignoring pointless limits. I just don't know the name of the offence.vonhosen said:
Hooli said:
SCOTTE999 said:
you will get a nice fine and 3 points for driving on the hard shoulder to skip traffic.
What is the actual charge then? I'm not disagreeing with the punishment, it's a MUCH more valid reason for 3 points than ignoring pointless limits. I just don't know the name of the offence.Gassing Station | Speed, Plod & the Law | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff