What causes Motorway multiples?
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Myers must learn to .ecognize the onset 0,f fatigue
I The multiple motorway accident has wattle such a regular occurrence during Le winter that drivers have come to regard with a sort of inevitability, and press.and V coverage have become so common that us has lost much of its impact.
This was one of the opinions expressed y Hertfordshire Constabulary traffic ivision's Chief Inspector R. Gore when he ddressed members of the FTA Chiltern rea, and many of their drivers, at Hemel Iempstead last week.
With accidents like the one on M1 near ledford, in which nine people died, drivers ould not be complacent, said the speaker. 'he final count at that accident had :-.vealed that 114 trucks and 49 vans were mong the 250 vehicles involved, and this tressed the need for a responsible attitude -om commercial vehicles' drivers.
How can accidents of this magnitude appen and how can they be prevented? 'hat was the theme of Chief Insp Gore's ilk and it soon became clear, reports Gibb ;race, who attended the meeting, that the iajor cause was vehicles k travelling too ose together at a speed which was too fast nthe road conditions. Motorways were ife while the traffic was flowing smoothly, at sudden braking by any one vehicle H. whatever reason could • cause an zciclent.
Objects such as a silencer, a propshaft or aunt of timber in the carriageway have aused smaller vehicles to swerve and thus ad to accidents. Driver fatigue was a ihenomenon which was not fully nderstood but was an acknowledged ontributory factor.
"Fatigue builds up," said the speaker, and does not suddenly descend upon the iriver. The responsible driver must ecognize the danger and pull off the notorway at a service station or nersection before drowsiness sets in." In It-der to reach the next pull-off 'safely the Ever was advised to wind down the vindow to take in fresh air, and to slow lown.
On the topic of vehicle condition, Chief nsp Gore said that badly maintained omrnercial vehicles were not very common, nit that generally the most important items, uch as tyres, steering and brakes, were the irst to be allowed to deteriorate. Attention o these items was important under any onditions but vital on a motorway. Tyre ailures were sometimes linked with overloading, but although there was a tendency to overload it was not general, and no worse than with private cars.
Treacherous concrete Motorway accidents did show some correlation with weather conditions. Concrete surfaces, in particular in the summer, became loaded with a mixture of rubber and diesel fuel which after a short shower of rain made them almost as treacherous as ice. A particularly bad stretch of Ml at the southern end was being resurfaced with asphalt at the moment, the speaker was glad to report.
One of the worst weather conditions, of course, was fog; drivers habitually drove too fast and too close in these conditions and the worst multiple accidents had occurred in fog.
Several of the 170 drivers present gave their views on the causes and .possible solutions to the motorway crash problem. Some wanted more traffic surveillance in the form of TV cameras and helicopters which could be linked to more comprehensive roadside indicators. Chief Insp Gore said that all these possibilities had been studied by the police and the Road Research Laboratory but, at the moment at least, the cost of providing them was prohibitive. The rural motorway central reservation signs and the urban motorway gantries were steps in the right direction and should help considerably when operational on all motorways.
One driver thought the speed limit for trucks was too high and another that a warning buzzer, which could be adjusted to operate above a desired speed, might help. Mr S. Gunnell, acting as chairman, thought that such an idea would be alien to all professional drivers, for it was surely up to each and every one of them to see that their. speed was never excessive for the prevailing road conditions.
• Chief Insp Gore agreed and was sure that any proposed lowering of the present 60 mph limit would be opposed by all sections of the road transport industry.
Had the Hertfordshire police experimented with slotting police cars into the traffic at intervals to slow down the flow in fog, as some other forces had done? No, said Chief Insp Gore, because he had not the necessary resources and he did not think it was the best way of using the men and vehicles he did have. His stretch of M1 was 17 miles long and that would mean 34 cars spaced at half-mile intervals. Each car could only be seen by a few vehicles and could not answer an emergency call. It was better, the speaker thought, to deploy cars on the verges and intersections where they could be seen by every vehicle passing and could more easily get to an emergency; he thought the raised police car positions on M4 were a good idea; they were cheap and effective.
Hedgerows rejected Another driver suggested that hedges in the central reservation, as widely used in Germany, were a good idea as they prevented dazzle and showed up well in fog; they also stopped cross-over accidents. A highways engineer said that such an idea was impracticable on Ml as the reservation was too narrow to allow cutting, and winter salting was so heavy that it even prevented the grass growing, Chief Insp Gore said that the new barriers which had now been erected had so far proved 100 per cent effective, for no one had been killed in a cross-over accident in Hertfordshire since their installation.
A fundamental problem, in Hertfordshire particularly, was that the motorway operated for a great part of the time very near to its capacity and often above it, and thus multiple accidents must always present a constant threat. Chief Insp Gore concluded by once again repeating that too many drivers drove too close and too fast and he implored them to driveresponsibiy.