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ON THE ROAD TO RECOVERY
Page 50
Page 52
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Two recovery operators a year are killed working on the hard shoulder and many more are injured. So what is being done to protect fitters at the roadside? Jennifer Ball finds out.
Repairing vehicles at the roadside is a dangerous occupation.Tyre fitters and breakdown mechanics are under real threat of being struck by passing vehicles or having trucks and cars run into the back of their own breakdown vehicle parked on the motorway hard shoulder.
Much of the problem is for fitters working on the offside of a vehicle on a motorway hard shoulder. In the past it has not always been easy to get a police officer to cone off the lane to give them a safety margin. But in April the Highways Agency launched a new initiative: Highways Agency Traffic Officers (HATOs) who have the power and authority to cone off lanes, remove damaged and abandoned cars and reduce the burden on the police.
Uncertain success
Despite being heavily publicised the scheme is still limited to the West Midlands so there is little feedback about its success. But Eric Harnmond,MD of Warwickshire-based Failingly Garage and chairman of Warwickshire Recovery Operators Group says that the scheme does appear to be working. He says that it is now easier to get a lane closed off: "The area is being coned off in the same way as the police would do it but the HATOs do appear to have a faster response time than the police did."
However, Hammond adds that there does need to be better communication between the police, the Highways Agency and recovery operators about their individual roles: "On a couple of occasions a recovery operator has been called to a job but. half-an-hour later,the job was cancelled or when they arrived they weren't needed, because the HATOs had changed the tyre for the driver, or had supplied them with fuel at the roadside," he reports.
Eight HATO patrols currently operate in the West Midlands, and this will increase to 14 by the end of the year. With just under 100 staff at present,working both on the road and in the regional control centre, numbers will soon be expanding. Working alongside an amalgamation of traffic police services in the West Midlands region, the HATOs have been learning the skills required to operate in a highly dangerous environment.
With the announcement in July that the Traffic Management Act gained Royal Assent the role and responsibilities of HATOs immediately increased, giving the service powers previously held only by the police. While they will not have the powers to arrest or fine, the Act will give them the powers to stop traffic, close roads, lanes and carriageways, direct and divert traffic and both place and operate traffic signs.
HATOs also now have the powers to stop and direct motorists, cyclists and pedestrians when managing traffic on the motorway or if an official traffic survey is being carried out.
Furthermore,refusal to divulge name and address details, if and when requested by a traffic officer, is also offence.These offences could lead to a fine or in extreme cases a prison sentence. A Highways Agency spokesman says: "The Traffic Officer service is being rolled out across the country, from an initial service in 2005 to a full nationwide operation in 2006, with the South-East and North-West the next to go online, followed by the East, North-East, South-West and East Midlands."
David McCatm,MD of D&N Tyres welcomes the move: "Working on the roadside is a dangerous job and I believe that there should be at least half a mile coned off. Often when we go out the police are too busy to attend. But this will help us as there will always be someone available to help us at the roadside. It will also speed up the recovery of the vehicle as we will not have to keep looking over our shoulder all the time for danger and can get on with the job."
Now that the HATOs are helping does this mean there are fewer police too? Steve Green. a member of ACPO Road Policing Business Area and chief constable of Nottinghamshire police dismisses this and insists that the role of the HATOs is one of support: "They'll free-up police to focus on their core responsibilities of crime, incident management and law enforcement."
Safety advice
By releasing control rooms from answering roadside telephones and sign setting. and police officers from inappropriate network management duties that do not need their powers, skills or training, staff will be able to spend more time addressing criminality and anti-social behaviour on the network."
Peter Cosby. vice-chairman of the Road Rescue and Recovery Association presumes the new system is working well because he has had no complaints from members so far about there being any problems.
"We do ask the people whose vehicles have broken down to look out for any stray vehicles on the road.We always advise them to go behind the barrier but never demand that they do this because if we did and they were then hit by a vehicle they could sue us.You have lobe so careful due to the compensation culture in the UK now."
Many other initiatives have also been launched to try to improve roadside safety.Three years ago the AA, the RAC and Institution of Civil Engineers launched the SURVIVE group (Safe Use of Roadside Verges in Vehicular Emergencies) to look at ways of improving safety for motorists and recovery operators.
Following its report on hard shoulder safety its recommendations were published as a British Standards Publicly Available Specification (also known as PAS 43), which sets out a common code of practice that all roadside operators, large and small alike,should meet in order to promote best practice.
These recommendations include ensuring all operators exercise a common code of working practices:common standards of training; common vehicle lighting standards; minimum standards for vehicles and their condition; and common vehicle conspicuity and markings.An AA spokesman says:"Since this report there have been no major incidents on the hard shoulder.We handed out over 300,000 safety advice laminated cards to motorists about the dangers of the hard shoulder. Drivers are more aware now and don't wait in their cars for a recovery operator to arrive. They know the hard shoulder is as dangerous as a live running lane."