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Get the road cleared as a priority
Page 28
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ON LEAVING Doncaster for my return trip to Weymouth recently,' came across an accident involving an aluminium trailer and a Land Rover, both lying on their side on the eastbound carriageway and blocking all lanes.
In itself it caused me little problem, as although the traffic on my westbound side slowed a little to rubberneck the incident, it kept moving. The traffic on the eastbound carriageway, however, had come to a stop, and was backed up for at least seven miles. I counted at least five policemen and at least four council workmen plus the driver (who was fine and walking about). so why on earth could they not have put their shoulders together and moved the vehicles from the carriageway? Or if they didn't want to shift the wreckage themselves, they had a Land Rover and council lorry between them, either of which could easily have pushed the vehicles to the hard shoulder, During my time in the workshop of a local Daf agent as an apprentice we had the police contract for all road traffic accidents in the Weymouth/ Portland area. In the five years I was there, I went to many accidents of all types including fatalities, and
always the priority was to extricate the persons in the vehicle and get the road cleared.
Now all that everyone seems to do is to stand around looking.
Is it the insurance companies claiming against the police that scare them into not clearing the road, or some stupid health and safety rule?
Hundreds, if not thousands, of motorists were held up yesterday at an unimaginable cost to industry. Surely it's time for a change in the way the police deal with the aftermath of road accidents? Rodney Smith AMIRTE Fleet manager, New Look Retailers Weymouth, Dorset