'Operators put their lives at risk every day on hard shoulders'
Page 96
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the way that recovery operators
6 rom time to time criticism arises of
abuse the use of warning lights. I find this very disturbing. It may be a fact that some vehicles do drive with their warning lights on but in my experience of 16 years in the recovery business these are breaker's yards or the misinformed general public on a DIY tow. Very few of the companies which –ps ecialise in motorway recovery misuse ..„,..
6 their warning lights—instead they have to battle constantly to gain recognition for the -i1.specialist emergency service that they offer which is just as important in its way as the police or the fire brigade.
If I am not mistaken, you will find that organisations such as AVRO (Association of Vehicle Recovery Operators' have been campaigning to get a different colour warning light specifically for recovery vehicles. To the best of my knowledge the request has been turned down. But operators put their lives at risk every day on hard shoulders of motorways and at the side of other roads.
They have to hope that motorists will not mistake their orange beacons for a milk float, dustcart, BT van, road sweeper or Joe Bloggs and his van. The police, by contrast, when stopped on the side of motorways are allowed the much more visible red flashing lights. If we had our own colour beacon then maybe our job would be safer and other road users would afford us the respect and
approach us with the caution normally reserved for a blue light. Before people attack recovery operators they should spend a week working on the LGV side of the job. They might then see the need for a separate and distinctive warning light. On another point, perhaps we need to look to Europe for a way forward. In Holland the recovery operators provide a range of services to the police ranging from rood coning to escorting wide loads.
With the privatisation of many routine police duties, is this not worth thinking about here? 9