Ian Jackson wrote:
In message , Mr Pounder
writes
"bod" wrote in message
...
On 09/11/2010 11:17, d wrote:
Can someone explain to me why those retards with blue lights on
their heads had to close off 4 out of 5 lanes on the westbound
A406 at the M1 turn
off just because a 7.5 tonner had got stuck on a crash barrier? The
traffic
jams were epic and all they used the closed off lanes for was to
park their
plodmobiles in and stand around looking useless until presumably a
recovery truck turned up.
****ing morons.
B2003
On the face of it, that does appear to be very ott of the plod.
Years ago the police said that they would take drastic action on the
roads. This being to teach us all a lesson in being more careful.
While there may have been a good reason for it, it does seem to be
increasingly common practice to close roads (often completely) for
several hours in order to carry out an investigation into the cause of
an accident. Sometimes the reason given is that they are waiting for
the crash barriers to be repaired, or for the road to be resurfaced.
Yesterday, I believe that the whole of the M26 was closed for quite a
lot of the day because of a fatal lorry accident. Similarly, last
week, the M1 was closed around the junction for Luton Airport (not
sure if fatal). And the previous week, the M4 was closed between
Slough and Langley. As I said, the police may have legitimate reasons
for doing this, but you can't help but feel that there is an element
of 'just because we can' in some instances.
I'm sorry but it's nonsense. It is always the aim of traffic officers to get
normal traffic moving again just as soon as possible. Closing off a motorway
invariably causes chaos on surrounding roads and that simply causes more
problems for the police.
Fatal accident sites are treated as crime scenes (because the accident may
have been caused by another driver's dangerous driving) and taking
measurements, photographs, and carrying out a thorough accident
investigation, can take time. Allowing normal traffic flow past a fatal
accident scene can obliterate valuable evidence.
--
Kev