Ian Jackson wrote:
In message , Ret.
writes




I repeat, however, that it is the intention of traffic police always
to get normal traffic moving again as quickly as possible. To
suggest that they block off major routes for no good reason is a
nonsense.
I'm sure that, in most cases, it is nonsense.

However, I understand that one of the reasons that the police close
roads which have no obvious 'physical' reason to be closed, is that
they are now initially treating many more accidents as potential crime
scenes. Until they have investigated and looked for evidence, the road
will remain closed as long as deemed necessary. I believe that this
was the reason given for the prolonged closure of a long stretch of
the M5, a couple of years ago.

And, certainly on some occasions, I am not totally convinced that the
police are in the slightest way concerned in the effect of their road
closure has on surrounding traffic. I was recently caught needlessly
for over an hour in a situation where there had been an incident, and
the police had closed the road. This resulted in a queue of traffic
well over a mile long trying to get into town - but nobody was
moving. But was there any police presence at the tail-end of the
queue, preventing motorists from joining it, and diverting them? Of
course there wasn't!

Perhaps because there weren't any available? Most people have a grossly
inflated view of just how many police officers are on duty at any one time.

--
Kev