truckerbuster:
i saw HATO in a 4x4 on A14 at barrow near bury st eds heading towards cambridge must be the first. Also 2 weeks ago on A14 woolpit a horse box had broken down I kid you NOT a suffolk police volvo estate was pulling it along to some where safe. About a year ago i was talking to a traffic cop and he said suffolk police dont want wombles round here they wont do any thing to help ie get hands dirty changing a pensioners tyre like we do. Congratulations to that cop in that volvo for doing his bit. Also police drivers turn there wheels sharp left hand down HATO dont theres are kept straight.
It’s nice to see the police putting the boot in and having their say!!It’s not that we won’t change a wheel, we’re not allowed to!! I would love to change the wheel myself as would countless of my colleagues if it means getting the scene clear and free from danger. In this litigation crazy world that we live in, our bosses have forbid us from adopting a hands on stance in case the car whose wheel we have changed crashes further down the network because the wheel wasn’t on tight enough. Imagine the headlines if someone dies because one of us had changed the wheel!! Plus there is also the main recovery agents to contend with. They’re not going to be happy if we go round doing the work for nothing that their customers have to pay for!! As for the direction of the wheels, to be perfectly honest, if one of our cars is hit by a 44 tonner straying onto the hard shoulder doing 56mph, our car is going to go in whatever direction the LGV forces it regardless of the position of the wheels!
i can see what you mean hm but i was always told in me car if turning right or left keep your wheels straight then if your rear ended your not pushed into on coming traffic
mungrymatt:
My one and only experience of HATO’s was when I’d broken down on the M11 in a National Express coach.
They arrived and told me that I could only be permitted to remain on the hard shoulder for one hour more.
Bizarre. Would have liked to have seen them move a Volvo B12 with a seized engine though
Not a problem! the wheels will still go round, easy enough to recover with the correct vehicle.
The rules state that you’re allowed a maximum of 2 hours, longer than that and a rota garage can be called for recovery under police powers.
If the vehicle is in an “unsafe” location, or been involved in a RTC and is an obvious distraction to other motorists (ie rubber-kneckers!) then it can be roata gfaraged straight away under police powers.
Your transport managers should know this, and have a system in place that will get you recovered in the time allowed.
Usually we will give a little leeway with HGV’s etc, (especially those of us that know about HGV’s) and if the driver can confirm that recovery not far off (usually by calling the recovery company whilst HATO on scene)
The 2 hour rule should be national, as agreed with the recovery companies.
Before the HATO’s, the various police forces put their own time limits on.
We had 5 forces.
1st force was: 2 hour rule BDV, 1 hour abandoned
2nd & 3rd force were: 2 hour rule BDV, 30 mins abandoned.
4th force was: 30 mins anything!
5th force was: within the next fortnight. ( )
mungrymatt:
My one and only experience of HATO’s was when I’d broken down on the M11 in a National Express coach.
They arrived and told me that I could only be permitted to remain on the hard shoulder for one hour more.
Bizarre. Would have liked to have seen them move a Volvo B12 with a seized engine though
The reason for this is that national guidelines state that you’re only allowed so long on the hard shoulder. If you haven’t got recovery arranged by then, the police would enforce recovery using one of their contracted agents and hit you with a hefty bill. However the H.A. are in the process of taking this over from the police, so we will task a recovery agent to clear the scene and give you the bill. This is to make the network safer by removing dangers from the hard shoulder.
I think that HATO’s do a worthy job well, although l believe there should also be more traffic police (with more discretion) and less cameras. Cameras only catch one aspect of poor driving, speeding, when there are many more which need to be dealt with and seemingly aren’t. On a daily lap of the M25 I tend to lose count of people who overtake me, displaying peculiar driving characteristics, who happen to have a bundle of paperwork on their mobile desk, sorry, front passenger seat and a document held on the steering wheel whilst the driver is talking on the handsfree to a colleague elsewhere. Cameras don’t pick these idiots up!
My only problem with the HATO’s is that they cause adverse reactions when they’re spotted by certain motorists. More noticeable when I’m in my car, and in the past in my work van, paranoid drivers will slam on the panic anchors in the middle/outside lane if they suddenly pass a slow HATO despite the paranoid driver travelling at a reasonably acceptable speed. This kind of reaction combined with eejits who travel too close gives me the willies when I see it! I’m not sure if this is because of their markings being too similar to that of traffic police, or just the ignorance of some motorists thinking that HATO’s can administer tickets or that the slow speed of the HATO’s give the impression that they’re waiting to pounce…
There is, I think, a brilliant road worker safety poster.
It’s on the North bound side, near the start of the roadworks at Carlisle.
The poster is very simple, it shows a photo’ of a road workers back.
The road worker is wearing a hi-vis waterproof jacket and hard hat.
Across the back of his jacket is printed the safety message, it says quite simply -
Loved Ones At Work
Before slagging anyone one else off, think about that message for a minute.
This could be you or me wearing that jacket, or recovery, or a tyre fitter, or Police, or a HATO, or a Paramedic, or a road worker, etc.
The point is whatever label we get due to our job, we are there to do a job not there to intentionally cause anyone hassle.
Someone loves us (OK, maybe with the exception of HATOs ).
Someone expects us home after our shift, however long that shift may be
manowar:
I think that HATO’s do a worthy job well, although l believe there should also be more traffic police (with more discretion) and less cameras. Cameras only catch one aspect of poor driving, speeding, when there are many more which need to be dealt with and seemingly aren’t. On a daily lap of the M25 I tend to lose count of people who overtake me, displaying peculiar driving characteristics, who happen to have a bundle of paperwork on their mobile desk, sorry, front passenger seat and a document held on the steering wheel whilst the driver is talking on the handsfree to a colleague elsewhere. Cameras don’t pick these idiots up!
Manowar,my thoughts exactly.I,or any of my colleagues,do not want to see less traf pol.It is not what our role was set up to do and the vast majority of hato do not want to be police.It is a thin line we tread on,wether our actions can be seen as being police.I have called Police to incidents relating with 5 drivers being arrested for drink driving,3 cars being impounded for being untaxed or unlicenced.If by calling pol to these jobs,i am a wannabe copper,then i am.OR,as a taxpayer,i dont want illegal drivers driving on Britain’s roads.It is a thin line.I do not call Pol to waste of time jobs,such as a truck on a service area slip road,having a tacho break,who refuses to move.I will call it in to create a incident log,purely to cover my arse,so when it is hit,i can tell the coronor that i asked it to move.Unfortunately,the main priority for me is covering my arse.Which is a shame.
I have not commented on this thread earlier as some of the posters were doing quite well without me The general HATO does do a good job, the worrying ones are the self appointed plod wanting to go off in “hot pursoot” after a driver who fails to display a trailer number plate.
As I spend most of my working week in France, the system there is very good, the highway patrols consist of roadworkers who clear drains, remove debris, park behind broken vehicles and cone off lanes in the event of a serious accident. They also help the motorists, police and advise on routes. I passed a highway service vehicle last week that was fitted with a spec lift. I have seen them parked behind a foreign truck helping him to change a wheel or even fitting a tyre for him.
I am old enough to remember when you would panic at the site of a policeman at the side of the road watching traffic.
Im also old enough to remember that they were approachable and would even tell you the time. Unfortunately they have become rather aloof and being replaced with a lesser force who occasionally have slight chips on their pips.
And when did the highways and bye ways of Britain become a network?
THE HIGHWAY MAN take it you will be asking for a hi viz with deeper pockets ready for the back handers for the call out also when i drive along the motorways and I see a chain or a huge tyre on the carriageway in the past you ring 999 but you sometimes get through to a different county police force is there a helpfull number you can ring I dont think there is one hence cutting out middle man allerting you boys and girls Quicker
truckerbuster:
THE HIGHWAY MAN take it you will be asking for a hi viz with deeper pockets ready for the back handers for the call out also when i drive along the motorways and I see a chain or a huge tyre on the carriageway in the past you ring 999 but you sometimes get through to a different county police force is there a helpfull number you can ring I dont think there is one hence cutting out middle man allerting you boys and girls Quicker
Stop as safely and as quickly as you can and use one of the orange road side boxes. It takes you straight through to the Highways Agency control room and they will send the nearest patrol to the debris As for deep pockets, nothing to do with us poor bods on the slab I’m afraid, it’s all sorted by our bosses in the ivory tower with the gold taps and the expense account
truckerbuster:
THE HIGHWAY MAN take it you will be asking for a hi viz with deeper pockets ready for the back handers for the call out also when i drive along the motorways and I see a chain or a huge tyre on the carriageway in the past you ring 999 but you sometimes get through to a different county police force is there a helpfull number you can ring I dont think there is one hence cutting out middle man allerting you boys and girls Quicker
Stop as safely and as quickly as you can and use one of the orange road side boxes. It takes you straight through to the Highways Agency control room and they will send the nearest patrol to the debris As for deep pockets, nothing to do with us poor bods on the slab I’m afraid, it’s all sorted by our bosses in the ivory tower with the gold taps and the expense account
isnt there a simple number to call i know why you suggest orange box for location purposes but the hard shoulder is dangerous as the thread has often said HA think drivers are stupid if any one sees something on cariage way you have these new marker boards we are capable of giving near exact locations or like the olden days a lampost number i know you are doing your best but i supose your boses cycle to work ie no common
truckerbuster:
THE HIGHWAY MAN take it you will be asking for a hi viz with deeper pockets ready for the back handers for the call out also when i drive along the motorways and I see a chain or a huge tyre on the carriageway in the past you ring 999 but you sometimes get through to a different county police force is there a helpfull number you can ring I dont think there is one hence cutting out middle man allerting you boys and girls Quicker
Stop as safely and as quickly as you can and use one of the orange road side boxes. It takes you straight through to the Highways Agency control room and they will send the nearest patrol to the debris As for deep pockets, nothing to do with us poor bods on the slab I’m afraid, it’s all sorted by our bosses in the ivory tower with the gold taps and the expense account
isnt there a simple number to call i know why you suggest orange box for location purposes but the hard shoulder is dangerous as the thread has often said HA think drivers are stupid if any one sees something on cariage way you have these new marker boards we are capable of giving near exact locations or like the olden days a lampost number i know you are doing your best but i supose your boses cycle to work ie no common
Best just to call 999 give motorway M3 datum number 106.7 + carrageway A B etc off the big blue marker signs brief discription of obstruction and which lanes its affecting ie hard shoulder lane1 L2 L3. DO NOT GIVE LAMP POST NUMBERS!!! they work on a grid system and road reponders have no lamp post grid maps to locate the incident. By calling 999 both police and highways control centers will be informed and the nearest resource will be dispached whether it is police, highways or both.
NEJ:
Why do people come on this site to issue personal insults at people?
If you can,t issue a sensible and cohesive response to a post then it only proves that you haven,t got the intelligence to make a cohesive argument to the post you are replying to so why insult the people on here such as the HATO ,s ?
Like them or loathe them they have a role to play in safety the same as you do and like you they will sometimes get it wrong unless you are perfect as some on this site seem to think they are!
As a fitter (many moons ago) who has been in the same position as “wrecktech” i.e. working on the h/s of a motorway and spending many hours repairing vehicles as I have said in a previous post I, (in them days) would have welcomed them with open arms as they (hopefully) would ensure that I go home at night to my beloved and my children.
What is better to have a fitter / driver working in relative safety of one lane closed or take your life in your hands and have trucks / cars etc. passing you a couple of feet away I know which I would prefer ?
Would you like to be the one facing a charge of “Death by Dangerous Driving” or some other charge and a possible prison sentence just because someone decided not to close a lane of the m/way so someone could work in relative safety what is the problem with having a delay of say 20 minutes or so to save someone getting hurt or killed.
Instead of castigating the HATO,s why not take up the offer from one to spend a day with him to see what they actually do before slagging them off, then form an unbiased opinion of whether they are a “waste of space” or not as one post said!
Would you like to be the police family liaison officer who has the job off telling some wife that the hubby she kissed goodbye to this morning was his last one and is now in the mortuary and her young kids have no father all because no one closed one lane of the m/way so he could work in some relative safety?
Put it another way if “YOU” are the one who is doing something to your vehicle on the h/s and someone nearly ploughs in to you are you going to say “no problem mate” or are you going to say you stupid [zb] idiot, I doubt you will say the former !
auto censor dodge removed…colingl
I think a lot of people on here are wanna be Drivers but try to pull thw wool over our eyes, to many are to quick to have a pop at posters for the most minor things, puts me off coming on here sometimes
And i will volunteer to go with a HATO for the day but Coffee has already done it.
).
Why dont you go out on patrol too along side Coffee