Can I pose a question that I don't know the answer to? If a broken down car is on hard shoulder and AA/RAC van behind it, traffic flows by. If a police car is behind it, traffic slows down to have a look, causing potential accident.
If accident happens on motorway and cars go to hard shoulder, police will appear, want driver details etc, if accident happens on the high street, as long as no one injured police will not want to know!
What is the best way to deal with vehicles on hard shoulder? I know if my wife broke down on a motorway I would be happier if the police were there till AA came along. Would it make a difference if police had flashing orange lights on their car same as breakdown companies? Would that then give the policeman less protection than his red/blue lights?
Suppose what I am trying to say is what is the best way to deal with immobilised vehicles on the hard shoulder with minimum impact on the flow of traffic? Obvious answer is for all drivers to drive properly and ignore the immobilised vehicle?
Think I'm confusing myself, I'll go for a lie down in the hope that you lot know what I am trying to say!!
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Not sure I follow the whole of your post but I think cop cars having a set of ordinary orange flashers for when they've pulled up to a break down is an excellent idea. As you say blues get much more attention and in poor light/darkness perhaps even daylight, oranges would lead to less rubber necking.
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I would have thought hazards, plus red rear facing lightbar strobes on random, plus red deck/cluster strobes on quad zig zag would be enough, Maybe a bit of attention-seeking is involved.
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The point I was trying to make is that if the cop car looked like an RAC/AA vehicle you wouldn't get so much of a hold-up, whereas lighting it up like a Xmas tree does. Sorry if i wasn't clear
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As anything on the hard shoulder is potentially at risk from traffic using the running lanes I think it's a good thing that traffic slows when there is a Police vehicle present.
I have heard a rumour that it will soon be legal for recovery vehicles and the like to display flashing rear red lights so that will obviously confuse some motorists who will assume it's the Police.
In fact I have seen a few recovery vehicles in the past using flashing rear reds, they must have been breaking the law then.
I think I'll get a relay fitted into my car so that I can get my rear fogs to flash alternately, handy if I break down and great for getting rid of tailgaters I'm sure! ;-)
PP
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A few years ago my daughter had an electrical failure on the A12 and called me on her mobile in a panic.
When I got to the place, 15 minutes later, an Essex Police driver had towed her to the nearby service area and calmed her down - got his name and wrote thanks to the Traffic boss.
Matt35.
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Slightly off topic but why do breakdown trucks always leave their orange flashers on when loaded up and driving down the motorway? (Often at 80 in the outside lane!)Do they have to? I could understand if they were carrying an abnormal load.
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