Whilst traveling on the M4 yesterday on the way to taunton I spoted a white land cruiser at the site of a breakdown (gordano area)with red and amber lights going and flurecnt yelow and black chequer patern.I could not see any wording on the sides as I was traveling at speed.
Could this be one of the new higway vehicles and if so do they have any form of police powers ie does one need to mover over for them and can they legaly exceed they speed limit.
Paul
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move yes, exceeding speed not that i am aware of.Yes you have to follow their instructions but they have no powers of arrest.
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Whilst traveling on the M4 yesterday on the way to taunton I spoted a white land cruiser at the site of a breakdown (gordano area)
pedant mode on
That'll be the M5 then....
pedant mode off
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"That'll be the M5 then...."
Depends where he's coming from. I use both M4 and M5 to go to Taunton, coming from Berks !
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"That'll be the M5 then...." Depends where he's coming from. I use both M4 and M5 to go to Taunton, coming from Berks !
Ah but Gordano services are at j19 of the M5
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I saw one today on the M40. No writing, except on the bonnet - which I couldn't read. Lights that appeared to have no colour. Doing about 69, so everyone else was crawling past when they wanted to be hammering along. I went past at somewhere between 75 and 80 (indicated) - no trouble.
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Life is complex; it has real and imaginary parts.
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All the Highways Agency Traffic Officer vehicles should have the wording 'Highways Agency' on the rear within the hi-viz markings, similar to where you'd find Police wording.
Also the Highways Agency symbol is shown on the sides and bonnet.
The rearmost side windows should have the words 'Traffic Officer' emblazoned on them too.
More recent additions to the fleet do have clear LED lightbars which only show their amber and red colours when lit.
In my opinion this is a deliberate attempt at mobile traffic calming and it is very effective.
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If bunching up all the traffic is traffic calming, then yes, it was very effective.
More and more vehicles seem to have lights and battenburg paint jobs these days, and fewer and fewer of them seem to be police.
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Life is complex; it has real and imaginary parts.
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The ones on the M56 have Traffic Officer on the rear side window and are clearly not Police as the battenburg colouring is black and yellow, the police have blue and yellow, the ambulance/paramedics have green and yellow. It's quite obvious, in daylight, once you know to look for the black squares. The police don't have flashing amber lights on the roof lightbar either.
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Every man and his dog seems to have police style markings on their vehicles. It really winds me up when I think it's a copper only to realise as I get nearer it is Joe Bloggs recovery or a private security company.
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\"Nothing less than 8 cylinders will do\"
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I looked inside a Highways Agency Discovery today whilst it was in for a service, and there was a seperate calibrated speedo on the dash. Wonder what that's there for?
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Saw one of these trying to cause a pile up on the M5 near Taunton.
A box was in the middle of the outside lane, patrol SUV was on the hard shoulder with lights going and incident boards up at the back.
One of the highways officers was stood on the edge of the inside lane jumping up and down flapping his arms to get people to slow down.
Looked into the distance to see what the problem was and realised the box was about a metre ahead (although I was in the second lane and had reduced speed).
Now at what point did they think it safe to try to slow a fast moving motorway a few metres from the obstruction- and why did they believe the best way to do this was to create a distraction away at the opposite side of the obstruction.
Very very surprised there had not been a major accident, or the highways agency officer hadnt been run off.
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What does 'follow their instructions' mean?
If they gesture for me to pull over do I have to comply?
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According to the HA website:-
Traffic Officers work with the police but their role varies with the severity of the incident. The Highways Agency Traffic Officers are not able to fine you, but it is an offence not to comply with their directions. The police still enforce the law.
I'd assume it to mean they have power to direct traffic analagous to that of a traffic warden in town.
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