Circumstances were that for an upcoming Crown Court trial, the defence Barrister had requested a site visit to the scene of an "incident". This involved some arranging and for Health and Safety reasons the local Constabulary were asked to help. A lane closure at the scene meant a Police presence was desirable whilst said Silk did the business. I tagged along as it was my case in the first place. The Police suggested we travelled to the scene in a marked vehicle to reduce congestion and risk at the scene.. Consequence was a 60 mile round trip in a Police Disco along a Motorway. What happened on the inward an outward journey was an eye-opener. The drive was a very smooth speed limited affair with all signed and advisory limits adhered to. What was interesting was the behaviour of other drivers; they would be cruising up behind at the usual 80 to 85mph until they spotted the said Disco, they would then adjust their speed to match that of the Police vehicle and sit on its offside about three car lengths behind with a consequent build up of traffic behind until the driver would eventually summon the guts to creep past at about 71 mph. The Police driver allocated to us said that this was standard practice and eight hours of such led to much frustration. Another practice I noticed was the number of drivers who were involved in other matters other than driving.....One had a Fast food meal on his lap, another was reading something laid on the steering wheel of his Merc and an incredible number of drivers of all classes on handeld mobile phones. If I was a Traffic Bobby all this would have given me apoplexy.
A quiet time of day had been picked to do this, again to reduce the risk at the scene, whilst I was standing there watching the QC in action, the speed of the passing traffic was horrendous along with the number of vehicles "tailgating" (despite a 50mph limit matrixed for our benefit), what else was quite frightening was the above two factors linked to "rubbernecking" what we were doing. The Silk was simply standing there getting a feel for his scene.... a lot of questions posed on this site were answered today about road closures, speed limits, tailgaters along with the attitude of operational Traffic Officers.
Yes, he did stop something, a newish black BM that tailgated us for about a mile in lane 3....some paperwork did change hands, I didn't ask whether he was actually booked or not.
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im surprized you find any of this a surprize, isnt it all pretty much what you would have expected ?
Re the "creep past at about 71 mph. The Police driver allocated to us said that this was standard practice and eight hours of such led to much frustration" isnt this down to the petty enforcement of minor speed enfringements ? If drivers were confident some snotty bobby was not going to book them ,they would probably pass at a more realistic safe speed
re the tailgater, hey well done that copper - i salute him
re "despite a 50mph limit matrixed for our benefit", these are often ignored because in my experience they are often false warnings put up long after the incident has passed, or sometimes probably for no incident at all, i would guess in my experience there is probably only a 20 % chance of such a warning leading to anything other than a normal clear road
must be hard being a good guy doing a traffic cops job, when they have such poor leadership, and questionable levels of training nowadays
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I bet, I just bet, that a certain LHD Spanish 90 is up for the chop and eyes are being cast at a Disco?
Having outlined the apparent ring of confidence the stripes and livery afforded then commiserate with me in the first months of retirement. No one took any b***** notice of me, tailgated, speed past and wouldn't let me out of a junction. No wonder I have BP.
DVD
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No....
Got rid of the family Disco after I bought the Defender. Don't miss it one bit !
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re "despite a 50mph limit matrixed for our benefit", these are often ignored because in my experience they are often false warnings put up long after the incident has passed, or sometimes probably for no incident at all, i would guess in my experience there is probably only a 20 % chance of such a warning leading to anything other than a normal clear road
I agree with you that there seems to be a lot of "false alarms" when the matrix is up. However I think that the main reason that they are ignored is that most people do not kow the legality of them and seem to think that they are not legally binding.
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I agree with you that there seems to be a lot of "false alarms" when the matrix is up. However I think that the main reason that they are ignored is that most people do not kow the legality of them and seem to think that they are not legally binding.
Surely we are talking about the advisory (amber light) matrix signs here, not the mandatory ones with red flashing lights/red circles?
They are only legally binding in that they can be used to back up a careless/dangerous driving charge.
Or have I missed something in the latest Highway Code revision?
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HC states that it is a "Temporary Maximum Speed Limit".
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Para 231 in HC.....
Amber flashing lights. These warn of a hazard ahead. The signal may show a temporary maximum speed limit, lanes that are closed or a message such as 'Fog'. Adjust your speed and look out for the danger until you pass a signal which is not flashing or one that gives the 'All clear' sign and you are sure it is safe to increase your speed.
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See the other thread about undertaking where we discussed the subtle but important difference between MUST abnd should in the HC. If the matrix signs are legall enforceable, then why did they need extra legislation and new signs on the variable speed limit part of the M25?
Contravening the HC 'advice' probably gives traffic a good reason to pull you if they wan't, but they can't do you for anything other than careless driving (or similar).
Richard
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I was on the M25 on Sunday when I noticed that the drivers ahead were behaving erratically.
The reason was a Police Volvo doing 65 mph in the slow lane.
Every car in every lane slowed to 60-65. Eventually I picked my way past them all at an indicated 70 and two miles later they all flew back past me at 85+.
Whilst I believe that my car (IS200) has a fairly accurate speado, I can't quite accept that every other car's speado was overreading by 5+ mph.
What's going on? - it was a scary experience...
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I've seen that sort of behaviour too on occasion. It's most bizarre. I thought that police vehicles often drove a bit below the limit to allow traffic to pass without fear of being nicked. Why it takes people so long to relaise that if they stayed at 85mph they'd get got, but passing at 70 is OK I have no idea.
I took advantage of a similar thing to get through the Sunday evening traffic on the M4 to M1 stretch of the M25 once though. What I thought was a police car came past at 80 (no lights flashing) and everything got out of its way. Seeing it was actually RAF police - who I believe have no powers to stop ordinary motorists - I moved out a short distance behind it an followed it most of the way home as everyone else got out of its way.
GJD
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I used to do some software consultancy work on the Highways Agencys Signs and signalling systems on the motorways a few years ago. These are located in Police Control Centres and I know for a fact that the operators (usually civilian) used to leave the matrix signs switched on by mistake. Which explains why the signs are active for no apparent reason.
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But you don't know it's for no apparent reason for a few miles. Sometimes they are on, and you carry on sailing through at 90+ only to find a stationery wall of traffic shortly down the road due to an incident.
So, thanks for the explanation, but I will continue to pay *some* heed to them as they might just save my life one day...
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I totally agree smokie, it's better to be safe than sorry!
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