Safe Speed Forums

Driving down the M6 through Birmingham this morning, information signs where showing "obstruction in road slow down", overheads where displaying 40mph advisory, further down they where showing Lane 1 Closed (red cross above lane 1). When approaching the area in question there was a support vehicle on the hard shoulder with its lights flashing and Lane 1 was coned off. Just as you got past the cones there was a Box Van pulling away on the hard shoulder and the cones where being collect in. I don’t know what the problem had been with the van, but is it really necessary to close off one lane?

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Useless laws weaken necessary laws.

If the box van had broken down in the carriageway / dropped something / buried itself in the verge and needed to be towed out... there are plenty of reasons why it would have been preferable to close a lane rather than risk a collision.

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Science won over religion when they started installing lightning rods on churches.

HI Sixy,

I can understand if something drastic has happened, but from what I’d seen, and the fact the van was pulling back onto the motorway I suspected it wasn’t anything to serious. I asked the question because of what I was thinking at the time, which was were the support personnel over reacting by closing off one lane. It was quiet at the time (5.00am). If this had been rush hour it could have caused quite a tail back.

Dixie

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Useless laws weaken necessary laws.

Unless they were packing up after an evening's roadworking?

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Science won over religion when they started installing lightning rods on churches.

The support units you describe are "Incident Support Units" their job is to make carriageways safe after motorway incidents like bumps and shunts, etc.

They do not have the power to close the lane on thier own, this must be authorised via Highways Agency RCC and the motorway Police authority, so these are not set at will, there must be a justifyable reason.

These guys get to clean the aftermaths of the whole sphere incidents that happen on the motorways from tyre bits through to cleaning up after some horrific accidents(who do you think has to clean the blood up!!!)

Also it would be very remiss not to clean up debris which could lead to further accidents, i mean if a car has dropped a quantity of oil and water due to a bump and it isnt cleaned up, they you come along and have a bump because of it , you'd want to blame someone...

what if say a tyre had blown, close off lane 1 until tyre changed, temp lane 1 closure message boards set until defect fixed, mesage boards left on say a further 5 mins in oreder for the backlog to be cleared

basic health and safety

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now retired

The ACOPS policy is to minimise lane 1 closures unless specifically required, it isnt advisable to change an o/s tyre on the motorway for obvious reasons because you can never discount what will cross the marginal strip.

However i also believe that motorway users should ensure that they have suitable breakdown cover for their journeys to enable organisations like the AA and RC attend to help as more often vehicles are recovered even for a puncture to a place of safety.

In a study it was determined that the average life expectancy of someone standing on the hard shoulder of a motorway is 10 mins....