Safe Speed Forums

This was my thought exactly, if the inside lane was unsafe to travel on as well as the outside 2, why wasn't the rolling road block, er, blocking all 3 lanes?

I've never seen a "rolling roadblock" ever. If it doesn't involve blue flashing lights and police I'm not interested.
This is exactly what the police are there for. If the HATOs want this they should call the police to get it done.

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Andrew.

No way of knowing what they were actualy doing on this occasion but I would imagine for starters the rear facing sign would be displaying do not pass, they could then of either been straddling lanes or weaving accross.

That's a little bit harsh. I think for my own safety I'd assume any fairly official vehicle trying to impede everyone's progress on the motorway had some reason to at the very least think it was a good idea to do so.

I'd rather the HATOs stopped me now than waited until the police arrived to stop me crashing.

They look like this:
http://www.geocities.com/supraman2954/h ... _block.jpg

We were stationary as I took that photo (taken before the new mobile phone law I might add).
The van you see past the HATO vehicle was clearing debris up ahead !!!!

When clear, the HATO driver gave me a cheery wave as I flew past him

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Views expressed are personal opinions and are not necessarily shared by the Safe Speed campaign

This was a rolling road block in the Dartford tunnel - but was invoked by a police vehicle.

The queue of slow moving cars preceded by a flashing light is a clue that something is up.

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Time to take responsibility for our actions.. and don't be afraid of speaking out!

Were the top lights flashing at all? That really is what police are for, not civilian HATOs.


Doesn't apply for taking photos - that is not an interactive communication function and doesn't use radio signals.

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Andrew.

I think they were but that was a while ago so I don’t really remember.


I don’t disagree.


I thought any hand-held device being used hand-held is now punishable?

Sorry, but the more I hear about this, the more I proclaim: BULL$HIT!

We are not to be expected to take orders that countermand the rules of the road from vehicles other than those displaying flashing blue lights. I can display fluorescent chevrons on the back of my vehicle, and flashing amber lights on top, without any kind of licence or training, and I could even put an LED 'STOP' sign in my back window if I wanted to, and absolutely noone would have to obey my directions to traffic!

Why should anyone be reasonably expected to not overtake a vehicle, which looks ostensibly like a breakdown/maintenance/railways/escort vehicle, hogging the middle lane at slow speed!?

Why would you not?
Would seeing them doing that, with a illuminated electronic sign in the car, not be a good indication of a potential for risk on the carriageway ahead? Would it be a bit presumptuous to believe there is no risk, that all is OK, simply pass them and proceed as normal?

The only other time I had to slow for a HATO rolling block was, again, when there was debris on the road.

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Views expressed are personal opinions and are not necessarily shared by the Safe Speed campaign

I agree with smeggy here.

Thankfully, civilians will often warn other road users of unexpected danger – an accident just around the corner or maybe a delivery lorry blocking the road. Should we just ignore these people, or wait to clarify the situation ourselves?

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It's tricky doing nothing - you never know when you're finished

Surely COAST principles apply.

If you see an old man with a stick waiving frantically at you as you approach a bend, it might just be he is trying to warn you of an incident around the corner, or even a speed cam

I'm not sure that putting it in the Highway Code would achieve much for existing drivers - so few ever refer to it once that have passed their test.
We should really have more of those old fashioned road safety information films on the TV.
This is one of the strategies used in France with some success.

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Time to take responsibility for our actions.. and don't be afraid of speaking out!

A couple of years ago I was driving down a narrow lane in Hampshire and met a man in a 'chavved up' Nova coming the other way flashing his lights. We thought this was unusual and so I slowed even more than I would have done and went round the next bend to find a pile up that had only just happened. The moral of the story is that it is wise to heed the warnings from anybody.

It seems bizarre to me that some people object to HATOs slowing traffic down from time to time - surely that's what we would want them to do if there is a hazard ahead.

Sorry, I was obviously not clear enough. I have no objection to HATOs slowing the carriageway for safety purposes, what I object to is someone being prosecuted purely on the grounds that they did not heed a mere warning from a fellow civilian in a flashy vehicle.

...but a civilian with statutory powers under S.6 Traffic Management Act 2004:

FB2k's info. aside, surely your statement sums up the difficulty here - the traffic WAS being slowed down for safety purposes, and the defendant ignored the measures being taken.
I dont have a problem with the charge, but I do think (without further information) that the penalty was a bit steep.
Perhaps FB2k could provide us with sentencing guidelines!
I believe that the charge implies that despite her actions, they were halted before she became a risk to the workforce in the road, otherwise the charge might be dangerous driving... so why so big a penalty?

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Time to take responsibility for our actions.. and don't be afraid of speaking out!

Sorry Robin, I should have given you more credit (I thought that was a bit of an odd post from you). Anyway,

I don’t think that can be considered to be right. In this case the civvie was easily recognisable as someone who would be expected to have more knowledge of a local event than us ordinary drivers, by their ostentatious vehicle.

From a slightly different angle: if an unmarked car, strobes flashing and siren blaring, was trying to stop you (for whatever reason), do you think you could have grounds to ignore it and carry on? Afterall, you wouldn’t know the driver wasn’t civvie until he stepped out.

Are the flashing lights blue?

EDIT: Also, are non emercency-service vehicles allowed sirens? I thought no?

I don't think the strobe colour matters in this case. For me the blue means "get out of the way", the yellow "responding to an incident" or "danger". Either way it’s still more than a fellow civvie has.


I don’t know if HATO vehicles have a siren or not but I don’t remember ever hearing one, so likely not.

Even so, given their training, support equipment and real-time links to monitoring stations and emergency services, do you not believe they have more authority than a civilian - enough for drivers to obey their instruction?

(I should repeat that I prefer real police to do the job)

Obeying the instructions of a police officer is mandatory. Obeying the instructions of a civilian is optional.

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Andrew.