Why does it take so long to clear Motorway incidents?

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SirGalahad

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I am sure this grates most people the now regular motorway incidents and then delays. Is it a shortage of motorway police stretched too far or simply a malaise of a system where there is no incentive to clear the issue as fast as possible.

I have seen the police in the US manage accidents and they seem to be so more pragmatic. One example is a broken down coach in the middle lane. The officers parked their car behind the coach set up flairs about 50 yards further back and let traffic filter around the coach.

In the UK we would have closed the whole motorway and then waited 2 hours until the recovery truck could arrive.
 
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It is just what they do with complete disregard and contempt for everyone else.

It is the same on ordinary roads where they have to measure everything and, as above, determine fault. What difference does it make which insurance company pays?
Even railway lines are closed for investigation when someone jumps off a bridge. Just scrape them up and get on with it.

It is one case where democracy is not considered.
 
Whatever the faults or not of the US police but I have seen them in action clearing up horrible accidents - no fuss no drama they just get on with it. don't close the roads down. There was one crash on a busy intersection, so one of the intersections was blocked so they just let traffic go on the kerb and slowly move around it whilst it was managed by the officers.
 
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Maybe there are more idiot drivers causing more accidents on our roads
 
I've posted this before, but it is common for an incident on a major road in the UK to not get cleaned up until "after the rush hour", even if it happened at one or two am. You will hear them reported on r5L.

Sod everyone who sits there for an extra hour or more, rather than sort it in the small hours with little fuss, and a grand or two of call-out wages for the crew........
 
Brigadier said:
I've posted this before, but it is common for an incident on a major road in the UK to not get cleaned up until "after the rush hour", even if it happened at one or two am. You will hear them reported on r5L.

Sod everyone who sits there for an extra hour or more, rather than sort it in the small hours with little fuss, and a grand or two of call-out wages for the crew........
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But isn't that because budgets are cut so the cost is passed onto the motorist. This is a classical externality in economics. I see this happening in the NHS where a department that supplies surgical equipment buys the cheapest gloves which tear easily forcing the surgeons to double glove or extend operation times.
 
Doubt it, I would think it would cost less to do the (smaller) job at night, than the far more complicated and involved one in the day.
 
Accidents are treated like crime scenes.
People who sometimes appear only to be lightly injured can often die
Witnesses lie and attempt to get their story straight - human nature. So they do need to check the scene properly and search for hidden victims sometimes.
They will be looking to prosecute someone if there is fault
They'd also rather not get run over in the process or cause another accident clearing the accident.

I used to commute a lot by motorbike and also used to teach for plod, so have seen and have done first on scene training. You'd be amazed how far the victims can end up. There is a lot of work needed by the accident investigator. Sometimes they even need to do simulations.
 
That's all very well and perhaps understandable for collisions (although not all), but what about breakdowns, or single vehicle incidents which damage the barriers, for example?

If the SOP / default position is to always wait until mid morning, no-one employs any thought or common sense, and you get ridiculous road restrictions which are just not warranted.
 
I think this is the problem -
motorbiking said:
There is a lot of work needed by the accident investigator. Sometimes they even need to do simulations.
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Why?

What difference does it make?

Does the cost to thousands of other people not outweigh any cost saving by someone being able to say "It wasn't my fault"?
Knock for knock by the insurance companies - for the greater good - would balance out in the long run.
 
EFLImpudence said:
I think this is the problem -

Why?

What difference does it make?

Does the cost to thousands of other people not outweigh any cost saving by someone being able to say "It wasn't my fault"?
Knock for knock by the insurance companies - for the greater good - would balance out in the long run.
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If they treat everything like a crime scene and can solve the incident then and there - then perhaps its also good for police forces run by stats?

There is a prevailing viewpoint that management by objectives and in this case by quantification leads to quantifiable results yet these people always forget Goodharts Law - "When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure."

The cost passed onto motorists and the wider economy is huge.
 
I'm going to be a bit flippant in my response here...
why bother investigating any killing? The person is already dead and wasting millions finding the killer and locking them up wont bring back the dead.

I do however agree that minor RTA's should not be regarded as "crime scenes". However we have the blair govt to blame for that as this approach was brought in when the ACPO started looking to make revenue from drivers in the form of speed camera partnerships. They wanted all activities to be attributed to crime solving, so police on scene = someone is down for a ticket.
 
And, using the example of the oft-quoted "statistic" that excessive speed is a factor in 70% of accidents (whatever the exact phrase is), knowing what causes each and every accident is futile anyway, as the evidence appears to be that people do not learn from the lessons anyway.
 
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