JAY PS Posted October 28, 2009 Report Posted October 28, 2009 Had to call 999 last night as i was assisting a stranded motorist on the A3 northbound just past Esher ,he was in the outside lane broken down Pulled my recovery van behind him and rang old bill at 6.35 pm Traffic started moving faster ,had a couple of cars nearly hit my van (even with three sets of flashing lights on !)25 mins had passed so called again The police said they couldnt find us ,and promised to get the traffic car to call me ,they never did . By this time the A3 contactors doing roadworks sent a Astra van out with cones and again with flashing lights, we started to worry about our safety as people were doing 70mph into the coned off part ! Again we both phone the police on two differnent phones shouting at the control staff to do something before something nasty happend AA patrol arrives at 7.30pm to assist broken down car but cant move it or assist until its on hard shoulder for health and safety reasons Third phone call to police what the **** is happening weve been here an hour ,we need the road closed to make this car safe (and us ) . The police assured me someone was dealing with it and the first car couldnt find us ! Then it happened as predicted ,a Mondeo brakes hard (going way too fast) looses it and does 360 in the middle lane ,narrowly missing the AA van on the hard shoulder . Blocking three lanes the passenger gets out and says what do i do ! I said "get back in the car and drive off " There was no damage and luckly they were all ok . They would you believe swap drivers (the driver was female and was shaken) The new driver adjusted his seat ,mirror before doing a three point turn! Just as this is happening a passing Ambulance stops and offers to close the road so we can get the broken down car to safety We do so and i get on my way . I call the police on hands free and explain that we have fully reopened the road and they are bunch of useless ***arses .I put in a complaint at that point . Twenty mins later Surrey police phone me to say where am i ! I let rip at this controller who then says she will pass my comments to her boss . I then speak to two Met Police senior traffic officers who call me within 20mins and have to go through the whole thing again . Tonight i got a call from a very pissed off Traffic Officer saying that he was so pleased someone stopped to help this motorist as the incident could have been far worse and people/s could have been killed or badly injured . He said the controller should have sorted this out and had missed vital information sending traffic cars in a different direction . I gather that because of the border between the met police and surrey they kept passing it backwards and forwards ,no one wating to deal with it ! So i have a few questions for the Police ; How can this happen in this day and age when they given precise details of where we were Dont think id do it again and i used to recover cars for RAC for 5 years .
GJUK Posted October 28, 2009 Report Posted October 28, 2009 To be fair, regardless of if I had the equipment to help him or not. I would never stop in any lane of major road. It's just asking for problems. If the guys retarded enough to stop there then "best of luck to him". I've been on the M42 before in heavy rain, doing 50 ish and some berk had stopped in lane 1 and 2, right in the middle. You were lucky not to be involved in an accident mate!
BIGKEV Posted October 28, 2009 Report Posted October 28, 2009 i cant comprehend breaking down in the fastest lane. at some point whilst breaking down and slowing speed Hazards should have been applied and the steering wheel turned left thats left towards the hard shoulder! Anyone who actually comes to a stop in the fast lane without impacting something needs there license taken away Fair play trying to help but I hope you gave the person a right earful after. I know I would have
.pete. Posted October 28, 2009 Report Posted October 28, 2009 my cambelt broke on a car once when I was in the 3rd lane of a motor way and even though the engine stopped and all the dashboard lights came on I was still able to coast over to the hard shoulder. Maybe just lucky I guess.
GJUK Posted October 28, 2009 Report Posted October 28, 2009 lane 1, lane 2 and lane 3. not slow, medium and fast. Jon
.pete. Posted October 28, 2009 Report Posted October 28, 2009 now editied to use words you can understand. I'll write to the Eagles to ask them to change their song to "Life in the 3rd lane"
escysean Posted October 28, 2009 Report Posted October 28, 2009 To be fair, regardless of if I had the equipment to help him or not. I would never stop in any lane of major road. It's just asking for problems. If the guys retarded enough to stop there then "best of luck to him". I've been on the M42 before in heavy rain, doing 50 ish and some berk had stopped in lane 1 and 2, right in the middle. You were lucky not to be involved in an accident mate! Years ago, my brother once had his car broken down suddenly on fast (3rd) lane when his mk2 Ford Granada automatic gearbox seize up and locked the rear axle before he had chance to pull over to hard shoulder, the car stuck on 3rd lane but lucky for him, the police was already driving behind him in unmarked car ready to flash blue lights to pull him over as he was rather tad speedy! It could happened to anyone Sean
Admin Mk2Jo Posted October 28, 2009 Admin Report Posted October 28, 2009 OMG ... that is appauling Well done to you for sticking with the motorist
JAY PS Posted October 28, 2009 Author Report Posted October 28, 2009 so to be clear ,he was in heavy traffic that was stationary at the time approaching the roadworks , the car died whilst not moving so he had no choice ! Hed just filled up ,i think he put petrol in his diesel golf !
BIGKEV Posted October 28, 2009 Report Posted October 28, 2009 ah ok - alrighty then what a dafty eh? Filling up with the wrong fuel I have done that !!
Fishtailparka Posted October 28, 2009 Report Posted October 28, 2009 Good for you for helping out. I would hopefully have done the same in standing traffic, but as it cleared and speeded up I would have crapped myself. When I break down on a motorway I am up the embankment and over the fence. It scares the crap out of me.
bortaf Posted October 28, 2009 Report Posted October 28, 2009 I thought we had those twats in the yellow striped 4X4s to help with this sort of situation? or were they sitting on a bridge eating as usuall Unfortunatly been there as well, some knob on the M25 in a transit, ign cut out so he just stopped in the outside lane on the bridge over the A1 junction apparently he'd been ther for an hour before i stopped behind him and fixed the problem in 4 seconds flat (loose ign switch plug) and told him to fook of quick, nearly lost me truck at one point as a fooking BM skided between my truck the van and the CENTER barrier Some people are just morons , including me for stopping to help in a dagy situation Good on ya mate for taking the time to help somone out though
lotusless Posted October 28, 2009 Report Posted October 28, 2009 as said before well done for bothering to stop but as an ex breakdown recovery driver myself i would say NEVER stop in lane 3 or any "live" lane!! i dont care how many lights you have flashing there will allways be some twat that dont see you + you will be dead simple as that. the police were totaly at fault for this + all you can do is get the driver into your motor get on the hard shoulder + pray that no-one hits the empty car
caprinerd Posted October 28, 2009 Report Posted October 28, 2009 good man jay, not knocking the police but that is really bad should try an push the issue and get answers for the many questions about what happened as i know i would have hundreds of them to ask
sab6024 Posted October 28, 2009 Report Posted October 28, 2009 I was leading a pack of Capri's up to Ford Fair one year and my Sierra 4x4 decided to let go on the outside lane of the M5. I had a Police car with it's blue's and two's on behind me and 8 Capri's behind that. I managed to get into the hard shoulder with all the Capri's following. God only knows how summat bad didn't happen. The Police carried on and I was stuck on the hard shoulder for 4 hours waiting for someone to pick the car up so I could carry on to Silverstone in my Capri which was following. If the road was busier at the time, I'm not sure I would have made it across. I'm sure it can happen to anyone. I know if I ever came across someone broken down on the outside lane, I wouldn't be so keen to stop an help. Good on ya and you were lucky that you were all OK!!
over_head_cam Posted October 28, 2009 Report Posted October 28, 2009 now editied to use words you can understand. I'll write to the Eagles to ask them to change their song to "Life in the 3rd lane" No need to be rude m8. the fella was just pointing out a fact, and in a polite way too
bigdaz27 Posted October 28, 2009 Report Posted October 28, 2009 i have no faith in the police at all they are all a complete shower of shit yes i no there only men like us but this sort of stuped mistake shouldnt happen
Daggle Posted October 28, 2009 Report Posted October 28, 2009 And that folks is what happens when you take jobs away from qualified POLICE OFFICERS and then give them to civilian call takers who only want to clear their screen of calls as quickly as possible, just like any other call centre Folks there are many things I could tell you about so called 999 operators, it's only getting worse as where I work they decided to close down all the resourcing centres that were located on the area that they gave the call out in, now they have almagamated them into 1 big centre, so you loose all the local knowledge: ie: in the past it would be, Radio Operator lives in Town A, works at Town A Police Station, gives out calls to Town A Police Officers about calls to do with Town A Policing area, everyone knew who they were, they had an idea of the area they were giving calls out in and could dispatch the nearest car, then... Someone comes up with the great idea of closing all the local operating stations and turning them into 1 big centre to save money, so now you get... Radio operator lives in Town A, works in Town B, works on the Radio giving out call about Town C, giving calls to Town C Officers about calls to do with the Town C area, hasen't a clue about any of the area they are giving calls about, doesn't know any of the officers and all the local knowledge that they have built up about Town A is now redundent. There has been a fair few times where I have responded to a call on the M20 between Junction 5 and 6 (Maidstone) only to run down there at a fair lick, coz the call is urgent (ie, car in the outside lane) only to find out that because the right questions haven't been asked by the call taker the actual incident is on the M25 between Junction 5 and 6 (Somewhere near Clackett Lane Services), But don't worry there is always the Wombles to fall back on, as they will soon be the only ones out there on the Motorway network.....
Daggle Posted October 28, 2009 Report Posted October 28, 2009 i have no faith in the police at all they are all a complete shower of shit yes i no there only men like us but this sort of stuped mistake shouldnt happen Thank you for you kind words
lotusless Posted October 28, 2009 Report Posted October 28, 2009 i was wondering where you got to daggle! have you been lurking or just busy m8? + dont let comments like that bother you as you have explained its a typical money saving crap idea! + its easy to just blame the police i suppose but your probably stuck at the station doing 2 hours of paperwork instead of just getting on with it
BIGKEV Posted October 28, 2009 Report Posted October 28, 2009 bless you daggle you do get a lot of shit from OSF'ers lol
bigdaz27 Posted October 28, 2009 Report Posted October 28, 2009 i have no faith in the police at all they are all a complete shower of shit yes i no there only men like us but this sort of stuped mistake shouldnt happen Thank you for you kind words i ment police force in the uk is a shower of shit not police officers if you no what i mean all the red tape money saving bull shit has gone to far there was i time when retired police oficers were offerd the office and call center jobs maybe i was a bit strong with my words but the police force are ment to protect us it is there job and if they cant even find there way to an incident then its a poor show in my books now me pointing the blame at the police may be not completly fair as it all roots back to the shower of barstard we call a govement
Daggle Posted October 28, 2009 Report Posted October 28, 2009 bless you daggle you do get a lot of shit from OSF'ers lol I don't personally, everyone normally starts off a rant with 'All old bill are shit - apart from Daggle of course' , although I do find myself biting to comments like the one above from bigdaz27 I guess you can't please all the people all the time, however peeps be assured there are some decent, hard working, old skool thinking cops out there that don't want to beat up everyone, aren't on the 'take' and just want to put a few bad guys away, earn their money and go home to the family and kids at the end of the shift. Oh and lotusless, yep i'm more of a lurker nowadays, no real reason apart from no OSF and no money for said OSF still pop in every now and then if only to big up the old bill someone has to!!
FredTransit Posted October 28, 2009 Report Posted October 28, 2009 Well Daggle's comments apart it does look like the RAC would have handled the incident better than the police operators. And I have had some pretty hopleess RAC operators in the past. Got to say I might have stopped, but maybe only if it was a classic. Well done to Jay, he risked a lot to help!
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