On board with the police lorries keeping England’s motorways safe

Sean O'Grady went out with the officers making sure drivers are following the rules of the road

An unmarked police lorry cab out ‘spotting’ road offences and crimes (National Highways)

Carnage near Spaghetti Junction.” By the time this message came through to the Central Motorway Patrol Group, somewhere near Birmingham, I was already in the back of a marked patrol car and we were off to the scene of the road traffic collision.

The “carnage”, I’m pleased to say was mostly a matter of miles-long tailbacks caused by a lorry spinning a Peugeot 208 joining the motorway. Such was the scale of the congestion, the police car with its blue lights and siren could only just make its way past the thickets of vehicles stretching across four carriageways.

The car driver was in some pain, understandably, and there were worries, but this was a rather minor collision and still there was a National Highways patrol, two police cars, an ambulance, an ambulance lead officer, a fire engine, a fire lead officer (ready to cut the driver out of his car to prevent further injury), erm... and me. Around eight different public service workers, and key workers were tied up because of an incident that might easily have been avoided. Also, people can end up hurt and in hospital, like the Peugeot driver.