ADUK Archive

This popped up this morning in the reading list on the BBC news website; I then realised it was from Dec 2012.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20851775

Has anyone seen these deployed anywhere? It would be interesting to understand the advantages of preventing rubberneckers (assuming drivers don't rubberneck wondering what those big green screens are!) vs. the time it takes to get the purpose built vehicle/trailer to site, put them up and clear away afterwards...

I would have thought the 'authorities' will take more time and effort in organising and getting the screens up which would be better spent clearing the incident and re-opening the lanes/road.

I do wonder what the HA patrols are actually meant to do when I come across a closed lane or two, only to find a HA vehicle, a load of cones and a broken down vehicle they could easily have towed out of the way..!

The screens were bought by the HA some time ago but then, for various reasons, mothballed. There's been a more recent initiative to use them (along with other equipment) to improve management of incidents (Google HA CLEAR).

The new 'method' is that the TOS will take them to incidents (previously it was the HA's Area MACs (Google . . . ) and deploy them.

The main intention is to stop 'rubbernecking' and so reduce congestion on the opposite carriageway, and queue-tail collisions. An additional benefit is providing a good level of concealment, otherwise likely to have been provided by the fire service stretching tarpaulins between vehicles. Doing so can allow a carriageway to be partially reopened alongside the incident.

I've seen these in use in France years ago and in my opinion they did not do much to alleviate the problem.

I don't buy the broad narrative that 'rubberneckers' slow down to have a good gawp at the accident. The slow-down on the opposing side of the carriageway instead happens, in my opinion, when approaching drivers see an accident and/or a sea of blue lights ahead and reduce speed accordingly. Often from a distance it's not always even possible to identify on which side of the motorway the problem lies. This has a cumulative effect of reducing the average speed drastically, which then may indeed exacerbated by everyone having a good look.

So if the screens help it would possibly be to get the opposing traffic to flow again - but as I've said I've seen them in action and I don't think they make a difference.

At least two instances which I know of where they've been used have involved the scene of fatalities:

One after a suicide off a bridge, where the body was screened from the opposite carriageway.

Another was a double-fatal after an Audi left the main carriageway and hit a van parked in a lay-by. Again, the screens surrounded the wreckage.

TR4ffic wrote: I do wonder what the HA patrols are actually meant to do when I come across a closed lane or two, only to find a HA vehicle, a load of cones and a broken down vehicle they could easily have towed out of the way..!

TOS vehicles are being fitted with load cells into their tow bars, to allow clearance of obstructions. I understand that TOs are being trained to, as well as vehicles still on their wheels, (under certain circumstances) right overturned vehicles and tow them off the carriageway.

Happened again this morning. Crash anticlock M25 between 11 and 10, whereupon the clockwise gummed up as people slowed up to peer at the mess (and probably take selfies these days)

We've used them up here and it does prevent a lot of rubber necking. The passing road user doesn't get the chance to ponder over little detail of some mishap, and gives the crash investigation team more privacy and even a degree of sound proofing when working.