powers? what powers?

[falkor]

what powers do HATOs have?

> FULL TRAFFIC OFFICER powers RIGHT HERE

have any members exercised these powers?

[* STOKESEY *]

I WOULD LIKE TO ASK DO TRAFFIC OFFICERS THINK THAT MORE POWERS THAN THE ONES SHOWN ARE NEEDED

[TheWanderer]

Only a couple.

The main one is currently being sorted so we can remove abandoned and damaged vehicles of our own accord (at present recovery has to be authorised by a police inspector or above)

Personally I'd like to be able to issue Fixed penalties for people who stop on the hard shoulder without being broken down or a genuine emergency, ie people reading maps, stopping to talk on the mobile phone (they think its legal as they're not "driving"), or HGV drivers trying to take "tacho" breaks.

Also, they don't like us using our current powers to pull over vehicles with apparent insecure loads as they claim this isn't our role, but surely it's better dealt with while the garage doors are still on the back of the lorry, not all over the motorway!

[brian (the bearded one)]

Hello Stokesy and thank you The Wanderer but how do you know that they don't like you stopping insecure loads?

[TheWanderer]

Lets just say that the garage door incident involved a colleague of mine who saw it, overtook a lorry and put rear reds on whilst passenger signalled to the lorry driver to pull over.

The supervisor at debrief had some strong views on this and said "We're not VOSA or the police so we shouldn't be doing it". My colleagues point being that she was preventing a serious incident. The gaffer seemed to be under the impression that our powers don't extend to stopping individual vehicles, even though we have the blanket powers to stop traffic.

[brian (the bearded one)]

So the gaffer is saying that the insecure load should have been called in and left for a police unit to stop? What does this translate to? You should have followed the insecure load until a police unit caught up? Is there policy on this The Wanderer?

[TheWanderer]

There's no section in the manual to cover insecure loads. Most things are covered in depth, but it looks like this was left out. The other procedure missing that i'd like to see is what to do if a vehicle is travelling the wrong way down the motorway. Basically the most serious incident you could have and theres no written set of instructions or guidance!

I think my colleague had the best idea to act to prevent an RTC, rather than wait to pick up the pieces after one had happened!

[lieutenant fatman]

I heard about something like that going on, on my radio today, a car going the wrong way down the motorway sounds scary! Seems crazy it hasn't been taken into consideration...

[Sug1e]

Subject very touchy but if you look at the overall cost it will, I consider be an ever emptying drain on the coffers.
So at some stage they will have to recoupe the money. What more of a better way to get money back than to give us more powers and then we start doin fixed penalties and so on money recouped job done,
but where does it stop?????

[TheWanderer]

I quite agree sug1e. It would make sense financially for us to be speed zapping people whilst parked on standby on bridges, just hope it doesn't come to it!

[Charl_Hunter]

I quite agree sug1e. It would make sense financially for us to be speed zapping people whilst parked on standby on bridges, just hope it doesn't come to it!

I think you could argue (whether sucsessfully or not is another matter) that your role when not dealing with an incident is to patrol looking for minor incidents to deal with. You wouldn't be able to do this very effectively if you are sat on top of a bridge with a radar gun.

[TheWanderer]

Yeah, but you know what the powers that be are like when the funding runs out. Especially with trunk roads on the way very soon.

[lieutenant fatman]

Sitting on the bridge all day? No, I think you would have to drive backwards and forwards across it constantly perhaps. Though hopefully not, the extreme boredom would probably cause you to crash.

Hopefully they strap rocket launchers to the top of your cars and you can blow anti-social drivers off the side of the road, yeah! Hmm, maybe it's best I'm not in HATO...

[Guest]

Lieutenant, Rocket Launchers?

I think they would but to save money they would fit pea shooters instead

[Charl_Hunter]

The other procedure missing that i'd like to see is what to do if a vehicle is travelling the wrong way down the motorway. Basically the most serious incident you could have and theres no written set of instructions or guidance!

So, what would you do if a car was travelling the wrong way down the motorway? I appreciate there is no written guidence, but what would you think would be the best course of action either for Hatos or police to take?