Yes well a lot of the HATO seem to have librarian syndrome anyway, so giving them any real power would be a very very bad move in my opinion.

And there's me thinking their job was to clear up after an accident, cone and uncone carraigeways and sit on motorway bridges and police perches pretending to be cops.

quote=Tomo1971;1245448]

By this I mean:

As far to the left as possible, even on the grass verge if safe and suitable

Wheels turned to the left

Hazards, lights and rear fogs on if possible

Position all people behind the car, behind a barrier or on the embankment etc

Always walk facing the traffic so you can see any danger coming.

Got told off by the police for using the rear foglight one when i brokedown 10 years ago. we were sat up on the enbankment in the brambles out of the way and the police couldnt see us

Ran out of fuel on the motorway some 30 years ago driving back from Exeter in a rental lorry. The fuel gauge showed over a third left

Had a few company vehicles like this, also fuel cards that only work at certain garages or fuel bunkers.

I think you need to be aware that people die on the hard shoulder a lot.

Lorry taking a tacho break on M40, and another lorry goes into the back of it - one man dead just the other day because of this while I was on shift. One lady killed on the M4 while outside of her vehicle - not to sure of the circumstances. This is in under 3 months of working for the HA. The point I am making is the hard shoulder cannot be used as free parking. For every vehicle that is struck on the hard shoulder it takes an average of 11 mins from the time it took them to stop there to them being hit.

Yes hard shoulders are a dangerous place, often foreign truck drivers stopped for tacho breaks as they dont know the law. Even seen a couple parked on a police perch to have lunch. The real thing that needs to be looked at is driver training as driving standards are pretty much poor in this country and motorways many just switch off while others just sit in the middle lane for miles on end when lane one is empty.

Yes many matrix signs over the past few weeks have mentioned to check fuel gauge, but im wondering if its just me or has anyone else notice that the old signs for how many miles to services and even older fuel prices for the next service station are missing these days?

I think it should become law that every car should carry a full gallon can in their boot like abroad.

Lets not forget that in Germany it is already an offence to run out of fuel on the autobahn, the penalty is quiet a substantial on the spot fine, far greater than £30.

If we assume that alot of drivers pull onto the hard shoulder because their engine has just konked out , then could it be that one reason for all the rear end collisions on the hard shoulder is that they then totally under-estimate the distance to stop without the servo brake sytem being operational. Im informed (but this may be wrong) that the servo contains enough vacuum for one good stop attempt and after that the vacuum has gone. Multiple braking attempts whilst moving across several m-way lanes may deplete the vacum reservoir to the point of no braking assistance , just when you need it - just a thought.

PS I know of only one other english word that has "uu" in it.

I do agree that some HATOs have slight libearian tendencies, but I don't think I do.

Yesterday I took a call from a man who believed him friend was having a heart attack in the passenger seat of the car. I had to get enough information out of the man to send an ambulance out to him. It was stressfull - as I had to keep him talking and make sure than the ambulance got there on time.

The next call I take is from a man asking me to trot down the M25 and bring him 5 litres of fuel - all he had was a £20 note. Not enough for any sort of recovery, it puts things into perspective really.

Our HIPPOS (HATO Inpersonating Proper Police Officers) are not PSCOs that won't jump into a lake to save a drowning child. They have pulled people out of buring vehicles, they are a great source of comfort to people who have broken down. People are all too happy to critises something they don't understand.

I think I have a brilliant job, it doesn't pay too badly and I get a lot of holidays as well as being interesting and different everyday.

You want an example of "well-meaning but actually unhelpful"?

At Easter weekend I was down at Heathrow, and returning to Scotland by M25 (CW) - M40 - M42 Westbound - M5 - M6 - A/M74.

I saw signs on the M40 warning of an accident on the M42 at J10-J11, which didn't affect me cos I was going round the other side of Barmyhum anyway. I got un-necessarily woried about where I was and where I was going when those same warnings continued alonw the M42 (west-bound away from the accident scene) and up the M5, only ending after I was up the M6 past the end of the M6(T).

I do agree that some HATOs have slight libearian tendencies, but I don't think I do.

......

Our HIPPOS (HATO Inpersonating Proper Police Officers) are not PSCOs that won't jump into a lake to save a drowning child. They have pulled people out of buring vehicles, they are a great source of comfort to people who have broken down. People are all too happy to critises something they don't understand.

I think I have a brilliant job, it doesn't pay too badly and I get a lot of holidays as well as being interesting and different everyday.

Sorry EE I wasn't directing it at you personally.

As you say it's only some of them, however with everything these few could well abuse their new found power, so pi$$ing off the majority of road users and making life much harder for people like you as you would then have to deal with a hostile public.

Some do do good things, others just like pulling up behind a traffic queue on a closed road and screaming at people.

:iagree:

I do agree that some HATOs have slight libearian tendencies, but I don't think I do.

Yesterday I took a call from a man who believed him friend was having a heart attack in the passenger seat of the car. I had to get enough information out of the man to send an ambulance out to him. It was stressfull - as I had to keep him talking and make sure than the ambulance got there on time.

The next call I take is from a man asking me to trot down the M25 and bring him 5 litres of fuel - all he had was a £20 note. Not enough for any sort of recovery, it puts things into perspective really.

Our HIPPOS (HATO Inpersonating Proper Police Officers) are not PSCOs that won't jump into a lake to save a drowning child. They have pulled people out of buring vehicles, they are a great source of comfort to people who have broken down. People are all too happy to critises something they don't understand.

I think I have a brilliant job, it doesn't pay too badly and I get a lot of holidays as well as being interesting and different everyday.

That does put a very different perspective on it.

Glad you're enjoying the job Emily

I always fill up before I am going to do any distance on a motorway, as its less depressing watching the fuel gauge go down faster as it moves round.

If it does come on there is no way I would stop at a service station to put feul in my car, it just rediculess!.

I think if there were to make service station prices the same as the high street there would be far less accidents involving people crashing because they we tired. Also the same goes for feul. I and I bet others are not going to stop in a service station just to be plain robbed!

EE - tell those stupid traffic wombles to stay home and we'll all get where we're going a lot faster Sitting behind a parked car (be it flat tyre, no fuel etc) on the HS with your blues on is a sure-fire way of getting rubber-neckers slowing down and causing congestion & shunts. :( The blues aren't going to wake a sleeping HGV driver, so it's a dead womble and a dead motorist instead of just a dead motorist. Not that it'd be a great loss, granted.

Also, while we're at it, rather than flashing 'Incident' on the gantry, try putting 'vehicle with puncture - nothing to see' or 'break down - nothing to see' to stop the idiots from slowing to look & causing accidents.

Does anyone at the HA have a driving license? Have any of them ever used the motorways for anything other than ****ing about in silly Land Rovers or digging practice?

Also, most other motorists in the UK - I'm sick of you! -Get left, you're not overtaking anything! Stop braking and start regulating throttle usage instead. Stop tailgating. And Gordon, stop taxing me so bloody much on fuel you greedy ****.

**** it, I'm emigrating. I ******* hate everything about this **** hole of a ******* country.

[/Rant]

Thanks for listening. I feel better. For now.

Edit: Yes, if you run out of fuel (not from faulty gauge or leaks) then you should be prosecuted, or preferably banned for life. That way we remove some of the idiots and I might get to work safer and quicker. I'm in a bad mood.

EE - tell those stupid traffic wombles to stay home and we'll all get where we're going a lot faster Sitting behind a parked car (be it flat tyre, no fuel etc) on the HS with your blues on is a sure-fire way of getting rubber-neckers slowing down and causing congestion & shunts. :( The blues aren't going to wake a sleeping HGV driver, so it's a dead womble and a dead motorist instead of just a dead motorist. Not that it'd be a great loss, granted.

Also, while we're at it, rather than flashing 'Incident' on the gantry, try putting 'vehicle with puncture - nothing to see' or 'break down - nothing to see' to stop the idiots from slowing to look & causing accidents.

Does anyone at the HA have a driving license? Have any of them ever used the motorways for anything other than ****ing about in silly Land Rovers or digging practice?

Also, most other motorists in the UK - I'm sick of you! -Get left, you're not overtaking anything! Stop braking and start regulating throttle usage instead. Stop tailgating. And Gordon, stop taxing me so bloody much on fuel you greedy ****.

**** it, I'm emigrating. I ******* hate everything about this **** hole of a ******* country.

[/Rant]

Thanks for listening. I feel better. For now.

Edit: Yes, if you run out of fuel (not from faulty gauge or leaks) then you should be prosecuted, or preferably banned for life. That way we remove some of the idiots and I might get to work safer and quicker. I'm in a bad mood.

Refreshing to hear someone who gets to the point & understands what a mess our roads are in And as for the Wombles, we have a whole nest of them at J9 on the M3, If a driver sneezes they seem to shut 2 lanes. A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of enduring a 1.5 mile rolling road block to slow the traffic to a standstill blocking all 3 lanes of the M3 + the 2 off lanes to the A34 so the Wombles could put signs round a broken down car that WASNT EVEN ON THE ROAD !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, & why when the government is taxing peoople with 4x4's do they get 60K Range Rovers to swan around in & also seem to spend half there life in the services

I feel better now as well ;)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Emily-Elizabeth

I think you need to be aware that people die on the hard shoulder a lot.

Yesterday: BBC NEWS | England | Manchester | Woman hit by motorway lorry dies

luckily I was on the opposite side, saw the lorry, car, emergency services

Not saying she ran out of petrol but I agree with Emily that you shouldn't be on the hard shoulder if you can easily avoid it.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

This woman wasn't on the hard shoulder though. she was in the carriage way.

Maybe she shouldn't of been stopped on the hard shoulder but if you break down there isn't anything you can do.

Driving is not dangerous! Be all and end all. It is the decisions people make that makes it dangerous for everybody else.

Fixed penalties would be harsh it should be down to propper education.

Our HIPPOS (HATO Inpersonating Proper Police Officers) are not PSCOs that won't jump into a lake to save a drowning child. They have pulled people out of buring vehicles, they are a great source of comfort to people who have broken down. People are all too happy to critises something they don't understand.

Just like your critisising PCSO's for not jumping intoa lake to recover the bodies of people that were already dead and risking their own lives in the process.

Steve

EE - tell those stupid traffic wombles to stay home and we'll all get where we're going a lot faster Sitting behind a parked car (be it flat tyre, no fuel etc) on the HS with your blues on is a sure-fire way of getting rubber-neckers slowing down and causing congestion & shunts. :( The blues aren't going to wake a sleeping HGV driver, so it's a dead womble and a dead motorist instead of just a dead motorist. Not that it'd be a great loss, granted.

Also, while we're at it, rather than flashing 'Incident' on the gantry, try putting 'vehicle with puncture - nothing to see' or 'break down - nothing to see' to stop the idiots from slowing to look & causing accidents.

Does anyone at the HA have a driving license? Have any of them ever used the motorways for anything other than ****ing about in silly Land Rovers or digging practice?

Also, most other motorists in the UK - I'm sick of you! -Get left, you're not overtaking anything! Stop braking and start regulating throttle usage instead. Stop tailgating. And Gordon, stop taxing me so bloody much on fuel you greedy ****.

**** it, I'm emigrating. I ******* hate everything about this **** hole of a ******* country.

[/Rant]

Thanks for listening. I feel better. For now.

Edit: Yes, if you run out of fuel (not from faulty gauge or leaks) then you should be prosecuted, or preferably banned for life. That way we remove some of the idiots and I might get to work safer and quicker. I'm in a bad mood.

Shows you know f**k all mate, wombles don't have blue lights - they have yellow and red. :P

For what it is worth, a lady ran out of fuel yesterday - I asked how many people were in her car - she said 6, 3 adults and 3 children all under 3 years old. I could see she was driving a Audi A4. I called the police and then PNC'd the car. Turns out she had no insurance and no driving licenece. I asked a HATO to go to scene to delay the recovery if possible - which they did. Police came, nicked her.

Maybe there is no need for a fixed penalty when Emily is on duty

Wam bam thanks you ma'am!

Shows you know f**k all mate, wombles don't have blue lights - they have yellow and red. :P

For what it is worth, a lady ran out of fuel yesterday - I asked how many people were in her car - she said 6, 3 adults and 3 children all under 3 years old. I could see she was driving a Audi A4. I called the police and then PNC'd the car. Turns out she had no insurance and no driving licenece. I asked a HATO to go to scene to delay the recovery if possible - which they did. Police came, nicked her.

Maybe there is no need for a fixed penalty when Emily is on duty

Wam bam thanks you ma'am!

Thats a good one Emily, well done. FYI though, any car with more people in than seats and belts, is technically without any insurance, it becomes invalid as soon as that extra person gets in.

Steve

Thats a good one Emily, well done. FYI though, any car with more people in than seats and belts, is technically without any insurance, it becomes invalid as soon as that extra person gets in.

Thanks

I aim to get at least one arrest in per day, and people who run out of fuel are easy targets.

Regardless of how many people are in the car - not having any insurance invalidats your non existant insurance.

Never got a thanks from Herts Police for handing them an arrest, but I did take 15 mins of to watch them on CCTV nicking her!!

If you read my original post properly you would see that it is HATOs that might be getting powers to issue tickets for this sort of thing, so we wouldn't be 'bothering the police' and they could carry on with their paper work.

As you have pointed out there are ligitimate reasons why someone might have fuelling issues, but as far as I am concerned - being to tight to stick £10 in at a fuel station is really not an excuse.

these little hitlers should be redundant,i deal with these 17 year old little cretins more than i would like too,they have a huge inferiority complex without giving them extra powers,i deal with them like the self important little insignificant rodents they are,window down one inch and make them repeat everything 1/2 a dozen times,they treat me like i'm thick i make them stand in the rain,it makes me laugh:D

At the moment if you breakdown on the motorway because your car is out of fuel nothing bad happens to you... if you area a member of a recovery company you get some fuel brought to you (at a price) or you have to walking to the nearest fuel station - bare in mind that walking along the motorway accept to an SOS phone is an offence, as is abondoning your car.

Do you think people should be prosecuted for it? I would say that 25% of breakdowns I deal with are people out of fuel. Like some chap today who was in the middle of the M1 roadworks contraflow :thumbdwn:

So... quick poll. It is a multiply choice one - first question have you ever run a car our of fuel on the motorway - second question - do you think police should prosecute?

A lot of people say that their fuel gauge is broken, either an excuse or not I guess it is possbile.

The reason I ask is that Traffic Officers are likely to be given some more 'powers' soon - and they would more thank likely to be writing out the tickets that would lead to prosecution.

Hi Emily Elizabeth,

I don't think that people should not be running out of fuel on the motorway of all places, as the potential to cause a serious accident is very real. The person could be driving in the third overtaking lane, and suddenly the engine dies, with vehicles at speed following. How dangerous this is!!!!!!!!!!!!!.:eek:

There is no excuse a a fuel can can always be carried, and so this is why I am never running out of fuel anywhere, and also I always make sure that I have sufficient for my journey to take me to the destination and then check again for the return.

I think that traffic Officers should have powers to prosecute, as there is no real excuse. A fuel gauge can go faulty, but to go on to a motorway with a known fault is silly. But in the event of a fault does occur, it is possibly better to pull over, and get assistance before running out of fuel, if one is not sure that there is enough to complete the journey.

I have been driving since the early 1970 decade and it has never happened to me, as I will not allow it to.

It could be termed as being careless and dangerous to the height of stupidity, and there should not be any need for people to walk on the motorway to seek fuel. I vote on this one

SHOULD NEVER RUN OUT OF FUEL, AND POLICE SHOULD ALWAYS PROSECUTE.

Soviet:thumbdwn:

In my opinion there is no excuse for running out of fuel on the motorway. Anyone who uses a motorway is usually on a reasonable length journey and really should be planning their journey ahead accordingly.

The Police definately should prosecute.

Ran out of fuel on the A14 some years ago, the car had a faulty fuel gauge and we didn't know until it had run out. Called the AA and they came out with some fuel. Silly I know, the car was 6 months old and we had only been using it for a few days.

Thats a good one Emily, well done. FYI though, any car with more people in than seats and belts, is technically without any insurance, it becomes invalid as soon as that extra person gets in.

Steve

Not quite true that one, a pre 1986 car where rear belts are not required can still carry rear seat passengers.

I bet the Audi A4 driver didn't have the children in proper seats either.

She had children in her car that were 3 years old, 18 months and 11 months with 3 adults. I can only imagine at least one of them must have been on an adult's knee.

She had children in her car that were 3 years old, 18 months and 11 months with 3 adults. I can only imagine at least one of them must have been on an adult's knee.

Which, without wishing to cause offence, is a prime example imho of why we need more skilled and highly trained traffic police on our roads and motorways as opposed to HATO's with increased powers.

Hi Emily Elizabeth,

I don't think that people should not be running out of fuel on the motorway of all places, as the potential to cause a serious accident is very real. The person could be driving in the third overtaking lane, and suddenly the engine dies, with vehicles at speed following. How dangerous this is!!!!!!!!!!!!!.:eek:

Not that bad actually as thats what happened to me, all that happens is all the dash lights come on, and you start to slow down. Its very gradual and I managed to pull over from lane 3 to the hard shoulder without any trouble and was still travelling at a reasonable speed entering the hard shoulder.

She had children in her car that were 3 years old, 18 months and 11 months with 3 adults. I can only imagine at least one of them must have been on an adult's knee.

Give Emily-Elizabeth her due, she could have saved a child from potential serious injury there.

Shows you know f**k all mate, wombles don't have blue lights - they have yellow and red. :P

For what it is worth, a lady ran out of fuel yesterday - I asked how many people were in her car - she said 6, 3 adults and 3 children all under 3 years old. I could see she was driving a Audi A4. I called the police and then PNC'd the car. Turns out she had no insurance and no driving licenece. I asked a HATO to go to scene to delay the recovery if possible - which they did. Police came, nicked her.

Maybe there is no need for a fixed penalty when Emily is on duty

Wam bam thanks you ma'am!

Result, for getting the no insurance or licence. But I'd still say that justifies the "sufficient powers already" argument. More so since I think we already have too many laws in this country.