Motorway breakdown continuing journey ( OT )

Use the roadside phones. My cousin, who used to be an operator at a motorway control centre tells me that it is far from an unusual request. However, even though they would call a nearby firm, you will still have to wait for the cab to arrive.

Colin Bignell

I found the best answer to breakdowns, crashes, getting lost etc. is to book into a hotel within a short distance of the airport, stay the night, leave your car with them and get chauffered to the airport, relaxed and on time.

Many folk in this situation would have a friend or relative who would come to the rescue. I know I have done so; on one occasion my niece was heading to the airport early in the morning as a passenger in her aunt's car. It broke down, so she rung me and I was happy to help.

The AA (and for all I know the RAC) will often go well outside their obligations in exceptional circumstances. I know of one recent situation where they transported a car from Scotland to Berkshire, although they had previously attended the breakdown, and there was a repair agent within 10 miles.

Chris

A £100 hotel in order to not miss a flight worth only £50? LOLK

Long time since I have noticed a roadside phone. Are they not likely to be phased out? Now that everybody has at least one mobile?

On M'ways? I think that says more about your observation than anything else, tbh.

And, no, not everybody has - or carries - a mobile.

A mobile phone is sensible equipment to have when driving...

Last time I called the motorway police on my mobile,I was told to walk to the fixed phone a short distance away and call back, as that was the only way they could be sure of where I was.

You would, apparently, be amazed how many people are not only unaware of where they are and which way they are travelling, but are also certain they are on a different motorway.

Last time I called the motorway police on my mobile,I was told to walk to the fixed phone a short distance away and call back, as that was the only way they could be sure of where I was.

You would, apparently, be amazed how many people are not only unaware of where they are and which way they are travelling, but are also certain they are on a different motorway.

They have two big advantages over mobile phones that ensure that the authorities will want to keep them: You get straight through to the control right centre and they know exactly where you are. There are driver location signs along the motorways that are supposed to enable mobile users to give their position, but few people have ever noticed them and even fewer know that is what they are for.

When I had to call an ambulance for somebody who had collapsed in the street, the problem was the other way around. I was at the junction of two roads and I knew, from the road signs, the names of both. Unfortunately, the ambulance dispatcher couldn't find them on his database (one road was about five years old, but the other had been around for at least a century) and I had to guide the ambulance in from a road they could find.

Colin Bignell

When I had to call an ambulance for somebody who had collapsed in the street, the problem was the other way around. I was at the junction of two roads and I knew, from the road signs, the names of both. Unfortunately, the ambulance dispatcher couldn't find them on his database (one road was about five years old, but the other had been around for at least a century) and I had to guide the ambulance in from a road they could find.

Colin Bignell

Well a few months ago I was walking to the supermarket from my home, about

A Paramedic Estate Car Ambulance with blues and twos going pulled up beside me. The driver asked me did I know where the XXX retirement home on such and such a street was, as they had called in a 999 emergency. There are several retirement homes around here, I did not recognise the name or street, and did not want to send the ambulance the wrong way on spec, so basically said "I know nothing".

She was then on her mobile phone trying to find out the location of the emergency via head office. She explained to me she was based in Hull and did not know Leeds at all. Head office were no help at all, so she took off to ask somebody else.

Thing is, I just can't understand how you would send a Paramedic, unfamiliar with the location, to an emergency without a SatNav. Or indeed why a City like Leeds has to employ someone from Hull to cover their emergencies. Or indeed why Head Office just couldn't have put the name and address into something like

Shocking. I could only hope the patient was OK in the end.

Gareth.

Last time I phoned motorway police to report an accident on the opposite carriageway I gave the location on one of the "M1 A 76.5" driver location signs which identify the motorway, the carriageway (eg north- or southbound) and the distance from some reference point. The operator was utterly clueless as to how to make use of the information I gave him and wanted to know which junction I was near - I said I may have to keep on driving for some time before I came to a junction so I could say "the accident was 11.3 miles back the way I've come from J27" or whatever. I emailed the contact address for the police force to alert them to the fact that they were not geared up to deal with the information that's on signs which were placed there specifically to make it easier and less ambiguous when describing a location.

And these days don't most smartphones have GPS plus apps to share the current location by various means.

I had a similar experience following paramedics taking my wife to hospital after a riding accident (not serious, in the end) who followed a most tortuous route at least ten minutes longer than necessary; turned out they were not from the area and didn't really have a clue where they were.

When I was being transported by ambulance from one hospital to another after convalescing from a heart attack, the ambulance driver got lost as he was getting near the destination - I think he turned off the ring road one roundabout too early or late. I was chatting to the nurse in the back and I was aware of the ambulance going over speed bumps and then having problems turning round in a confined residential road with parked cars everywhere. The residents must have loved the beep-beep-beep "Caution, this vehicle is reversing" message blaring out of the ambulance :-(. Since I was from the area, they asked me for help - did I know where they were and how to get onto the right road? It's very difficult trying to see out of an ambulance with darkened windows in the dead of night. And he had satnav, so I'm not sure how he went wrong.

Then they took me to the wrong ward, which meant going all the way back down to the ground floor so they could get into another tower block to go up to the right ward - but that wasn't they fault: they'd been given instructions to take me to Ward 30, but it was temporarily closed for refurbishment (it had been gutted!) and there were no signs saying that patients had been moved to another ward until you got to the old ward.

Except the roadside phones don't work very well when someone on southbound phones in to report a car on fire on the northbound hard shoulder. Then they light up all the overhead warning signs on the southbound, 40mph and send the fire engine there too.

Including me. I shall pay more attention in future.

On 03/03/2014 08:14, Peter Hill wrote: ...

The operator should, if possible, verify the situation on the CCTV first. So that suggests either no CCTV on that stretch or a poorly trained operator.

Colin Bignell

I've never yet encountered a well-trained police emergency operator. They seem too inclined to ask inflexible questions (eg wanting the postcode for an area which the caller is unfamiliar with and not being able to handle National Grid OS coordinates which is how a GPS quotes the location) or simply not listening to the words I say: "I'm calling from the A carriageway, and I've just passed location M1 A 231.6, but the accident is on the opposite B carriageway, not the one I'm calling from" which prompts questions about "what's the postcode of your location" [the M1 doesn't have postcodes - there aren't any houses on it!] and "so the accident is on the carriageway facing towards London?" [no, no and thrice no - I'm facing towards London but the accident is on the opposite carriageway facing towards Leeds].