Traffic Officers: Wombles??

[Tomski]

Following on from Jeremy Clarkson's Top Gear rant last Sunday what do you think of the "Flourescent Wombles" (Offical title: Highway Agency Traffic Officer's)

[Iain]

I quite fancy doing that as a job. £19-20k a year driving up and down the motorways sticking cones out? ;)

[CarlMetro]

I think they do a very good job of trying to keep traffic disruption to a minimum whilst protecting the vunerable from harm :up:

[Iain]

I agree Carl. They're almost always on the scene of a car on the hard shoulder or they're never far away if they aren't. :up:

Plus it must be fun to drive a 4x4 that looks like a police car from the distance and has everyone slamming on their brakes. :D :p :

[Daniel]

I think they do a very good job of trying to keep traffic disruption to a minimum whilst protecting the vunerable from harm :up:
Definitely. Never had to change a tyre on the motorway or anything but I can imagine it'd be frigging scary with cars zooming past at 70 or so :mark: These people make it a lot safer. Clarkson as usual just makes a joke that's moronic and people laugh for no real reason :mark:

[Mark]

HATO's do a very good job with traffic management following incidents which frees up police at the scene to attend to more important matters

[Daniel]

Saw an accident on the way home tonight. Only seemed to be one car involved and only damage was to the windscreen and kerbside A pillar on the car. 4 police cars and an ambulance. I hate to think of what happened.

[thehater]

i agree with jeremy clarkson. i find them absolutely pointless. And to what Iain said - They dont even look like police cars, they are the wrong colours and have amber lights, not blue. They cant do anything. The only power they have is to close the motorway which they seem to do for no reason. If someone breaks down then they are ok because that's the reason why people join the AA or RAC. The last thing some wants to see coming into view of their mirrors is a FAKE POLICE officer. We should leave it to the professionals-real police

[Daniel]

i agree with jeremy clarkson. i find them absolutely pointless. And to what Iain said - They dont even look like police cars, they are the wrong colours and have amber lights, not blue. They cant do anything. The only power they have is to close the motorway which they seem to do for no reason. If someone breaks down then they are ok because that's the reason why people join the AA or RAC. The last thing some wants to see coming into view of their mirrors is a FAKE POLICE officer. We should leave it to the professionals-real police
You signed up just to post your uninformed drivel almost a year after the last post in this thread? :mark:

[Mark]

They are certainly not fake police officers. That is not thier job! I still call them wombles but in a nice way :p and I don't think 19-20k is very much considering the job.

[MrJan]

Broke down on the motorway at the start of the year and upon getting to the S0S phone found out it didn't work. Luckily a traffic officer turned up, was very pleasant and towed us off the motorway and parked us in a layby. A swift phonecall home meant that my Mum could come and pick us (me and the old man) up. Left the car where it was and took a trailer up the next night to pick it up.

Had we ended up calling recovery then it would have cost a small fortune just to get towed the 1 mile off the motorway. Oh and the car was buggered and needed a new engine, God bless eBay though, me Dad picked one up from a scrapper for £60 :)

In conclusion, traffic wombles can be a right pain in the arse, until they do something good for you. And what's with people resurrecting year old threads recently????? After thinking Oily was back last week now I though Carl had made a triumphant return.