I left work last night and headed up the dual carriageway towards East Kilbride in torrential rain . Because of the weather conditions my speed was nowhere near the 60 mph limit allowed on the dual carriageway - just as well !
As I came over a hill crest and rounded a left hand bend , I saw one of our officers , who had left our car park a few moments before me , running down the central reservation towards a Mondeo on the opposite carriageway , which had hit the central barrier and was now lying in the outside lane facing oncoming traffic which was hurtling downhill towards it , in the wet , from around a bend at alarming speeds !
I carried on up the dual carriageway for about half a mile to the next junction at which I could turn round , and before joining the opposite carriageway , stopped and put my blue lights up on the roof . I then got into the outside lane and proceeded slowly down to the bend , stopping the van in the outside lane just within sight of the crashed car . I left the van there with blue lights flashing to protect the occupant of the crashed car - and got myself well out of the way . By this time my colleague was helping the stunned but uninjured driver out of his mondeo .
It seemed like an eternity before the police arrived , but reallly was something like 10 mind - first two panda cars then a traffic car . They started to get the road coned off , and arranged for amey to come out as diesel was leaking out of the crashed car and running all over the road .
The traffic cops set out cones to close the lane off and then we waited for a recovery truck . A few minutes later , there was another crash on the other side of the dual carriageway , due to 'rubberneckers' too busy gawking at the crash and not seeing slowing traffic in front , then a third crash in which a driver braked hard to avoid the second crash , hit the barrier and spun round !!!! Not only that , but one of the traffic cops had to jump the barrier out of the way of a jack-knifing artic whose driver had failed to see four sets of blue lights , a dozen people in hi-viz gear and the Amber beacons of at least three civilian vehicles !
I eventually got home about 9 pm .
As I came over a hill crest and rounded a left hand bend , I saw one of our officers , who had left our car park a few moments before me , running down the central reservation towards a Mondeo on the opposite carriageway , which had hit the central barrier and was now lying in the outside lane facing oncoming traffic which was hurtling downhill towards it , in the wet , from around a bend at alarming speeds !
I carried on up the dual carriageway for about half a mile to the next junction at which I could turn round , and before joining the opposite carriageway , stopped and put my blue lights up on the roof . I then got into the outside lane and proceeded slowly down to the bend , stopping the van in the outside lane just within sight of the crashed car . I left the van there with blue lights flashing to protect the occupant of the crashed car - and got myself well out of the way . By this time my colleague was helping the stunned but uninjured driver out of his mondeo .
It seemed like an eternity before the police arrived , but reallly was something like 10 mind - first two panda cars then a traffic car . They started to get the road coned off , and arranged for amey to come out as diesel was leaking out of the crashed car and running all over the road .
The traffic cops set out cones to close the lane off and then we waited for a recovery truck . A few minutes later , there was another crash on the other side of the dual carriageway , due to 'rubberneckers' too busy gawking at the crash and not seeing slowing traffic in front , then a third crash in which a driver braked hard to avoid the second crash , hit the barrier and spun round !!!! Not only that , but one of the traffic cops had to jump the barrier out of the way of a jack-knifing artic whose driver had failed to see four sets of blue lights , a dozen people in hi-viz gear and the Amber beacons of at least three civilian vehicles !
I eventually got home about 9 pm .
