Investigate crashes, Sarge ...but don’t take all day

JeReMy Clarkson has become embroiled in yet another social media spat after complaining about the excessive length of time police closed a main road to investigate a fatal accident.

A motorist in his 70s was killed when he was caught up in a reckless, high-speed road race involving up to nine cars in West London. The crash took place in the early hours near the Hammersmith flyover on the A4 dual carriageway.

His wife, also in her 70s, who was in the car with him, was taken to hospital, where she is reported to be in a stable condition.

Three people were arrested at the scene on suspicion of dangerous driving and police are appealing for witnesses and any available evidence, including dashcam footage.

The dead man and his wife were travelling home, within the speed limit, when their car was involved in a collision with what traffic officers describe as a ‘convoy’ of vehicles believed to be racing.

It would appear that they were hit by at least two of the cars in the convoy. The police are obviously obliged to investigate the circumstances surrounding this appalling tragedy and bring those responsible to justice.

If and when the culprits are convicted, they deserve to be given long, exemplary prison sentences for this wanton and avoidable loss of innocent life and the devastation wreaked on the dead man’s family. But Clarkson was well within his rights to ask why it was necessary to close the A4 for 11 and a half hours while officers pored all over the scene.

He doesn’t need me to defend him, but he has put his finger on something this column has complained about over the years.

We all appreciate that in the event of a fatal crash, the emergency services must be given room to do their difficult job. But patience begins to wear thin when the investigation expands inexorably to fit the shift available and roads are closed in both directions for hours on end, regardless of the resulting inconvenience and disruption.

After any casualties have been treated and transferred to hospital, how long can it reasonably take to photograph the wreckage, measure the skid marks and clear the debris so that traffic can start flowing again?

According to a retired road traffic officer who phoned LBC Radio yesterday morning, no more than two to three hours.

But these days even minor shunts, where no one is hurt, are treated as major incidents. So far as the police are concerned, there’s no such thing as an ‘accident’ any more. every one is turned into a full-blown crime scene. Out come miles of yellow tape and officers in hi-viz jackets and CSI-style boiler suits, armed with digital cameras, tape measures, theodolites and clipboards.

Partly,

this is the inevitable consequence of the suffocating, risk-averse, tick- box, backside covering, elf’n’ safety culture which is the hallmark of our world-class 21st-century bureaucracy.

It’s also symptomatic of the way in which everyone today seems to be living in their own reality TV show. Police, Camera, Action!

Consequently, every incident is escalated into a major production number. We’ve seen it time and

again. Possibly the worst example was when Staffordshire Plod closed the M6 in both directions one Christmas Day following a fatal accident.

even though the vehicle was moved to the hard shoulder and was not obstructing the main carriageways, the police still decided to turn the M6 into a car park, ruining thousands of family Christmas celebrations.

Then again, as we saw during their laid-back approach to the eco-nutters who caused chaos in Central London recently, the police no longer think it is their job to keep the roads open.

No consideration is ever given to those motorists stopped in their tracks for hours, many of whom may be missing everything from business meetings to hospital appointments. every day, millions of journeys are wrecked because of unnecessary road closures. How do you quantify the effect on a family who have missed their package holiday plane from Gatwick because the police have shut the M23 after a lorry shed a tyre?

So even though Clarkson acknowledged that the Hammersmith crash was ‘terrible’, he was perfectly entitled to question the need to turn the area into a total exclusion zone for half a day.

We can discount the faux outrage of the usual Twitter showoffs. What’s depressing is the reaction of the police, who took to social media to upbraid Clarkson.

One sergeant wrote: ‘Perhaps you’d like to come with us and personally explain to the family of the deceased that we didn’t investigate the death of their loved one thoroughly because you wanted to get home? That their loss is a complete irrelevance to you?’

There were others in similar vein, some inviting Clarkson to join a traffic patrol to see firsthand what they have to deal with.

They are all missing the point, perhaps deliberately, to avoid answering his question. emoting about having to break shocking news to the bereaved doesn’t invalidate criticism of the length of time they kept the road closed.

Nobody — not me, not Clarkson — is disputing that the horrific Hammersmith crash, which claimed one life and shattered who knows how many others, has to be investigated thoroughly.

The police have a duty to the dead and their bereaved relatives. It’s a duty they exercise with great professionalism.

But it does no harm to remind them that they also have a wider duty to the rest of us to minimise disruption and keep the traffic flowing.

And on that bombshell . . .