They’re bright orange, and covered in flashing lights... yet still drivers run into our gritters!
THE cold weather is on its way, with council gritting machines ready to get back out on to the roads.
Yet despite the gritters being festooned with flashing beacons and being bright orange, motorists sometimes fail to see them and crash into them.
In the East Midlands, 11 gritters were involved in accidents last year while they were out spreading salt to keep the roads safe in icy weather.
Some 36 Highways England gritters were driven into across the country last year.
Gritters weigh up to 26 tonnes and, when they are spreading salt, travel at up to 40mph.
They often travel in the middle lane of a motorway to ensure the right amount of salt is spread across all lanes.
Highways England’s national winter and severe weather team leader, Paul Furlong, said: “Although the vast majority of people support our gritter drivers by leaving a sensible distance and only passing when it’s safe to do so, we do have occasions when people misjudge things and end up colliding with one of our vehicles.
“We have noticed a growing problem with drivers using the hard shoulder to undertake gritters, risking a collision with stationary vehicles and causing a hazard to gritter drivers who need to exit at motorway junctions.
“During severe weather it’s really important that we keep traffic moving and our gritters are out on the network enabling us to do that.
“We are doing what we can to improve the visibility of our fleet and are rolling out a number of new vehicles, which include a large rear chevron panel to help them be more clearly visible.”
The back of a gritter is the most vulnerable area as it is where the salt spreading equipment is located. If it is struck it often means the machine has to be taken off the road to be repaired, which is costly and could affect services in extreme weather conditions.
The advice from Highways England aligns with the newlylaunched Stay Safe Stay Back tailgating campaign and more information is available at www.highwaysengland.co.uk/ staysafestayback
The campaign spells out the dangers of following too close to the vehicle in front and urges drivers to obey the two-second distance rule – particularly when driving in adverse winter weather.
In the Midlands, there are more than 60 winter service vehicles on seasonal stand-by at strategically-located depots.
Highways England emergency planning officer, Frank Bird, said: “Safety is our top priority and those responsible for salting the network need to be afforded the time and space to do their job properly.
“We know how busy the Midlands motorway network can get and that’s why we operate strategic salting runs when temperatures drop. It’s vital that people leave plenty of space and avoid tailgating the gritters”
Help on driving conditions can be found at www.highways. gov.uk/traffic or by calling the Highways England Information Line on 0300 123 5000.