Highway to the safety zone

No, not a hoax call or part of a comedy script but a real life message sent to traffic officers on patrol in Hampshire earlier this month.

When they arrived they found a horsebox containing the aforementioned reindeer and a Santa sleigh, stranded in the middle of the motorway after the vehicle towing them crashed into the central reservation.

Officers on the scene had to direct traffic around the stricken vehicle before they could move it to the hard shoulder and await a replacement tow vehicle to continue their journey to a festive event at Christchurch.

While this obviously isn't a regular occurrence, it is an example of the diverse work that the Highways Agency Traffic Officers undertake on a day to day basis.

Another recently call-out was to a van which had lost part of its load across the carriageway - a consignment of zimmer frames.

For my shift I was assigned to team supervisor officer Richard Marlow and his driving partner Steve Moody - they couldn't promise me anything quite as unusual but they said it should be busy - the previous day they had attended 17 incidents in their eight-hour shift.

• 6am: Arrive at the Easton Lane Out Station at the Winnal interchange just off the M3 near Winchester, where the four incoming crews are starting their morning briefing.

This includes details on any ongoing incidents, potential hazards for the day (new roadworks or abnormal loads), the weather forecast and administrative information.

This morning there is also time for Richard to give me a safety briefing and explain what we will be doing and to answer questions about what traffic officers can and cannot do.

Richard begins by pre-empting the most oft-asked question - can he book people for speeding? The answer is a firm no.

Traffic officers have no powers to arrest anyone on any motoring offence (although they can report dangerous driving to the police for them to take action) and in fact are bound by traffic laws themselves.

Each vehicle carries a black box that records vehicle speed among other things, so anyone who is considering joining to drive cars fast can forget it - these guys can get booked themselves for speeding.

However, other road users are now obliged by law to follow instructions given by a traffic officer.

In February this year the first person was prosecuted for deliberately ignoring directions from an officer, fined £500 and given three points on their licence.

So, what can the officers do?

Their assignments include supporting the emergency services at major incidents, clearing up after a traffic collision, removing dangerous debris and checking the welfare of anyone who has broken down.

One of their regular occupations is pulling vehicles away from dangerous positions, but what they cannot do is repair or recover broken-down vehicles.

• 6.20am: Richard and Steve move outside to check over their vehicle, a new Mitsubishi Shogun.

All the vehicles are four-wheel drive, not so much to contend with the weather, which rarely gets that severe in the south, but to give them the traction to tow immobilised vehicles.

Although the outgoing shift is supposed to leave the vehicle ready to go, everything is double checked, from the general mechanical condition of the Shogun and the warning light display on the rear of the vehicle to the cones, flashing lights fire extinguishers, first aid kit, chemical spill kit, towing kit and portable signs that are carried in the rear.

• 6.30am: Out on the road to do a tour of our patch. Richard and Steve have been assigned to sector three, a 21-mile section south from junction 12 of the M3 down to junction 1 of the M27 (where it meets the A31 at Cadnam) and east to junction 7.

Rarely do they complete a circuit before the pair are called into action, especially as traffic builds up towards the main rush hour.

Today, however, things are amazingly quiet, probably due to it being mid-week and the weather being dry.

The route includes visiting the Rownhams Service station.

Usually this is to check for any road users with a problem, but the distinctive Highways Agency vehicle also acts as a deterrent to criminals.

• 7.59am: We finish our 49-mile circuit and nothing untoward has occurred.

Nevertheless, while we have been unoccupied, crews patrolling the northern limit of the M3 have been assisting in an incident involving a car and a milk tanker.

Richard explains that milk is one of the most problematical fluids to deal with because it can pollute watercourses and kill wildlife.

• 8.28am: We receive a call that an exhaust pipe has become detached from a vehicle and is lying in the inside lane of the M27 close to junction 2.

This information comes from officers at the regional control centre at Godstone in Surrey, where they liase with the emergency services, set the overhead signs and signals, monitor CCTV and answer emergency roadside telephone calls.

Before we can respond, another crew arrives on the scene and removes it to the hard shoulder, only to travel a mile further on and discover a female driver at the roadside minus her exhaust.

We stop and retrieve the errant exhaust and deliver it to her while she awaits a breakdown truck.

• 9.07am: Sections of wood are reported across the carriageway on the M27 close to junction 7.

By the time we have located the items we have driven past them so we make another circuit, pull over to the hard shoulder and prepare to set up a rolling road block.

Steve edges out into the inside lane and switches on the rear lights, which instructs cars behind to slow down and not to overtake - at the same time the control centre activates speed reduction signs on the motorway and warnings about debris.

We then move to the middle lane and finally the outside lane, so that eventually we have the traffic backed up behind us travelling at 40mph.

Steve then positions the Shogun in the middle of the motorway and gradually reduces his speed so that we come to a gentle stop right next to the obstacles.

Steve and Richard pick up the battens and place them behind the nearside crash barrier.

When they have finished we moved back to the hard shoulder and signal the traffic to continue on its way.

The position of the debris is noted so a support truck can collect it later.

This may have seemed an insignificant obstruction for car users, but an unsuspecting motorcyclist could have been thrown off had he or she struck any of it.

• 10.15am: The only rest stop of the day for brunch at a fast food outlet, where I get an opportunity to ask Richard and Steve about their backgrounds and why they chose to become traffic officers.

Like many of their colleagues, they come from service careers.

Richard, originally from Fordingbridge, was in the Army for nine years and was then employed in private security working with sniffer dogs.

Previously, Steve was a traffic cop in South Africa and then spent the last eight years as a prison officer: "What I really like about the job is the variety," says Steve.

"No two days are the same - there is always something happening, which makes it more interesting."

• 10.47am: Just as we are packing away our plates a member of the public calls in about a car broken down on the inside lane of the slip road off the M3 at junction 14.

With control using CCTV cameras to locate which side of the motorway, we arrive to find a recovery truck already there, but awaiting our assistance to direct traffic.

Cones are placed to block the inside lane and within minutes the vehicle is on tow and we are back in service.

• 11.40am: Control put out a message about roof insulation scattered on the M3.

Although outside of our designated patch we are the closest vehicle, so we head north to assess the problem.

Once on the scene it's obvious that a significant amount of the fibre insulation is being blown across the road and we put a rolling road block into operation, bringing traffic to a standstill on the M3 supported by warning signs on the information boards.

Richard hops out and packs the fibre into a plastic bag and we move on for several miles, gradually collecting more of the insulation.

Driver Steve is conscious that we shouldn't keep the traffic stationary for too long as it builds up at the astonishing rate of a mile a minute.

• 1.07pm: A message from control reports a van parked on the inside lane of the off-ramp of the M27 heading towards Southampton.

When we arrive, traffic is already backing up on the slip-road as vehicles manoeuvre around the stricken delivery van.

One driver is even attempting to overtake it on the verge until he spots us arriving.

Steve assesses the situation and decides that it needs to be pulled out of the way to free up the traffic, so a towline is attached and the Shogun gradually pulls it onto the verge to await a recovery truck.

The driver is given safety advice on where to stand and we are free to leave as traffic flow returns to normal.

And that just about sums up the principal role of the traffic officers.

• 2.00pm: Back at base there is just time to check the car over and give it a wash before handing it over to the incoming crew, who will be out on the road again within minutes, starting another shift on the M27 and M3.

It hasn't been a particularly exciting shift, but one that has demonstrated the essential core work of the traffic officers - keeping Britain's motorways safe and traffic moving.

• The traffic officers section of the Highways Agency was created in April 2004 to free motorway police from some of their more mundane duties such as traffic control and clearing debris from the carriageway.

In fact 75 per cent of the work previously carried out by police on Britain's motorways has now been taken over by the Highways Agency - the traffic officer service costs £83 million a year to run.

The main objective is to reduce the 25 per cent of congestion on Britain's motorways that is caused by specific incidents (60 per cent of congestion is simply down to sheer volume of traffic).

There are seven Highways Agency regional control centres across the country employing 1,500 traffic officers who together patrol 2,000 miles of motorways and selected trunk roads.

On average they deal with 1,000 incidents a day.

The South East Region, of which Hampshire is part, began service on June 21 2006 and is one of the busiest in the country, covering as it does the southern section of the M25 as well as the M2, M20, M3 and M27.

Traffic officers are on duty 24 hours a day on Britain's motorway network, working three eight-hour shifts.

New recruits spend six weeks on a residential course followed by six months on the road under supervision and then a further one to two months on probation.