Road Safety Campaign Targets Gritter Undertakers
A new winter road safety campaign is being rolled out in the North East warning drivers they could be putting their lives at risk if they use the hard shoulder to undertake gritters.
Highways England’s gritter drivers have noticed a growing problem with road users veering into the hard shoulder to avoid being struck by salt, risking a collision with a stationary vehicle and causing a hazard when gritters try to come off at junctions.
The latest statistics show that, on average, 16 people lose their lives every year as a result of collisions on hard shoulders or in laybys across England, and 45 suffer a serious injury. Drivers are being asked not to take unnecessary risks this winter to help keep the region’s motorways and major A roads moving and safe.
Gritters usually travel at 40mph in the middle lane when they are spreading salt on a three-lane motorway, treating the lane they are in and one lane on either side. Drivers are being advised to only pass a gritter when it is safe to do so, avoiding using the hard shoulder and checking for hazards ahead.
Simon Maxwell, 36, from Darlington, has been driving gritters for nine years and is based at Highways England’s depot in Bradbury. He said:
“It can be quite a hairy situation when wagons undertake you on the hard shoulder, speeding past at 50 or 60mph. It doesn’t happen too often as 95% of drivers are sensible and respect that we are gritting the road for their own safety especially when it is snowing they do respect the fact that there is a lot of snow on the ground and they stay behind you. You do get some drivers who will undertake you no matter what the weather conditions.
Sometimes it is worse when you have the plough in front of the gritter. They come hurtling past you and don’t realise that you have another five or six foot in front of you because of the plough and can often misjudge it and try pulling over too early. As a gritter driver you soon pick up what a driver is going to do and you can anticipate if they are going to come over too soon and take your foot off the accelerator. It can be quite scary especially because we are in a wagon ourselves and then they are hurtling past us at 50 or 60mph, which is hair raising at times.
You don’t have the same problems on a dual carriageway as we drive along lane one and grit both lanes from there so drivers can overtake us safely.
I’d just like to encourage people to drive to the weather conditions and if we are spreading salt give us a wide berth as you would normally and just be conscious that we might have an extra bit on the front of our wagons with a plough. But at the end of the day if it is snowing the best place to be is behind a gritter.”
More than 12,000 tonnes of salt is currently being stored at 4 depots across the North East, enough to cover nearly 27,000 miles of motorway and major A roads – equivalent to travelling more than once around the world.
Salt supplies will be topped up throughout the winter and a total of 21 gritters are also on standby in the North East to start spreading salt when temperatures are forecast to dip below freezing, with drivers able to treat every metre of motorway and major A roads in the region every three hours.
Motorists and other road users are also being asked to play their part by driving sensibly and making sure they have a winter kit in their vehicles, including an ice scraper and de-icer, warm clothes and blankets, and sunglasses to cope with the low winter sun.
Michael Hoult, Winter Manager at Highways England, added:
“Our gritter drivers will be out in all weathers again this winter and we’re encouraging road users to do their bit to help keep the region’s motorways and major A roads moving.
The vast majority of people support our gritter drivers by keeping back a sensible distance and only passing when it’s safe to do so, but a few have been putting themselves and others at risk by using the hard shoulder to undertake gritters.
We’re also encouraging drivers to make sure they’ve got a winter kit in their vehicle so they don’t get caught out by the weather. That could be as simple as having a pair of sunglasses in the glove locker so you’re not struggling to see in the low winter sun.
And we are also prepared if it is pouring down with rain with our new high volume pump at our disposal in Bradbury which was used for the first time last month where we pumped 2.5 million litres off the A1 at Catterick.”
More details on staying safe on the roads this winter are available at www.metoffice.gov.uk/winterhighways.