A Government
strategy to tackle congestion caused by motorway closures and
drive down the £1bn annual cost to the economy was unveiled today
by Roads Minister Mike Penning ahead of a national summit.
The Minister also announced the launch of a £3m fund for police
forces to purchase laser scanning technology to speed up of the
investigation process and incident clear up times.
At a high-level summit in London today, the Roads Minister, Home
Office, Highways Agency (HA) and police, fire and ambulance chiefs
will commit to a 10 point action plan.
This will help ensure that closures take place only when they are
absolutely necessary and for the minimum amount of time. This will
help keep traffic moving, supporting economic growth for the
future prosperity of the country.
It follows a joint review of investigation and closure procedures
for motorway incidents – led by the Department for Transport,
working in partnership with the Home Office, HA and Association of
Chief Police Officers (ACPO) - published today on the DfT website.
Mike Penning said:
“There is nothing more frustrating than being stuck in a traffic
jam for hours on end. But even worse than that is the shocking £1
billion cost of those lost hours for our economy. That is why we
are determined to improve clear-up times following accidents so we
can get our motorways re-opened as quickly as possible.
"Last year there were more than 18,000 full or partial
motorway closures lasting a total of more than 20,000 hours. I
recognise that, where serious incidents have occurred, closures on
the motorway may be needed to ensure the safety of those at the
scene and the travelling public. I also understand the importance
of ensuring a safe and effective investigation.
"However, I believe much more can be done to ensure
incidents are managed effectively, efficiently and consistently.
"I am also pleased to announce DfT funding of around
£3million for laser scanning technology that can be used by the
police for surveying incident scenes. Recent trials by the police
and HA have demonstrated that this can make a real difference in
speeding up the investigation process.”
Chief Constable Phil Gormley (ACPO lead for Roads Policing) said:
"This review has highlighted a number of innovative ways
in which such closures can be minimised. The national summit will
enable that process to begin, streamlining the response to such disruption.
“We will continue to work closely with Government and all those
involved to ensure that the right balance is struck between
conducting a thorough and comprehensive investigation whilst
enabling our critical motorway infrastructure to return to normal
as soon as possible.”
The 10 point action plan, being formally agreed today, will see:
ACPO, in consultation with other incident management responders,
review the Road Death Investigation Manual to ensure it strikes an
appropriate balance between carrying out a thorough investigation
of an incident and keeping traffic moving.
DfT/HA and ACPO explore the use of new technology to help speed
up incident management, including consideration of the wider roll
out of laser scanners to police forces and identifying/assessing
future technologies.
Police training revised to improve officers'
understanding around the impacts that lengthy closure procedures
can have on road users and the economy.
Regular multi-agency training exercises to test a wide range of
motorway closure scenarios carried out – and best practice
guidance developed from this.
Particular focus given to examining the factors which contribute
to long delays - and developing guidance to ensure motorways are
not closed any longer than necessary.
DfT explore the role of police, fire, ambulance, HA staff and
recovery agents in more detail to identify and agree specific
issues which need to be addressed to improve incident durations.
The HA carry out further analysis to help understand the causes
of regional variations in motorway closure durations and see what
lessons can be learnt. The HA examine how it can improve the
information it provides to road users to alert them to incidents -
and provide better journey advice to keep queues to a minimum.
A new performance monitoring framework introduced and
performance data on incident durations and clear up times
published to track progress over time.
Best practice case studies regularly developed by the HA and
shared with all incident management responders.
A large proportion of the recommendations will be delivered by
the end of this year, with the remainder by the end of 2012. This
will help to ensure that real changes can start to be made as soon
as possible.
Work has already begun on the detailed planning and scoping of
the work needed to implement each recommendation. A steering group
will be established to ensure continued commitment to and progress
on developing and implementing the recommendations.
Notes to Editors
1. Copies of the review report can be found at:
http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/roads/Review-of-Investigation-and-Closure-Procedures-for-Motorway-Incidents-preliminary-report/
2. The review was completed in January 2011 in line with the DfT
Business Plan commitment. 3. The implementation of the review
recommendations is a further DfT Business Plan commitment to have
implemented measures to reduce congestion caused by incidents by
December 2012, see page 14 of link below:
http://www.number10.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/DFT-Business-Plan1.pdf
4. The figure of the cost to the economy is a best estimate
presented for indicative purposes only, to demonstrate the scale
of the issue. It has been derived using basic calculations from
the number of closure incidents (over 18,000) which occurred in
2009/10 and available incident data from 2010/11. It has also been
cross referenced with previous estimates which have outlined that
the total cost of congestion on the Highways Agency network is
£3bn, 25% of which is caused by incidents. Going forward more work
will need to be done to seek to produce a more directly correlated
cost to actual incident durations. 5. Further guidance and details
on accessing the grant fund will be outlined for police forces in
due course. 6. Those formally agreeing the action plan at
today's summit are as follows: Chief Constable Phil
Gormley (ACPO Roads Policing Lead) Graham Dalton, Chief Executive
Highways Agency Simon Sheldon –Wilson Director of Traffic
Management – Highways Agency Assistant Chief Fire Officer Peter
Hazeldine Representing the Chief Fire Officers Association Steve
Wheaton, Regional Head of Specialist Operations – Ambulance
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Contacts:
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