Highways Agency

• Traffic Incident Management Bulletin

April 2008

Introduction

A normal day at work for the Highways Agency's Traffic Officer Service in February 2008 soon escalated to a Gold Command when trapped traffic from an incident required rescuing. Heavy snowfall threatened to leave road users stranded on the A66, however a joint operation between the Traffic Officer Service, Police and local Service Providers relieved the threat.

This article provides an overview to the incident's events and then supplies a breakdown of the incidents 'hot debrief' findings, including both what went well and key learning points. This incident demonstrates the Highways Agency performing their statutory duties as a Category 2 responder through assisting a Category 1 responder (i.e. Police) during a significant incident.  This is a very topical subject given the recent workshop conducted around the Civil Contingencies Act.

For further information on the Civil Contingencies Act, please follow the link to May's article.

The Incident

On the 1st February 2008, Durham Police were notified of an incident on the A66 west-bound carriageway. As weather conditions had begun to deteriorate, a large goods vehicle jack-knifed in lane two directly in front of the closed snow gate. As a result, the vehicles behind the stricken lorry came to a standstill and due to the blizzard conditions were unable to pass safely resulting in a large tailback.

As snow continued to fall around the trapped traffic it soon became evident that traffic would be unable to travel on the road until it was cleared, leaving approximately 300 vehicles stranded on the road.

Following this, the Traffic Officer Service was asked by Durham Police to assist them in the recovery of stricken motorists and vehicles. Permission for Traffic Officers to work on a route not normally patrolled was given by their Regional Operations Manager, Steve Chamberlain.

Heavy Snowfall on the A66

Prior to the Traffic Officers arrival, Area 14's Service Provider, A-one had established a rendezvous point and dispatched two welfare van units to the snow gates for both the emergency services and motorists waiting at the gates. Assessing the methods of relieving the trapped traffic, A-one implemented a 'tried and tested' technique for ploughing on the opposite side of the carriageway. This would enable traffic to be released through opening up the central reservation cross-over points and heading east towards the A1 to find an alternative route.

During this time, Mountain Rescue had been requested and were now in attendance at the incident. Their remit was to help establish the location of any vulnerable/trapped motorists and ferry them to a local community hall in Bowes. Driver's names and registration numbers were recorded so the public could be returned to the incident scene in a systematic manner enabling trapped traffic to be released as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Due to the heavy snowfall and problem position of the incident all vehicles were now trapped on the road whilst Traffic Officers and A-one were clearing the east-bound carriageway. However, in order for vehicles to reach this escape route, Traffic Officers and Service Provider staff had to dig each vehicle out so the public could then drive to the cross-over point to reach the parallel carriageway. Once the carriageway/path was cleared it provided the emergency services with an escape route for the stranded vehicles to be turned around and freed safely. Now the focus turned to the west-bound carriageway where ploughing commenced to create a passage for 'heavy recovery' equipment to be transported to the incident scene to remove LGVs which had become stuck on the soft verge of the road.

Traffic Officers at the Incident Scene

With an escape route now established, the public were returned to their vehicles by the Traffic Officers. Despite the road being clear, driving conditions remained hazardous, as a result Traffic Officers provided advice to drivers on how to drive their vehicle safely away from the trapped traffic and off the network. In approximately two hours, the Traffic Officers and Service Provider staff had managed to release all cars and vans trapped in a safe and controlled manner.

During the incident, A-one committed up to nine gritters to the operation and with road surface temperatures forecast to fall to and below zero their resources were going to be over-stretched to meet the demands of the A66’s incident and their gritting duties to other parts of the network. However, A-one used their existing relationship with Durham County Council Highways to help “backfill” for them by precautionary treating sections of the A1(M) motorway. In addition resources from Area 13 Service Provider, AmeyMouchel and Cumbria Police assisted from the west end of the A66.

This incident was sufficiently severe to warrant Durham Police to set up a Gold Command at their headquarters. The Highways Agency were represented at the Gold Command which liaised closely with the Highways Agency Silver Command. The Gold Command was stood down at 22:00, however there were resources at the incident scene all night. The route was re-opened to traffic at 09:30 using a pre-planned and well rehearsed opening sequence following a joint inspection.

A debrief of the incident has since taken place and identified the following as the key learning points:

What went well

• Initial and ongoing communications between Traffic Officer Team Managers and A-one's Duty Supervisor at the incident scene.
• Maintaining critical services by gritting the eastbound carriageway ensuring safe passage for motorists and emergency services.
• Interaction between Traffic Officers and trapped traffic, providing safety critical advice on how to rejoin eastbound carriageway.
• Safety of trapped motorists by quickly establishing the need to deploy rearward relief.
• Traffic Officers and A-one escorting gritters in convoy on the eastbound carriageway.
• A-one setting up a welfare vehicle as a shared resource.
• A-one used their strong existing relationships with local Stakeholders to provide them with further resources to assist them with their operations.

Lessons Learnt

• Need to establish a static rendezvous point/forward control point with Police in first instance.
• Access to decision/welfare log so ideas and tasks can be shared.
• Radio communications/shared emergency channel required with Police.
• Handover incident procedure from Police to Traffic Officer Service to A-one needs to be firmly established.
• Silver Command to be set up on both the east and westbound carriageways so deployment of actions can be co-ordinated in a safe and efficient manner.
• Understanding of Traffic Officer roles within an inner cordon (Police led).
• Risk assessment and scene survey to be undertaken and observations documented on decision log.
• Trigger points to be established so escalating/de-escalating process for handover can be established.
• Early clearance of vehicles in front of snow gate to allow emergency access.
• Setting up of a full Gold, Silver and Bronze command structure with all multi agency representatives involved in the first instance.

Many thanks to all those involved for their dedication and professionalism in managing the above incident, which included the following organisations: 

• Traffic Officer Service
• Area 13, AmeyMouchel
• Area 14, A-one Integrated Services
• Durham Police
• Cumbria Police
• Durham County Council Local Highway Authority
• Mountain Rescue

Next month's Bulletin will feature an article on cross border incidents to further build on lessons learned.

Has this article been worthwhile reading? Why not take a moment to send us your comments, thoughts or questions. Please e-mail TIMbulletin@highways.gsi.gov.uk.