Some 1970's Traffic Police Documentary's

[Nigel H-J]

Remember the old Rovers' and Range Rovers that used to patrol the motorways? Nearly all traffic officers had standard 70's sideburns!!

Greater Manchester Police covering the M62 in 1979 @ 5mins 29 secs RTC between two HGV's, believe that the one that the driver is asked is that your's is an 'A' Series ERF, I used to drive them and if involved in a bad RTC or roll over as I have seen happen and the cab being fibre glass, then injuries can be very bad. The one I witnessed the driver was very lucky and was thrown out, the cab was crushed down as far as the engine!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvw9DNQWymo

Experts in Action 1972
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WBoWpYcwa0

One of the best Police camera Action1987 Te Liver Run,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTN5X4JZFjU

Regards
Nigel

[Airspeed]

Hi Nigel,
Watched about a hour of that.
Who'd be a policeman, having to face that lot each day!
In fact, who would put up with that weather willingly? NOT ME!

Horrified that the fire crew were high pressure hosing a spilt drum of flammable gunk, then when the police called through the chemical code letters, they were told it was toxic, breathing equipment required, and use foam, not water. They didn't seem to have any gear to help remove material from the road; even the firemen were scraping up the toxic stuff with the lost lid off the drum, instead of decent tools.

Most of the time, I was empathising with the police, like when two drove past the "Road Closed" barriers into an accident area.
I did feel for the van driver who was stuck in front of the blaring police car, and they said he was oblivious. He seemed to be jammed on the outside of a solid line of trucks, and he did pull left as soon as he/she could. I noted that the truck didn't make a space, though the police car next door was tailgating the van.

Also found it a bit confusing that "there are no slow, fast, or very fast lanes, all lanes can do up to 70mph", yet drivers were being told off for cruising at 70 in the centre lane, and the police criticised a Cortina driver for being in a line of traffic in the centre lane at less than 70

[Nigel H-J]

Hi Mike, the Hazchem Codes otherwise known as EAC Emergency Action Code, these were introduced in the early 70's allowing emergency services to easily identify all hazardous loads through a check list. Interestingly when I drove for British Road Services we had a contract with a company to deliver liquid aqua ammonia to farmers for use on their fields.

As this was hazardous and could also cause burns we were given a mask (I had once went to the top of the trailer to close the lid after loading this stuff and ended up gasping for air after the mask fell off my face and inhaled some of the fumes) a plastic bottle of water to use in case we were splashed with the stuff and some heavy duty plastic gloves. We usually had to find the field the farmer wanted us to deliver to and on one occasion I went to Derbyshire. The farmer had four large plastic type bags with nozzles laid on a large plastic sheeting on the grass of a steep slope. I told the farmer I could not off-load into those bags as they would, when filling, start to slip and roll down to the bottom but as the gate was the only one to access the field he was adamant that I unload into the bags. I connected my hose to the bag and went round the other side of the trailer and started off-loading, five minutes later there was hysterical shouting. STOP STOP STOP!!! I shut the valve and went round to see the bag rolling all the way down the hill with the aqua ammonia spewing out. The other bags were then filled through the hedge at the bottom. Next day I arrived with another load for the field next to the one I did and you should have seen it.....grass was green then burn't green the burn't all the way down the hill!!!

The only training we received for this hazardous material was a couple of trips with another driver to be shown what to do nowadays, drivers have to pass a Hazchem Course in order to transport dangerous loads.

Also found it a bit confusing that "there are no slow, fast, or very fast lanes, all lanes can do up to 70mph", yet drivers were being told off for cruising at 70 in the centre lane, and the police criticised a Cortina driver for being in a line of traffic in the centre lane at less than 70

New laws introduced in 2013 give police officers the power to hand out on-the-spot fines of £100 and three penalty points, meaning failing to keep left on the motorway could hit you in the pocket. Therefore if there is nothing in lane one to pass and a driver remains in lane 2 he can be pulled over and given on the spot fine for careless driving.

Regards
Nigel.

[airboatr]

Greater Manchester Police covering the M62 in 1979 @ 5mins 29 secs RTC between two HGV's, believe that the one that the driver is asked is that your's is an 'A' Series ERF, I used to drive them and if involved in a bad RTC


Regards
Nigel

C'mon, Mate.
If ya can't spell it outright in front of me... don't say anything all....

[Airspeed]

Circuit breaker! Funny to see a query like that from a bloke whose jargon includes Ohms, watts, volts, capacitors, resistors, relays, and lots more even more obscure terms. EDIT: like Henrys, Farad, Hertz, Apparent Power, VARS, Ground Fault, GFCI
I will try my interpretation, Joe:
M62=Motorway number 62.
HGV= Heavy Goods Vehicle.
RTC=Road Traffic Collision.
The ER etc I'm guessing from the context is a truck model.
Hey, if I keep going like this, I might work out that toilet sign conundrum.

[TSR2]

ERF (son of Edwin Foden of Foden trucks)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ERF_(truck_manufacturer)


Foden (Leyland / DAF / Paccar)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foden_Trucks

[Tomliner]

I think ERF stands for Ernest Richard Foden but I could be wrong! EricT

[Airspeed]

Thanks for that extra info. Ben.
I see the reference to the fibreglass cabs mentioned up top of this thread.
I remember the Foden badge at the top of link 2, from Dinky toy trucks, apart from seeing them on the road.
Didn't know about all those takeovers though.

[TSR2]

I think ERF stands for Ernest Richard Foden but I could be wrong! EricT

It was Edwin Richard Foden (Junior - Son of Edwin Foden Senior)

[Nigel H-J]

C'mon, Mate.
If ya can't spell it outright in front of me... don't say anything all....

Sorry about that Joe!

Mike you did well!!

In 2002 ERF manufacturing ceased just a year before it would have celebrated its 70th anniversary. That was practically the end for British Heavy Trucks Production apart from Leyland Daf that is still producing trucks.

I think the foreign built trucks were far superior than our British built ones'. When Tankfreight (part of National Freight) purchased Mercedes and Volvo trucks it was like stepping out of a Morris 1000 into a modern car. I was given a Mercedes with EPS (Joe that means Electronic Powershift Gears with display on instrument panel showing which gear you had selected out of 16 gears with high and low range) and was simply amazing. Double bunk beds electric mirrors memory seat radios with cassette, night heater. No wonder Britains Trucks were left behind. Compare that with even the ERF and also the Seddon Atkinsons which we had previously with no night sleeper cab and crash gear boxes that were H gear type with range change but changing gear was not as you might expect. Seddon Atkinson for some reason had the gear changes back to front and was bl**dy awful to use but with the ERF and fitted with the David Brown Range Change 3rd and 4th gears were back to front so from gear 2-3-4 was from the left to the right then forward and the same applied with 6-7-8th gears. Why the British Manufacturers had to be so awkward I do not know!!

Regards
Nigel.