I was setting off to work for a few hours in the village I grew up in. Only three miles away. I got to a junction where you can head to this village or miles off in the other direction. I could see in the distance a "Police accident" sign and two Policemen directing traffic (in place of the traffic lights). One policeman stopped me and said I couldn't go ahead. Then the cheeky (insert your own swearword) said to me "the road is closed - the clue is in the sign" pointing at the sign. At this time I wasn't aware where the accident was. I felt like saying to him "that tells me there is an accident, doesn't tell me the road is closed. A ROAD CLOSED sign might have helped". I had assumed they were directing traffic by the accident.
So I drove up the diversion. I knew I wasn't going the full way of the diversion - 20 or 30 miles just to get 3 miles, no thanks. I though it was just me being dim. But when I got back to him after turning round at a safe spot I saw others doing the same thing. One drove over his toe. Or it least it appeared that way. He jumped back out the way.
I've now found out a lorry has driven into a block of flats. I know where this is in the village. I wasn't going anywhere near this. I had assume the accident was close to where the police were standing (three miles away).
A simple road closed sign was all they needed. To add insult to injury (mine) - I've saw the accident reported on the news website and they have used a stock "Road closed" photograph for the article.
I'm just annoyed at the cheek of the policeman.
Rant over. Afternoon wasted. (Probably insensitive I know as there will almost certainly be fatalities).
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Never buy black socks from a normal shop. They shaft you every time.
It must be national rant day as I have had a little rant on the forum myself today, I thought today was a day to share the love, tell that to the empty wallet after paying for a card that gets thrown away, flowers that wilt and a meal that gets you bloated. Valentines Day: Bah Humbug!!!
Oh Peasie, save a thought for that policeman who probably had huge pointless discussions with loads of drivers before he met you. I know they should be chirpy and polite with everyone but it's hard.
I remember closing a road to protect the locus of a fatal road crash when this lady drove right up to me despite me clearly signalling for her to continue round the roundabout. She opened her window, holding up a huge queue behind here and said "constable, I must get down that street". I politely explained that there had been an incident and the road was closed, her reply was "But I must get to the church". I felt like saying "Someone his died, FU*K OFFF!", but didn't. Given a few more of these conversations and I may have.
You wouldn't believe how stupid and inconsiderate the general public can be. Then there are those who rant at you as if it's your fault there has been an incident.
Luckily you just had a slight detour, a woman died in that particular incident.
Oh Peasie, save a thought for that policeman who probably had huge pointless discussions with loads of drivers before he met you. I know they should be chirpy and polite with everyone but it's hard.
The rant was about his cheek. All he eneeded to say was "there has been a serious crash in Fairlie" rather than give cheek. And didn't it occur to him after all these drivers came up to get out a road closed sign before you drive up the hill to the junction and traffic lights. There was a sign in the other direction from Fairlie last week saying the road was closed except for local access as the road from Largs to Greenock was closed. That's all it would have taken.
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Never buy black socks from a normal shop. They shaft you every time.
They have been sent to direct traffic three miles away from an accident. They are not at the accident. They are there to stop traffic going down that road. Would it not be wiser to bring a "Police - Road Closed" sign with them? I've just had a look at Google images and realised there are blue "Police - Road Closed" signs as well as "Police Accident". To sum up - they were at a road closed, not a road accident.
I'm not having the best of days with people in uniforms. 3am two fire engines with their blue lights flashing outside my flat window. Then there's an army of them walking up and down the stairs. Don't know what they wanted - I wasn't getting up. The last time I had to sit outside in the freezing cold for a couple of hours. I was going to pretend the flat was empty.
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Never buy black socks from a normal shop. They shaft you every time.
I reckon that the police in South Lanarkshire and West Lothian must have the signs on board as the road between the M6(M74) and Edinburgh via Biggar invariably has road closed signs on it. Mind you, long clear stretches of road with numerous invisible dips is just a recipe for road closures so they are no doubt more geared up for it.
The accident with the lorry running into the building up there must have been pretty serious as it made the ten o'clock news down here as well last night.
On the whole area of having rants about road closures though. Try going through Lincolnshire. The various bodies (Council, water, telecoms, gas, electricity, etc) don't seem to talk to each other and on more than one occasion in the area between Newark and Spilsby I've followed diversions into another set of diversions that leads me back to the first set of diversions witch no way of getting back onto the road by which one entered the maze.
Eventually you just give up, ignore the diversions and assume that nobody will actually be doing anything on the road anyway.
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
