Highways England traffic officers from the North West feature prominently in the latest series of Channel 5’s popular Winter Road Rescue series which starts its 5th run tonight (Monday 26 February) – as the country braces itself for a week of ice and snow.
Independent producers Special Edition Films North spent the last few months with traffic officer crews from M6 outstations at Newton-le-Willows in Merseyside and Samlesbury In Lancashire to deliver the latest documentary series. It focuses on how a variety of road workers and emergency services work to keep drivers on the move in winter winds, snow, rain and fog.
Cameramen also spent time with traffic officers at Highways England’s North West Regional Control Centre – headquarters of the regional Traffic Officer Service – alongside the M6 at Rob Lane in Newton.
In all, 4 Highways England traffic officers will feature in this year’s series – showing the work they’ve been doing to keep drivers safely on the move during one of the stormiest and foggiest winters in years.
In terms of Highways England involvement, the series is very much a tale of the 3 Daves – showing Daves Lavelle, Spennati and Taylor responding to everything from a lane 4 breakdown to an emergency pothole repair in fog. Dave Lavelle, 58, is an ex police officer who lives at Davyhulme in Greater Manchester, while 63-year-old Dave Spennati is an ex-firefighter who lives near Chorley in Lancashire. Dave Taylor, 49, who joined the region’s traffic officer service in 2005 when it was launched in Cheshire, is from Warrington.
Control room traffic officer Steven Clague, 26, from Rainhill in Merseyside, is also interviewed after storm Eleanor arrives in the region.
Karen Drury, Highways England’s regional traffic operations manager, said:
“We get our fair share of ‘weather’ in the North West and work hard to anticipate severe conditions and deploy the most appropriate resources.
“Working with Winter Road Rescue was an opportunity to showcase the work our traffic officers do to keep the region’s businesses, commuters and other drivers on the move around the clock, 365 days a year, in all kinds of weather conditions.”
On road traffic officers patrol England’s motorways, helping to keep traffic flowing smoothly. By attending breakdowns and clearing incidents quickly, traffic officers reduce the impact of incident-related congestion. They help coordinate the response of emergency services, manage traffic, clear debris and get closed routes re-opened as soon as it’s safe to do so.
Regional control centre officers provide real-time traffic management of the motorway network – managing and monitoring traffic conditions and using a wide range of electronic signs and signals for incidents, roadworks and congestion. As well as taking calls from the public and communicating with emergency and vehicle recovery services, they also make sure on road colleagues are deployed to incidents where they are needed.
This year’s Winter Road Rescue is being aired every Monday, between 8pm and 9pm, for 4 weeks from tonight. More information is available here:: http://www.channel5.com/show/winter-road-rescue/
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