Package Order 001/4/45/12 - Traffic Officer Vehicle Conspicuity

The Highways Agency’s Traffic Officer Service often work in high-risk situations, attending incidents on the HA’s motorway and trunk road network. An essential part of their equipment for incident management is their conspicuously-marked vehicles. This project sought to identify whether parking the vehicle in ‘fend off’ or parallel orientations and the use of amber or red and amber beacons influenced the behaviour of motorists approaching the incident. An instrumented Traffic Officer Vehicle was based at a TOS Outstation, attending incidents and recording video and distance measurements of passing vehicles. A second work package reviewed the literature regarding impacts such as those sustained by parked TOVs hit by errant vehicles and the subsequent behaviour of the impacted vehicle. This was used to inform an extensive set of impact computer modelling simulations, with the impacted vehicle replicating a TOV. An additional work package gives an overview of the potential benefits of vehicle-mounted CCTV systems. Recommendations are made for parking orientation, beacon use, and incident procedures.