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yet again uk plc failed to clear the roads and run a train service due to a bit of snow, thankfully nobody died due to ambulances or fire engines being unable to reach them.
So the queastion, do the emergency services have any sort of contingency planning or equipment to reach casualties in the case of a serious rtc, train crash or plane crash when there is snow on the ground.
or just tough on those injured.
We've got a marked up Defender. And Elmer Fudd hats with 'POLICE' badges. That's about it.
And when I was the Glencoe bobby I got sent to Glenmore Lodge to do a snow survival course. So I'd have been ok anyway.
Up ere we have cotag to help out the emergency services
Like emergency services for the emergency services.
you know when you were watching snowy roads on the news, complaining about how the roads were not gritted, did you not see the bit where the police 4x4 was pulling everbody out?
Aye Edinburgh council has a list of contacts for emergency situations (basically the local 4x4 clubs!) to help get people places in bad snow, flooding etc. Pretty similar to COTAG up in aberdeen/grampian.
If the worst comes to the worst, the ambulance service call on raf/navy helicopters to get people to hospital
Dont think cotag are just local 4x4 clubs oli, the guys from cotag take it pretty seriously almost mountain rescue type taking training courses and practicing
Most of the guys in the club im in would be haveago heros and take unnecessary risks, would probably be fine but they are very much get it done guys.
Up ere we have cotag to help out the emergency servicesLike emergency services for the emergency services.
Eh? never heard of or had to use em.
Not had an issue where we could never get somewhere, we do get priority for snow clearing on a route if we request it, only used it once in 22yrs to maintain a route for on coming vehicles and the cooncil were there very quickly and I dont think snow lay on that road for about 3yrs given the amount of grit/salt that was dumped on it. 🙂
Love the idea of COTAG,a great idea.
project - Member
yet again the uk population failed to heed warnings to avoid unnecessary travel due to snow, thankfully nobody died due their own stupidity and inability to prepare their cars for winter.
FTFY 😉
Well the one where i used to live was utilised alot ,as were the marines from condor.
Was a big deal made of them in he paper last year when they were called to rush a pregnant woman to hospital in the bad floods in montrose
Ah Tayside 😉
Like the idea of COTAG - a mate works for a county council who let all their meals on wheels ladies use the Highways 4x4s a couple of winters ago to ensure service users got fed.
They never trained the ladies to use 4x4s though, and there were lots of minor accidents, so now they have trained teams of drivers to do it (not quite emergency services, but elderly/vulnerable people need feeding in poor weather)
There is a cotag up here an all isnt there ? Theres the strathclyde 4x4 response as well
Yup every year the plan, we get winter tires, there's an increasing amount of 4X4 vehicles but based in the cities 😯 and we have vehicles fitted with automatic snow chains. We also get snow socks, shovels and bag a of grit.
In over 20 years of service I've been stuck once and that was the other night, interestingly the first year we've had winter tyres on so that went well.
If the worst comes to the worst, the ambulance service call on raf/navy helicopters to get people to hospital
No not really.
To OP if you want to pay for it I am sure the bestest snow stuff in the world could be bought. Till then I guess it's a case of try what you can and then that's it.
DO not mistake COTAG for "just another 4x4 response" these guys are trained to the standard of Mountain Rescue, RNLI, Retained Firefighters etc. THEY ARE the STANDARD for this type of unit.
as another poster stated some of the 4x4 clubs are have a go heros who could be more of a danger to themselves.
COTAG worked really hard to draw up the standard they aim for and constantly train and prepare and exercise alongside other emergency services. It's the reason they get the shout so often, they are trusted.
and we have vehicles fitted with automatic snow chains
do halfords stock them
In fairness to the emergency services I imagine it's hard for them to plan sufficient contingency to find ways around the British public who aren't adequately prepared for adverse weather and manage to block most roads with stuck vehicles when venturing out for non urgent trips...
I was very impressed to see the local paramedic response cars kitted out with snow socks.
Up here in Morayshire we have a local authority contingency plan that uses volunteers from various agencies and private individuals to get meals on wheels and essential home care services to vulnerable people in rural areas.
Bit harsh on the roads folk I reckon, as shown by the breakfast tv interview with a bloke stuck in it all. The conversation went something like
Did you see the forecast.... Yes
Did you hear the advice on the weather conditions .... Yes
Did you know the roads would be bad ... Yes
Did you really have to go out ... No
Did you plan and prepare for your trip taking emergency stuff .... No
Did you get stuck ..... Yes
Been cold for 12 hrs... Yes
Its the UK, we wont get Scandinavian levels of prep. Thats how it is. Its better in Scotland as its expected. Its one frigging day. Listen, don't go out as per advice... It boils my piss looking at all the people that **** about in the floods as well then need bailing out, taking up the emergency services time for stupidity... I remember some fat biffer sat on the top of a Fiesta, flooded out after driving past a road closed sign. She was airlifted by Sea King... the water around the car wasn't up above the wheels... Get off and WALK !
The emergency services could probably cope with a serious incident if people didn't think that driving to a relative to change the budgie cuttlefish was that important to go out after ignoring all the info...
Rant over....gnarrr.
I drive a 4x4 skoda scout with winter tyres. I also have snow socks, bag of grit but no shovel as that went missing. when its snowy i tend to carry a few sheets of cardboard for traction. I've never got stuck, and the one time I couldn't get up a hill I got out and walked.
Snow in this country is not a problem, gritting is neither here nor there (do they grit alaskan roads?) It's drivers that are the problem. The ability to drive to the road conditions is loads more important than snow socks etc.
We do have various plans in place to keep things running in snowy weather, from 4x4's picking up staff to get into work to major incindent type responses to get more staff out to meet increased demand.
do they grit alaskan roads?
Yes well here in Anchorage they do, but a lot (not all) of drivers here either have winter or studded tyres. People still get stuck though and skid off the road. All wheel drive might get you going on sheet ice but you may not be able to stop!
It's drivers that are the problem
Actually, I would say that the volume of traffic is the biggest issue. Don't believe it's all drivers' fault. A few years ago I was in Farnborough when it snowed - there's a humped railway bridge that is on a critical route (the town is chopped in two or three by railways) and it was completely slick ice on both sides. No getting over that without a big run-up and some gunning it. Which isn't easy or safe in heavy traffic. So all the traffic that would've gone that way had to back track and go a different route.
Lots of other factors too. My wife's from Wisconsin where it snows a lot. People get around, but they all have winter tyres, the place is flat as a pancake, it's not busy, and the streets are in a grid pattern so if one gets blocked or is not ploughed you can go a different way. They're also wide, with tons of space to manoevre and get ploughs down.
However, despite all that, there's still traffic problems when they get decent snowfall. They just expect it, rather than whine about it and dissect it endlessly on internet forums.
We have our SORT team who have defenders, (a few) four wheel drive merc wagons, some others have auto snow chains/beaters as mentioned above. We've also had the coastguard and traffic help us last year when it was bad.
And, if we are in the middle of nowhere, we can call up the service helicopter or even the navy or coastguard helipcopters..
I'd say one of the biggest contributory factors is the driver..
Overseas things to tend to go a little better, largely I think because drivers & their cars are better prepared for the conditions.
So blaming the emergency services is really a bit of a cop-out (no pun intended)..
Try taking some responsibility for your own actions for a change rather than looking for someone to blame when your poor decision making back-fires.
i'm getting involved in the local planning for mass fatality incidents. apparently, there's a stock of inflatable mortuaries somewhere, so we've got that covered
I would imagine the real reason is
It's the reason they get the shout so often, they are [s]trusted[/s] cheap.
Greater Manchester Police, Fire & Rescue and NW Ambulance Service call on the local MRTs for 4x4 capability on the fringes of the Pennines when they can't cope. Although sometimes GMP try to be clever and use their "all-terrain" fleet of "4x4" motorway patrol X5s. Which resulted in them having to call back Oldham MRT, having stood them down from rescuing stranded drivers on the Isle of Skye road, to come and rescue the X5s, which had made it all of a couple of hundred yards out of the nearest village before 3 of them had skidded off the road in to ditches and dry stone walls.
They then admitted, with red faces, that yes, maybe the road tyres fitted weren't that much use in snow and ice after all, and that OMRT should go do what they were equipped to do...
Snow chains go stright on our (retained) pump if forecast looking sketchy. A couple of neighbouring stations have 4x4 response vehicles - and our own truck is due to be replaced within the next 12 months, possibly with a 4x4 light rescue pump. Service as a whole does a lot of contingency planning and we've got other resources - specialist rescue team, police / air ambulance / armed forces / community services if we need to.
As other posters have stated, despite that and with the best will in the world, we'll never have the same resources as countries which regularly experience a 3 month freeze as it's just not cost effective to do so and I doubt whether Joe Public would suck up the resulting rise in council tax if it was done on a local level.
On the subject of Police 4x4s, a mate was called out with his crew in East Devon just before Christmas to pull a Police X5 out of about 4ft of flood water. Driver had apparently assumed it was not only 4x4 but also amphibious... a near write-off apparently!
Mrs notlocal drives a 4x4 merc sprinter out of Ballater ambulance station. I work on SORT in Aberdeen, and we have a Honda CRV response car, fitted with winter tyres. We also have 2 defenders, and a 6 wheel atv. A couple of other stations have 4x4 sprinters.
The local red cross have offroad capability too if required.
ChubbyBlokeInLycra -I'd be interested in the scenarios you're planning for.
ohnohesback - are you suggesting you'd be the cause? 😯
Though im in cornwall - so snow no major issue all our fire appliances, responding cars and 4x4s are issued with snow chains
Our control can also call on registered 4x4 owners and borrow 4x4s from some larger companies locally should the need arrise
All emergency services are in direct contact with the Met Office and other agencies such as the environment agency (for flood forcasting) and all weather warnings carry a pre-determined response
Ice can be the real problem 4x4 or not and sometimes the only way to a incident is on foot and addapt as best as possible
All the police round here seem to drive BMW 530d Tourings. Well known for being excellent in the snow 😕
Notlocal what do you do with SORT? Are you ops?
Our paths may have crossed.