Car Insurance
Traffic patrols on all motorways
Thu, 23 Feb 2006
Every region's motorways in England are now patrolled by specialist traffic officers.
With the opening of a £7.6 million traffic control centre in Nottingham, all of England is now covered by Highways Agency traffic officers.
In total there are 759 uniformed traffic officers, backed up by 244 control room staff, who will work alongside the police to manage motorway incidents and keep traffic moving.
Secretary of state for transport Alistair Darling said: "Opening the traffic control centre in the east Midlands today marks a significant step towards our target of 1200 uniformed traffic officers patrolling every motorway in England, supported by 300 control room staff in seven centres across the country. We will do this by the end of the year.
"The government is committed to improving the road network and the traffic officers and Regional Control Centres are a key measure to managing our road system better.
"Their deployment, along with record levels of investment in our transport system, will bring real benefits to motorists."
The police remain in overall control of dealing with the management and investigation of accidents and they will continue to be responsible for enforcement of road traffic offences.
However, the new patrols will help drivers by ensuring the effects of accidents are less and small accidents do not lead to bigger ones, affecting many people's car insurance.
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