This week’s award for lack of forethought, poor planning and complete dearth of common sense goes to BJ&C Carberry of Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk.
These clowns decided that transporting a wide load through the morning rush hour was a smart idea. Not only that, they decided to deliver these 2 containers against the flow of traffic. The road they used is the major A road link between my county and the next. I got stuck behind this juggernaut on the way home and it took over half an hour to travel just 6 miles, even if they did have advance ‘escort’ vehicles trying (vainly it must be said) to stop oncoming traffic or move it to the curb.
We regularly have to run on blue lights down this road; it’s the main link to a rural area of the county covering about 100 square miles. Imagine if we had to attend the type of incident they had on the M4 last night; or a cardiac arrest; or a status epilepticus: lives would have been at risk – if not lost.
You can see from the above picture how much of the road the vehicle was taking up, and this was on one of the wider sections: in fact we came to a halt here for nearly 5 minutes (which is when I took the picture) while they tried to juggle oncoming trucks and buses so the vehicle could get passed.
Trying to get through the town proved a real challenge and brought everything to a grinding halt*.
What was wrong with moving this load during the night when the roads are empty? It’s not as if they needed to have a receiving yard unlocked on arrival. As you can see from the top picture they parked up on the pavement outside the factory.
Luckily no emergency vehicles needed to pass during the time I was stuck in the queue, although a perverse part of me wanted one to come along just to see what these bozos would do. I wonder, had this wide-load delayed an emergency vehicle, due to the ludicrous time of day they chose to travel, would Carberry’s have been committing an offence under the Emergency Workers (Obstruction) Bill?
Rant over; I’m off to bed.
*(Using a bit of local knowledge I’d managed to slip down some country lanes so I got ahead of them to get this picture).
Diagnosis? N.F.I. 
I can imagine that it was some stupid European directive that stopped them from going out at night. Or it could be that the driver was from a country where there are not that many cars on the road. They cannot have done it of there own accord surely! ha ha.
Do the police not have a say in this sort of thing? I really dont know but if they provide the escort surely they are involve in the logistics aswell. Cant believe they would not think of the problems though – european directive is probably right. It’s the only way to make sense of the senseless.
Surely that level of stupidity can only come about as the result of several ‘planning meetings’, involving ‘blue sky thinking’, ‘innovative solutions’, ‘demand based operational load workforce planning’, ‘taking in to account local abstractions’, ‘multi agency/partnership working in unusual situtaions’….. blah blah blah,
Must be the key to this problem, its how we ended up with the car crash that is our own deployment plan.
Nicenurse x
Why couldnt they have put those two containers on their sides and constructed a giant frame incorporating huge pedals which could have been pedalled by chavs/pondscum or people who refuse to work.
Hey Presto! Employment in motion….”get on your bike and find work!” (Norman Tebbit)
It is now the Emergency Workers (Obstruction) *Act* 2006. It became law on 8th November. A person guilty of an offence under this Act is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale. Which is £5000 at the moment.
Click to access ukpga_20060039_en.pdf
I have yet to hear of anyone being convicted under this act but it is reassuring to know we now have some added protection in the course of our work.
I expect they broke the kerb and overloaded the pavement when they parked it. So( sometime in the future), you’ll have roadworks there.
I don’t know Magwitch, you’re so very sizest!
ooh, is that Mildenhall??? Looks like it!
Sue, it’s not Mildenhall but you’re close – about 40 km away.