Traffic officers

Working in partnership with the police, traffic officers are extra eyes and ears on motorways and some ‘A’ class roads in England and Wales. They’re a highly trained and highly visible service patrolling the motorway to help keep traffic moving and to make your journey as safe and reliable as possible.

Traffic officers wear a full uniform, including a high-visibility orange and yellow jacket, and drive a high-visibility vehicle with yellow and black chequered markings.

Every traffic officer has a unique identification number and photographic identity card. They normally patrol in pairs. The vehicles contain a variety of equipment for use on the motorway, including temporary road signs, lights, cones, debris removal tools and a first-aid kit.

Role of traffic officers

They

• help broken-down motorists to arrange recovery
• offer safety advice to motorists
• clear debris from the carriageway
• undertake high-visibility patrols
• support the police and emergency services during incidents
• provide mobile or temporary road closures
• manage diversion routes caused by an incident.

If you have an emergency or break down on the motorway, the best action to take is to use an emergency roadside telephone.

Emergency roadside telephones are answered by operators located in a regional control centre. Control-centre operators are able to monitor any stranded motorists on closed-circuit television (CCTV) screens and despatch the nearest available traffic officer patrol to assist.

Powers of traffic officers

Unlike the police, traffic officers don’t have any enforcement powers. However, they’re able to stop and direct anyone travelling on the motorway. It’s an offence not to comply with the directions given by a traffic officer (refer to The Highway Code, rules 107 and 108).

Extent of scheme

Regional control centres are able to dispatch traffic officers to any motorway in England or Wales.