Police Rolling Block on Motorways

When anyone talks to you about driving on a motorway, and about what is the best way in which to do it, there is plenty of information about how you should join the main carriageway from the slip road and in what manner you should leave, as well as how to change lane and use good lane discipline.

However, who ever explains the other bits and pieces that go on that you see when driving on a motorway, like the reason you see a police vehicle driving at 30mph in lane–3 with all its lights flashing? Hopefully, if something happens when you are driving on a motorway, the information on this page will help you to understand some of the procedures, so you will at least realise what is going on.

Motorways are statistically the safest roads in the UK

We’ll start by reassuring you that statistically, when driving on a motorway in the United Kingdom, you are on the safest type of road there is. For one thing, there are fewer injuries or deaths recorded per mile than on any other type of road. However, for those who do a job of work within a motorway environment, they know the danger threat to personal safety is very high. That is why there are specific procedures for dealing with certain types of incident.

The police have overall responsibility
for managing an incident on motorways

Whenever there is an incident on a motorway it will always be the job of the police to manage and to coordinate the emergency services response, even if many different emergency services are involved in the overall operation.

For the management of the incident to run smoothly a high level of safety has to be maintians, not just for the people driving on a motorway, but for those who are dealing with the incident. To that end, the Rolling Block is a very useful tool that is used to ensure the safety of everyone.

The Rolling Block & Why It Is Used

This is a very effective procedure that is used when it is necessary to remove objects from the carriageway, to close off a motorway junction, or to perform any task where it is necessary to put human beings into the carriageway on foot. One of the most common uses of the Rolling Block is to remove debris, such as a strip of shredded lorry tyre or a piece of exhaust pipe, and this is how the rolling block works.

A motorway police patrol vehicle is despatched to a location, following a report of an object in the carriageway. This type of incident is regarded as being of an urgent nature, because the presence of debris in a live running lane is likely to disturb the flow of traffic, possibly to the point of causing a driver to swerve and to lose control.

Even a tiny amount of disturbance in traffic flow
can cause mayhem and chaos

The flow of traffic on a motorway, 99% of the time, flows without incident, even though many drivers will be following each other car too close. However, this is only so whilst nothing disturbs the traffic flow. Even a tiny interuption will be like the ripple effect you get when you throw a pebble into a pool of water, except the ripples on this type of road actually grow with intensity as they spread outward

When the motorway police patrol unit arrives on scene of an incident, the officers will call in by radio to their control centre to confirm the location of the incident. After announcing their arrival, they may well ask for certain signals to be activated, such as a matrix signal, to show a speed limit or a lane closure.

This is not a bomb proof method of controlling the traffic, but at least it may have the effect of alerting driver’s to the presence of something that may affect their progress and be more vigilant to what is happening.

If the incident is that of debris in the carriageway, the officer in the passenger seat of the motorway police patrol car will get out and wait at the location on the hard shoulder. His crewmate will then reverse the along the hard shoulder in preparation to begin a rolling block. Depending upon the circumstances the block may need to begin as much as a mile from the incident.

The motorway police patrol vehicle will quickly gain speed
along the hard shoulder and swoop straight to the outside lane

What the driver of the motorway police patrol vehicle does here is to pick an opportune moment to accelerate along the hard shoulder, with all rearward facing emergency lighting operating, to get up to speed with the traffic flow.

Once up to speed, he or she will move into the outermost lane as quickly as possible and then begin to bring the speed of the police car down gradually and whilst keeping all the traffic behind it. This is the tricky part, as there may be four lanes to control and by just one car. There will always be the one idiot who will want to undertake the motorway police patrol car to continue as normal.

When conducting the Rolling Block it is like herding sheep, and it is the initial stages that will produce the trickiest moments. It will be necessary at times to get quite aggressive with some drivers, by swerving across the nose of anyone who is trying to push past, to help that driver understand they are to stay put.

The police need to take control of the traffic,
as there maybe people on foot in the carriagway ahead

The motorway police patrol car driver will continue to control the traffic in this way, and may take the speed down to as low as 20mph, whilst the traffic ahead disappears into the distance.

This creates a sterile area between the motorway police patrol car and behind the vehicle that is at the rear of the pack moving away ahead. It is much the same process as the safety car being introduced at a motor race meeting, following a crash.

As the motorway police patrol car approaches the spot where the debris was located, the driver will signal to his crewmate, perhaps with a headlamp flash, to say that it is clear to remove the object. The officer standing on the hard shoulder will then walk into the carriageway, collect the offending object, before returning to safety. Here, he is joined by the motorway police patrol car, as the traffic that was being convoyed is allowed to run free.

Stay alert, think about what is happening and you won’t go wrong

If you are driving on a motorway, and you see a motorway police patrol car ahead of you pull out to the outer most lane and begin slowing the traffic, don’t try and push past. This is likely to get you into very hot water.

On the other hand, if you have just passed a motorway police patrol car that was on the hard shoulder, and it then swoops out to the outer lane behind you, don’t slow down, but keep going as normal. It is likely the officer wants all the vehicles ahead of his or her vehicle to get away as quickly as possible so as to create the required sterile area of road.

Sometimes the convoy will be required to stop

Sometimes, when performing a Rolling Block, particularly if it has to be done over a short distance, it may be necessary to being the convoy to a stop. Whilst this is a perfectly normal procedure, it is not desirable. If this happens when you are driving on a motorway, don’t worry.

Stay in your lane and drive smoothly and gently so as not to disrupt the movement of the traffic any more than has already happened. When the convoy stops maintain at least a whole car length betwene the front of your car and the back of the vehicle ahead.

Do not start lane hopping
as this will increase the risk of collision and chaos

Apart from being used to help the removal of debris, the Rolling Block may be used to give Highways contractors enough dead space and time to put in a lane closure, a junction closure or perhaps for a recovery agent to pull a vehicle across the lanes to the hard shoulder.

For whatever the reason it is used, the Rolling Block is done for a good cause, and that is for safety, because when people are on foot in the carriageway, their personal welfare is of paramount importance and will always take priority.

Julian Smith
Ride Drive Limited

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This page was last updated
Thursday, 27-Jan-2011

Police Rolling Block on Motorways