Smart Motorways - Pointless?

[MHaldron]

So today we got mobilised to a call of a jack knifed lorry on the M42 with multiple cars impacting it. We proceed to traverse the motorway, and find nothing. Call passed to our control by the police. 2 appliances, an officer, RTC Heavy unit and police mobilised. This was in the smart motorway network. Why would fire control / police control not check the motorway network cameras to confirm call before wasting all those resources?? 

[Noddy]

Because had it been a real job valuable time would have been wasted doing as you suggest.  I’m all for sending us out ASAP and not be needed...

[MHaldron]

Noddy , I completely agree that resources should have been mobilised straight away, but considering the nature of the call, multiple vehicles impacting a jack knifed lorry on a major motorway, it would likely be a major incident. JESIP would come into play and as such the resources required could be massive. So, why would the police not contact highways and check to see what the motorway cameras were showing?? Not only would it confirm or deny the incident, but it would also pre warn us of conditions, traffic etc. It just seem like we don’t talk to our oppos early enough?? 

[Becile]

My take...theres a few factors that come into play here, when the call came which agency received it? And what level of detail did they receive, as others have mentioned this type of incident triggers an immediate response (pda) who in that area has sight of the cameras , and yes the smart motorway network has lots of technology that helps, not least 100 % camera coverage in most cases(some blue light organisations can dial into the camera network- we can, and these are constantly on the screens at control) and they will be desperately searching for an accurate location and intelligence. Get it all rolling   turn it back if not required, would be my take - You could use the same analogy for other types of incident where we could delay taking info by control or go and find out its less when we get there.

@MHaldron I would be very surprised if all the agencies hadnt got intteligence from highways, do you know they didnt? As you are right  JESIP would ensure this should happen.

Do you have a post event review process? As this would be a valid point to raise in my opinion, and a chance to improve if required

 

[Messyshaw]

1 hour ago, MHaldron said:

Noddy , I completely agree that resources should have been mobilised straight away, 

With respect @MHaldron that isnt what you said in your OP. You said cameras should have been checked "before wasting all those resources"

Delaying an attendance to such a potentially serious incident surely can never be justified and esp a smart(?) Motorway with all the access issues involved.

Theres always been a 'stand it up and if not required, stand it all down' attitude in my old Brigade and let's hope that approach is never ended.

[MHaldron]

@Becile our control took the call from the police control room, we traversed 3 jusnctions of the motorway and then advised control of no incident found and asked for further information. Control contacted the police for updates and the response back was, that the police in the area were unable to locate the incident either and no further calls had been received. We then put the stop in, after coming back up the motorway passed the M6 interchange so we could check there first. From mobilisation to us asking for any further updates was probably circa 15 mins. 
maybe it’s just our brigade, but we always seem to not be getting info from highways when attending motorway jobs? 
 

@Messyshaw, granted my OP was mis-worded. I don’t ever think there should be a time to delay response, especially such a call as this. I meant once the bells had dropped for the PDA, then investigations should have been started to determine the scale of the incident. It felt as though no investigation was made, and I will ask the question to my watch commander later. 

[Becile]

So in effect, what it appears that we have a hoax call, (its pretty tricky to think you  may have seen a jack knife and multiple vehicles ) unless the person calling it in got the wrong motorway ..ive had that before !And 15 minutes becomes 30-40 minutes ! If so, then should we pursue prosecution, my view? Yes.