00:00 "Can you just show us running from the opposite carriageway please?"
00:05 No two days are the same for road traffic officers in Kent. Some days they'll be responding
00:11 to dangerous road accidents. Other days they could be towing broken down vehicles, removing
00:16 them from threatening situations. Or they could even be dealing with animals out on
00:22 the motorways.
00:23 "Either end of the smart motorways there'll be units on standby at park up points. So
00:29 if there is a breakdown or an accident or something like that, they're ready to go straight
00:35 away."
00:36 Halfway through our morning drive, we came across a broken down van on a slip road just
00:41 before Bluebell Hill.
00:42 Something National Highways officers will often have to deal with is breakdowns of vehicles
00:47 that aren't in safe spaces. So what they've had to do with this van is tow it to a safe
00:52 space and then from here it will be up to the motorist to find breakdown cover.
00:57 They also had to stop traffic after calls of debris on the M2. This could lead to punctures
01:03 of tyres or cause a vehicle to lose control. And often one accident can lead to another.
01:08 "A lot of it is distractions. So it might be mobile phone use, they're not really watching
01:14 where they're going, things like that. So yeah, I think vehicle distractions are a big
01:20 part of what we're seeing with the current trends at the moment. The job we do, we see
01:24 some quite serious things. Everybody wants to go home at the end of the day. They should
01:30 be abiding by the signs and signals. They are there really to help them get home safely
01:37 at the end of the day. So things like red X's should be obeyed by and things like that.
01:43 They're not just there for the sake of it, they're there because there's something happening
01:47 and they need to be aware of."
01:49 Kentville County is home to some of the country's busiest roads. Of course, Kent lies in the
01:55 south east and in this region 500 of the more than 4,000 miles of roads are under national
02:01 highways control. With the Dartford Crossing, M25 and Port of Dover, it means most days
02:08 aren't quiet ones for the traffic officers.
02:10 New figures show in 2022 Kent was the county with the most car crashes across the UK. That
02:17 year it had almost 3,500 crashes, averaging around 10 a day. Sometimes highways will respond
02:24 to these. In most cases, when a traffic incident is reported to the police, National Highways
02:30 will be the first one on the scene. And then in more serious cases, the police will take
02:35 over.
02:36 Another responsibility for highways is putting Operation Brock in place. It's a system some
02:41 have criticised as the traffic management system can lead to congestion towards the
02:45 east of the county. During this time, they'll increase patrol numbers to help with managing
02:50 congestion at this time.
02:52 "We here at Cold Harbour, we are tasked with running Operation Brock, placing lorries within
02:59 the queue so the rest of Kent doesn't have any HGV congestions or any issues and to make
03:05 sure Dover town itself doesn't become too heavily congested as best we can."
03:11 With collisions at an all time high in Kent, it seems the need for this service isn't going
03:16 anywhere.
03:18 Sophia Akin for KMTV.
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