Highways England and emergency services across the West Midlands
have signed up to a new agreement which will see incidents on
roads dealt with more swiftly.
The agreement cements the collaboration between the services and
sets out clear roles to enable more efficiency at the scene as
well as managing the road network, meaning less disruption for
drivers.
The memorandum of understanding has been signed by police, fire
and rescue and ambulance services across the region as well as
Highways England and its maintenance contractor Kier.
The 52-page agreement will:
- improve the management of traffic
- encourage a greater degree of operational cooperation
- enable more information sharing between the organisations
- provide enhanced support for dealing with incidents
Highways England Service Delivery Manager David Yates said:
Any incidents on the network can cause widespread disruption
and we all want to manage the situation as efficiently as
possible and get traffic moving again.
With so many organisations often on scene, good collaboration
and communication is essential. These agreed protocols ensure
our roles are set out beforehand and better enable us to deal
with incidents smoothly, swiftly and effectively.
All of the partner organisations have been working together for
some time on this agreement and we are delighted that it has
now been agreed and signed by all concerned.
It is essential when dealing with incidents that arrangements for
coordinating the individual organisations are established in the
early stages.
The agreement covers the roles and responsibilities of each
service, consistency of approach, information sharing, and
incorporates the procedures in the National Operating Agreement
for smart motorways.
The Memorandum of Understanding 2021, which will be reviewed
annually, has been signed by:
- Highways England
- Warwickshire Police
- West Mercia Police
- Central Motorway Police Group
- Kier
- West Midlands Ambulance Service
- Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service
- Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service
- Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service
- West Midlands Fire Service
- Hereford and Worcester Fire and Rescue Service.
A West Midlands Ambulance Service spokesman said:
By the nature of our job, the quicker we can get to patients in
distress and begin treating them, particularly when seriously
injured, the better.
Therefore, we very much welcome this new agreement and will be
working with Highways England colleagues and other emergency
services to help provide the very best level of care possible
whenever a road traffic collision takes place.
Area Commander Steve Vincent, of West Midlands Fire Service, said
Our aim is to get to all serious incidents within five minutes,
by signing this agreement we can work even more closely with
Highways England and our emergency service partners to continue
to provide a first-class service.
It will also enable our crews to work more safely, assertively
and effectively at incidents to help save lives.
Inspector Sion Hathaway, of the Central Motorway Police Group,
said:
We’re really happy that this agreement is now in place as it
will allow us, and our partner organisations, to carry on
keeping the region’s roads safe.
This agreement gives us better chance at responding swiftly and
safely to road related incidents, thus ensuring we are in the
best position to save lives and causing minimum disruption in
the process.
