View Full Version : where R the snowploughs
[mad] I think it is disgaceful that the gritters were not out late last night, despite the police trying to get them, but they would not grit the wick town roads. The police had to make a special request that the gritter come out to the aid of a dounreay bus stranded on the harbour hill, wick. the bus could not go back or forward as it was sliding into the wall. There have been a lot of accidents and all roads are white and icy. Yet the other evening the gritters were out everywhere.....and it rained and was a nice evening. :evil
I am quite surprised as it is normally the A9 that isn't gritted by BEAR on time. The local gritters have in the past been pretty good. Guess they were balancing the cost of getting the guys out of their bed with public safety! Not really fair I think!!
The Council not putting out a gritter has a lot to do with drivers hours as they are on tachographs. :D
dragonfly
13-Mar-05, 18:11
I came up the road last night from Inverness and it certainly didn't look like roads had been gritted and never saw a plough between Helmsdale and Thurso, took me around 90 minutes to get home from Helmsdale!! but at least I made it safely!
thrumsterloon
13-Mar-05, 20:14
I was always under the impression that council gritter drivers were exempt from tachogragh hours due to the nature of their job as no one else could drive the ploughs/gritters without being specially trained.
~~Tides~~
13-Mar-05, 20:20
They ploughs had only not been out for less that half a day, its you own fault if you are out in those conditions. 99 in 100 journeys are not life thretening, theres at least 1 B and Bs in every village in the county.
The roads in wick were black by 10:30 this morning.
tides but what about the peeps going to and from work they dont get the choice you know
The Angel Of Death
13-Mar-05, 21:16
Yes they do go into work or not get paid and i know the option i have to take most of the time [mad]
2little2late
13-Mar-05, 21:23
Yes they do go into work or not get paid and i know the option i have to take most of the time [mad]
Does this apply to the emergency services if they get called out then?
Don't talk wet!
The Angel Of Death
13-Mar-05, 21:43
Does this apply to the emergency services if they get called out then?
Don't talk wet!
Correct me if i am wrong but are the emergency services not trained to drive in severe weather conditions ???
I know that I along with the rest of caithness are not and the morgage company bank etc wont take the "sorry i couldnt get to work because the weather was bad" line
2little2late
13-Mar-05, 22:24
[mad] The police had to make a special request that the gritter come out to the aid of a dounreay bus stranded on the harbour hill, wick. the bus could not go back or forward as it was sliding into the wall.
So, Angel of death, I take it the emergency services would have been able to get up Harbour Hill aswell then?
I think BEAR is doing a great job, went to Wick today and the worst roads were the country roads and the streets in Wick.
Good work to all the BEAR lads (and no I dont work for them before anyone starts coming with that crap!)
I think the council managers are planning on putting their gritters out in July
2little2late
13-Mar-05, 22:38
I think the council managers are planning on putting their gritters out in July
Blimey, that early? I suppose it's better to be safe than sorry [lol] [lol]
The Angel Of Death
13-Mar-05, 23:20
So, Angel of death, I take it the emergency services would have been able to get up Harbour Hill aswell then?
At that point no however if they had been out before that then maybe it wouldnt have come to that who knows at the moment in these conditions were getting they are more capable of driving in them that any ordinary person is
I know for one thing if this keeps up then i aint looking forward to work tomorrow not one little bit
Monday 06.30. In Lybster it looked as if we would be stuck in the village all day, roads covered with 6 inches of snow on top of ice that had become thicker as the weekend progressed.
And no power.
Police toured the village in their 4x4.
20 minutes later Bear ploughed the street
Power came back on.
And every thing got moving again.
Well done to all thoes responsable.
KEEP_ON_TRUCKIN
14-Mar-05, 21:02
I was always under the impression that council gritter drivers were exempt from tachogragh hours due to the nature of their job as no one else could drive the ploughs/gritters without being specially trained.
No unfortuneately gritter boys are most definitly not exempt from tacho hours and whats worse is they are all mixed up between EU hours and domestic hours so its even more troublesome than you think!!
[mad][tides.....people do not like having to drive in bad road conditions but emergency service personnel have to, whether they want to or not, and patients have to get to
hospital, some for life saving treatment. Then fire engines and police have to get to accidents also, moreso on icy roads.
If the gritters are not out, and save money, the NHS has to spend more on road traffic accidents, people with broken hips and legs after falling on the ice etc.
If people are not capable of driving in bad road conditions they should stay indoors. I believe some schools were closed today becuase of the road conditions. [evil]
I made my comments because I seem to see gritters before rain and no ice or snow, then when the snow does come, there are no gritters and even the police have trouble getting them. My street has never been gritted this year.
[/quote][/url]
thrumsterloon
15-Mar-05, 09:32
Spoke to a friend who worked for Bear until last year and he confirmed that snowplough drivers can be exempt from tachogragh hours but only under emergency conditions.But what difference the new euro regulations will make to this I don't know. What I do know is that the HGV drivers at my work are going to be working an average of 48 hours per week over a 26 week period.
KEEP_ON_TRUCKIN
15-Mar-05, 13:43
who you working for in inverurie?
:( Here I am ....moaning again about gritters. Driving to thurso at 7.15pm last night (Wednesday) from Wick , a snow plough came towards us with yellow lights flashing just after we passes Haster, and there was no grit coming out!!! All the way to Thurso, and on my return back to Wick, there was no grit on the roads. Had the driver forgotten to press the button or was this just a pretend run!!! ....did anyone else notice????
I am very annoyed about this as my friend 's car skidded on i ce on the Watten-wick road on Monday morning and ended upside down in a ditch, she could have been killed. What are we paying road tax for??????? The roads are a disgrace too. [mad]
They ploughs had only not been out for less that half a day, its you own fault if you are out in those conditions. 99 in 100 journeys are not life thretening, theres at least 1 B and Bs in every village in the county.
The roads in wick were black by 10:30 this morning. theres no b&b in spittal
KEEP_ON_TRUCKIN
18-Mar-05, 16:18
:( Here I am ....moaning again about gritters. Driving to thurso at 7.15pm last night (Wednesday) from Wick , a snow plough came towards us with yellow lights flashing just after we passes Haster, and there was no grit coming out!!! All the way to Thurso, and on my return back to Wick, there was no grit on the roads. Had the driver forgotten to press the button or was this just a pretend run!!! ....did anyone else notice????
[mad]
Hey the way the gritters work it is likely that the driver was going to wick to start gritting on the way back to thurso , hence there being no grit on the road YET it is also possible the gritter was going to wick to start the reiss, john o groats thurso route, or it could have been going to wick to pick up grit, there are many reasons why it may not have been gritting at that particular time, the lights would still have been flashing due to the size of the vehicle?
Here is a nice link to a council that does at least apear to have a policy on road salting/griting http://www.dudley.gov.uk/council/due/enviromanage/streetcare/gritting.htm it would seem that this council has someone that can get information to it's people.
Does anyone know if our local concil has a website like this that we dont know about or does it think what we all have to use caithness.org.
2little2late
18-Mar-05, 19:40
:( Here I am ....moaning again about gritters. Driving to thurso at 7.15pm last night (Wednesday) from Wick , a snow plough came towards us with yellow lights flashing just after we passes Haster, and there was no grit coming out!!! All the way to Thurso, and on my return back to Wick, there was no grit on the roads. Had the driver forgotten to press the button or was this just a pretend run!!! ....did anyone else notice????
[mad]
Hey the way the gritters work it is likely that the driver was going to wick to start gritting on the way back to thurso
A detour from Wick via Thurso back to Wick for grit!! [lol] [lol]
Are you on planet earth or Fuller's earth?
KEEP_ON_TRUCKIN
19-Mar-05, 11:12
singapore,gritters from thurso do the reiss to john o groats to thurso and the wick casteltown route ok, so yeah from planet earth.
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