Why driving home for Christmas might be more dangerous this year

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Driving home at Christmas could be even more dangerous this year, a union warned, as traffic officers and control room operators walked out on Thursday.

Dozens of employees at National Highways will go on strike until Christmas Day across London and the south-east, with the Public Services and Business Union demanding that pay match inflation.

National Highways says it is prepared to strike and believes the impact will be “minimal”, but said the roads could be busier and urged drivers to exercise caution.

The league said the strike would put “further pressure on ‘smart’ highway safety systems and those who check them,” and hoped that “adequate resources will be made available to spot drivers in vulnerable situations and take positive action.”

According to the RAC, 40 percent of Christmas holidays will be concentrated on Fridays and Saturdays, adding up to around 7.9 million trips and urging drivers to leave on Thursdays if possible.

There will be further strikes next week when highway staff leave the West Midlands and South West on December 30 and 31, followed by strikes across all areas in January.

The hit will affect the M25

Thursday’s action will cause 46 warehouse staff to strike at Godstone, Guildford and Winchester and affect the M25, the country’s busiest motorway, as well as the M20 towards Folkestone, the M4 towards Reading and the M40 towards Oxford.

Mark Sirotka, general secretary of the Public Services and Trade Union, said the government was risking drivers’ safety by refusing to negotiate with workers.

“Our members, who have been hit as hard by the cost of living crisis as anyone else, work hard every day to keep our roads safe,” he said. “The government is endangering travelers’ lives by refusing to negotiate with us. Rishi Sunak can end this dispute today by putting some money on the table.

“We realize our measure has the potential to upset travelers, but even as it escalates before Christmas, we are reminding people that this dispute can be resolved today. Our members tell us they have to cut back on their spending at Christmas time because they are running out of money. They have been offered compensation below inflation. at a time when inflation was above 10 percent.

Steve Gooding, director of the RAC, said traffic officers were often the first to respond to crashes and that strikers would be “severely absent” on the roads.

“Traffic officers are often the first responders when something goes wrong on England’s most important and busiest roads,” he said.

“It is the swift actions of traffic officers that often avert more serious problems and associated traffic delays, so their presence will be sorely missed during the holiday season when no one wants to be stuck in a motorway despite the expected holiday rush.

“Without a traffic officer service on hand, relatively minor problems can quickly escalate.”

Better take the back roads.

Luke Bosdet, of the AA, said the rail strikes are likely to increase motorway delays and said “the M25 is going to be pretty awful”.

“Suppose national highways get a number of collisions relatively close to each other. If their resources are stretched, they will be less able to handle potential crashes.

“The railway strike will increase traffic and the national highway strike will make things more difficult,” he added.

Others suggested avoiding highways when traveling on Fridays and Saturdays to avoid queues.

Paul Biggs, of the British Drivers’ Alliance, said: “You might be better off taking the back roads because if you’re on a motorway you’re stuck, right?

“If something happens on a highway, you can’t get off unless you come to an intersection. If you’re on Route A or Route B, you can actually turn around and take a different path.

“It might be a little longer and slower, but it’s something.”

National Highways said only about 125 of the 1,500 frontline workers were taking part in the strike and that it had “robust and well-thought-out procedures” to deal with any challenges. She said that given the shift pattern, it is unlikely that more than 2 percent of staff were absent, and there was little effect when more staff were absent during the pandemic.

Duncan Smith, Chief Operating Officer, said: “We have reviewed the impact that PCS strikes could have and are confident that well-trained resilience plans mean we can continue to manage and operate our network safely.

“Millions of people depend on our roads and there is a possibility that they will be busier than normal on strike days, particularly when they coincide with strike action on other modes of transport. We urge drivers to take extra care during cold weather and in the run-up to Christmas, when they are Our network is always busy.”

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