Patrol officers share motorway memories
Tales of huge pile-ups, Britain's first motorway crash and 50-year-old memories of the M1 have been shared at a special lunch.
Members of Northamptonshire Police's first motorway patrol team, set up in 1958, were reunited at Northampton Golf Club yesterday to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the M1.
Among the guests were two of the eight officers who patrolled the motorway in Northamptonshire for the first time.
Frank Hart, now aged 88, and Dick Gimber, aged 77, were headhunted in 1958 to patrol the new road.
Mr Gimber, of Hardingstone, Northampton, said: "It was totally different from what we were used to.
"I remember it just poured down with rain the first winter it was open.
"It was very different from today. In those days there was no hard shoulder. There were no speed limits. There was no central barrier."
Mr Hart, from Burton Latimer, added: "At the start all sorts of testing things would happen.
"Stopping on the motorway was the biggest problem. There was no hard shoulder and lorries would sink into the grass verges, so they just stopped on the road.
"In the early days we were told not to book them, so we were just driving up and down giving out advice."
The pair said much of their time was spent dealing with flat tyres and cars that could not cope with the high speeds and long distances of the M1.
There were some other, slightly more unusual, jobs.
Frank said: "I remember driving along one day and I saw a family having a picnic by the side of the road.
"Then there was a Sunday when a guy in a Morris Eight broke down.
"He had three kids in the back and in those days it was very expensive to call someone out. I thought I would do my bit, so I got my tow rope out and took him a few miles down the motorway."
The special lunch was arranged by Dave Ormerod, another former traffic officer who went on to become head of traffic in Northamptonshire.
He said: "It was great to see people again – there were lots of stories."
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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