Incidental Sheep Inclusion

I was driving along the A43 (a trunk road BTW) in Northamptonshire a while ago when I chanced upon a flock of sheep being expertly herded along the road and it got me wondering how I could weave that image into an informative article to help my Transport Manager learners.

Ahh the Road Traffic Act 1988, specifically Section 170, gives me that perfect opportunity to use that picture. Now section 170 goes somewhat against modern thinking because it talks about an 'accident' It will not be lost on the viewers of Motorway Cops or Police, Camera, Action, and the likes that the trend amongst the Police forces and others is that there is no such thing as an accident, at least not in the context of road transport. Context, by their thinking, is all-important. We tend to use the word accident in, for example, sentences like "Bob split his coffee all over the desk" It implies that, save for a damp desk and a wasted coffee, no real harm was done. Whereas the horror of two vehicles or a vehicle and a vulnerable road user coming together in the same place at the same time on the road can rarely ever be looked at as 'no harm done' hence the favoured term of 'road traffic collision' is used and it has a much darker connotation.

The law, it seems then, would disagree. This is largely because there is no legal definition of a road traffic collision, but the aforementioned Road Traffic Act 1988 S170 has some pretty definitive descriptors of accident.

Paragraph 1 tells us that an accident has occurred when (and for the clarity of reading I paraphrase):

There has been an injury to another person.

Damage to another vehicle.

Damage to property on or adjacent to the road.

Injury to an animal, not carried.

It has to be remembered that an accident is not automatically a Police matter unless someone is injured. One person allegedly damaging another person's property is a civil matter. However, to protect people from loss, the Road Traffic Act once again, comes to our aid with Section 145 making it an offence not to have, as a minimum 3rd Party (i.e., to protect the person suffering loss) motor insurance.

That, by the way, is a classic multiple-choice question in the TMCPC exam, and one for which candidates often fall foul of the curse of RTFQ (Read The Full Question) *editors note, Full is often replaced by trainers with another word beginning with F. The question goes along the lines of "What are the two compulsory insurances that a goods vehicle operator must hold" It then goes on to list some perfectly feasible insurances that can be purchased. The key word here though is compulsory. Dictionary time definition which is, 'required or compelled by law' that is not what is nice to have, or what quite frankly any sensible operator would have (i.e., fully comprehensive, fire and theft etc) The other one is Employer Liability in case you were wondering. Why RTFQ? well, the human brain has something called the Limbic System (or reptilian brain). The quick reaction part, if you will. It thinks it has seen the question, but because it has yet to pass it over to the much more cognitive prefrontal cortex it convinces itself that it has seen the question, it has but crucially it has missed out the keyword, COMPULSORY. Why? well, the quick thinking bit works largely by association (oven hob ring - hot - hurt - don't touch) Question about insurance - transport manager exam - need to give a robust answer - I'd always have X,Y,Z Insurance, any sensible transport manager would. Your brain has convinced you to leave the word compulsory out. You think it is asking you what insurance WOULD you have, not what MUST you have.

Meanwhile, section 170 goes on to tell us what we must do if we have been involved in an accident. Paragraph 2 this time with (and again paraphrased) Stop, give your own name and address, the name and address of the vehicle owner and the registration number of the vehicle. Same as with the insurance question, we teach drivers to gather as much information at the scene as possible (bump cards anyone?) so why wouldn't we give as much information back? Again, just watch any question containing a verb like MUST or an adjective like COMPULSORY. We must then report that accident to, and be prepared to furnish anyone with due cause to require them, those details as above. In simple terms then you run into the back of Mrs Miggins in her Mini Metro and you give Mrs Miggins those details. What if it's 3 am and Mrs Miggins Metro was parked up and you don't know where she lives? Well, the act then tells us we must report the accident to a Police Officer, at a Police Station as soon as practicable but in any case within 24 hours........try finding a Police station that's even open these days!

Back then to the sheep, where do they fit into all this? Look at that last bullet point of the description of an accident. 'An animal not carried' Is that ALL animals then? No sadly not, only certain animals are 'protected' (or rather their owners against loss) by the Road Traffic Act. This then leads to some of the most frequent public misconceptions. No not Deer (although that does lead to the old 'what do you call a deer with no eyes' gag - no idea), and no, the Royal Family doesn't own all of the Swans, irrelevant anyway as they are not protected, and sadly, and in my opinion wrongly, not cats. So who then?

Section 170 again this time Para 8 - Dogs, Cattle, Pigs, Horses, Mules, Asses (yes, the RTA does say Asses) Goats, and our friends Sheep. It's often asked, why these animals? It's difficult to find a definitive answer. Maybe it's because they all 'belong' to someone and/or are working animals, or maybe, as perfectly demonstrated in the picture, they can be legally herded on the road. I suspect a few people will tell me why, but I'd wager you can't find the legal definitive reason. The answer probably lies in the origins of the Road Traffic Act which stretch back to 1930 and probably beyond that to the Motor Car Act of 1903, after all, when were Donkeys called Asses?

So we managed it then, we wove a wonderful picture of some sheep being herded on the A43 into a (hopefully) informative article about the Road Traffic Act and why, in the exam world, we talk about accidents and not collisions, and even why we fall victim to RTFQ.

Those sheep then, as an animal lover but someone who just can't seem to make the transition to being a veggie, I have a strategy for coping emotionally with how they will meet their fate......don't make eye contact with them.

P.S. anyone notice how I wrote 'Bob split his coffee' which should have been 'Bob spilt his coffee' .......Just an accident.

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