r/Glasgow Tools

He didn't. Legally, the only people that can stop/direct traffic are uniformed police officers or a DVSA (nee VOSA) official. This used to be a question in the theory test (might still be?).

This is also a question/ discussion that new taxi drivers always ask. Can the taxi/PH enforcement unit pull you over? Answer is no, they can't (and don't). If enforcement want to go on a wee campaign to pull taxis to check for pirates or car safety (usually at Christmas) then they come out with a police escort for a few shifts. The police pulls the cars over and enforcement then come and do the checks. Otherwise, enforcement can only appoach taxis that have already stopped and parked. They legally can't stop or direct moving cars even though they are council officials.

Similar thing happens with the road side checks for things like red diesel or emmissions spot testing. The council guys don't have the power to direct or stop traffic, they need the police to be there with them to do that for them.

The McDonald's worker above, by the letter of the law, doesn't only not have the power to stop/direct traffic, they are actually guilty of an offence of obstructing traffic (possibly another second offence in the rules that say something like you must not signal to other road users). Would they get done for it? Very, very unlikely. Could they, though? Yes. It has happened before at scenes of accidents. The police get very arsey when members of the public put themselves in dangerous positions and try to do their job for them.

Legally speaking, drivers could completely ignore any signals or directions from the McDonalds worker and drive right past or around him.