Calls from roadside phones will be answered by HATO

Uniformed Highways Agency Traffic Officers (HATO) will work with Devon and Cornwall Police to keep traffic moving and manage motorway accidents.

The aim of the patrols is to help free police resources to enable them to concentrate on tackling crime.

Patrols are already operating on the M5 in the Avon and Somerset and Gloucestershire police areas.

Traffic officers will now also patrol the M5 from junction 26 to the start of the motorway at junction 31 in Exeter.

The team will be supported by a 24-hour regional control centre in Avonmouth.

Summer visitors

Officers based at the control centre will also answer emergency roadside telephones on the M5, A30, A38 and A303 in Devon and Cornwall.

They will also set motorway warning signs to provide information for drivers.

The control centre currently sends on-road traffic officers to an average of 80 incidents a day across the region since the Secretary of State for Transport, Alistair Darling, launched the service in the region last December.

Devon and Cornwall Police said it was a positive move which would help them.

Insp Richard Pryce said: "We are geographically the largest force in the country with an extensive road network that is put under added pressure by an influx of visitors in the summer.

"Although we still have overall responsibility for road policing, the Highways Agency Traffic Officers will concentrate on non-law enforcement road issues, allowing us to make the best possible use of our resources."