Teams

The OTS teams are based at the Vehicle Safety Research Centre (VSRC) in the Midlands of England and at the Transport Research Laboratory Limited (TRL) in the South. The OTS teams work alongside the Nottinghamshire and Thames Valley Police forces and include a serving police officer on each team who ensures a secure, direct link with the local police command for immediate crash notifications.

Typically, the teams remain on standby for an eight hour shift period and are ready to respond immediately to an accident notification from the local police control centre. The response team attending the accident consists of at least two investigators, including the police officer. A rotating system of shifts is used that has been specially devised to ensure that each part of the day and night is equally covered by the shift periods.

In addition, both VSRC and TRL have personnel employed to provide follow-up support to the investigation team, including a medical specialist, police liaison officer and clerical officer. Both centres are further supported by local experts in human, vehicle and highway safety factors.

	VSRC team based in Nottinghamshire
	TRL team based in Thames Valley region