Family calls on National Highways traffic officers to rescue lost phone

A distraught driver has been reconnected with her phone – including irreplaceable images of her family – thanks to an eagle-eyed National Highways traffic officer.

Tracy Carter had unknowingly driven off with her phone on the roof of her car which came flying off as she joined the A14 dual carriageway at junction 7 in Northamptonshire.

She was very upset about losing the phone because it contained priceless images of her grandchildren and also her mother who had sadly passed.

Her son-in-law, Jack Milburn, reached out to National Highways to see if anything could be done to help and, using a phone app, the East Midlands Regional Operations Centre team in Nottingham were able to locate the area where the phone was lying.

Traffic officer Harry Marshall, who is based at Watford Gap outstation, was in the area and met up with Jack to try to find the lost phone in the verge.

He said: “The main challenge was the low light conditions and the fact that, although the phone should have lit up when it was called, it was lying face down. I knew I needed to try to help so I stood, safely, on the overbridge to assess the situation.  As traffic passed, vehicle headlights reflected off a sticker on the back of the phone in the distance, enabling it to be located.

“Traffic was then briefly and safely brought to a stop allowing the phone to be recovered and handed to Jack, largely undamaged. It wasn’t an easy task but it was the right thing to do, we help if we can.”

Caption: Son-in-law Jack Milburn with the rescued phone

Tracy has sent a message of thanks to the team, she said:

“A huge thank you for retrieving my phone with irreplaceable photos on it. I’m very grateful for all your help.”Jack added:

“Thank you to everyone that was involved at National Highways. A special thank-you to Harry who came out and assisted.”

National Highways Network Operations Manager, Daniel Shaw, added:

“It clearly wouldn’t be safe for the family to try to retrieve a phone themselves from next to a high-speed road like the A14. But our traffic officers are trained so it is fairly routine to slow down the traffic and safely collect the phone once we had tracked it down.

“We have traffic officers patrolling 24/7 and they are there to help. Although this was quite an unusual call we were glad it had a happy ending and the lady has got her precious images and her phone back.”