Road traffic cops rammed off the roads and left battered and bruised in bid to keep South Yorkshire safe

Or being the first on the scene of fatal road collisions and having to break the devastating news to relatives that their loved ones have died.

Despite such horrors, PC Rod McEnery describes his role as a ‘traffic cop’ as his dream job and after 24 years with South Yorkshire Police he still wakes up for each shift looking forward to going to work.

As a former soldier with tours of duty to his name, ‘Mac’ as his is known in the force is no stranger to death and destruction and readily admits that he has a ‘thick skin’ which helps him cope with the horrific sights that cops on the road face day in day out.

Without it, and an ability to put traumatic experiences ‘away in a locker’, he accepts it could be difficult to work on the roads long term.

But despite that thick skin, which he said racism suffered over the years has played a part in, nothing could have prepared him for the day his colleague and one of his best friends died while on duty as a police motorcyclist.

PC Matt Lannie, aged 40, died in a collision with a Toyota Avensis on Nether Lane, Ecclesfield, on Tuesday, April 21.

PC Lannie, who also previously served in the military, was responding to a call about a silver BMW which had failed to stop for police officers when tragedy struck.

“All fatalities live with you. I put them away in a locker in my head, and occasionally something will bring one to the surface again, but I can usually put the memory away again. They all affect you, we are only human. But the one that really traumatised me was the death of my friend and colleague Matt,” Mac said.

“The team he was part of was on duty when the call came in. You are devastated inside but have to remain professional and it was a choice to stay at the scene. I wanted to because I wanted to make sure that we did everything right for Matt, that nothing was missed and also by looking after the rest of the team.

“It is the hardest thing I have ever had to do in my life, and I’ve been in the military and seen some pretty horrible things. But I am proud of what we did for Matt.”

Investigating fatal collisions takes meticulous and often painstaking investigative work.

Crash scenes are treated as crime scenes, meaning evidence has to be gathered and processed, witnesses need to be interviewed, road and weather conditions have to be noted, mobile phones, dash cams and CCTV cameras need to be examined...the list is endless.

But despite the specialist work undertaken, Mac said the majority of people think that traffic cops simply pull people over for speeding and issue fines for defective vehicles.

“There is so much more to a traffic cop than issuing tickets,” he said.

“That is part of what we do, because we are there to help save lives, and tackling speeding and getting unroadworthy vehicles off the streets is part of that.

“We do try to educate people when we stop them and a mark of our success is if we never see that person again because then we know that what we said got through and made a difference.

“We can get abuse for pulling someone for being 10mph over the limit but that 10mph can be the difference between life and death and that’s what I try to get across to people when I talk to them.

“People may not realise it at the time but we issue tickets to make the roads safer for them and others.”

When they are not investigating collisions and carrying out enforcement work while on patrols, traffic cops will be involved in specialist police pursuits.

Chasing stolen cars, looking for offenders on the run from crime scenes or those wanted by the police for serious offences, traffic cops try to work as a pack to outsmart motorists trying to evade capture.

Using stop sticks and boxing techniques, pursuits are carried out daily in the fight against crime.

All policing poses risks, and life as a traffic cop is no exception.

Travelling at high speeds, through red lights and often after dangerous people, officers know they take a risk every time they get into their car, but we try to minimise this risk by risk assessing what we are doing.

During one incident last week, a pursuit had to be aborted on safety grounds when a car was driven the wrong way along a dual carriageway in Sheffield in an act of desperation to avoid arrest.

Mac once had a knife pulled out on him by a motorist and had to use CS spray and a baton to defend himself during an incident in Southey Green, Sheffield, only to find that a complaint was filed against him...but he said it is all in a day’s work and one of the reasons he 'loves’ his job.

“People think that if we are not handing out tickets we are speeding around all day in fast cars. That’s part of it, however we are doing it for a reason, but it is not without its risks, he said.

“You never know what or who you are going to find when you stop a vehicle.

“Not that long ago I stopped a car and a big machete type knife dropped out of someone’s trousers. We have found anything and everything over the years, from drugs to guns, you name it, we’ve found it.”

Mac, who is a lead investigator for road collisions and has been a temporary sergeant, has won awards for his work for ‘inspiring Leadership’.

Mac’s ambition is to become permanent sergeant in the Roads Policing Unit.

“I absolutely love my job. There is not a day that I do not wake up early looking forward to it and the uncertainty of what the day will bring - you never know what you are going to be faced with,” he said.

“We are rammed off the roads, and we are battered and bruised and have the scars to show for it, but it is an exciting job that still gives me the same buzz that it did when I first started. For me being a traffic cop is the best job in the force and so much more than what many people realise. I know it sounds a bit of a cliché but I love helping people in their hour of need.”

One of Mac’s most publicised investigations came after two supercars crashed in Sheffield while racing.

The smash on the Tinsley roundabout in May 2018 wrote off a Porsche 118 Cayman GTS and a Ferrari 458 Spider worth a combined £230,000,

Witnesses reported seeing the cars exhibiting ‘racing style’ behaviour across South Yorkshire in the lead up to the smash.

Both drivers received suspended prison sentences for dangerous driving.

Recognising Mac’s dedication to roads policing and his team, the family of his former colleague, Matt Lannie, said: “Matt always thought very highly about Mac, they started as colleagues and soon became close friends.

“After we lost Matt, Mac went up and beyond to make sure Matt got the send off he wanted and deserved under these difficult times.

“Our family will always be eternally grateful for the help compassion and support he gave us and continues to, we gained a truly good friend under such tragic times.

“He also not only looked after my family but he also supported the rest of the team as well as going through his own grief for Matt.

“He truly is a wonderful person with a heart of gold.”