Warwickshire Police detects almost 200 driver offences in a week during Operation Tramline

Warwickshire Police officers have detected almost 200 driver offences in a five day operation known as Operation Tramline on the county’s motorways that concluded on Friday 6 March 2020.

Working in collaboration with Highways England, officers from the Commercial Vehicle Unit supported by Operations Patrol Unit and the Special Constabulary, patrolled the regions motorway network using a HGV supercab to spot and film driver offences in all vehicles. This information was relayed to following officers who intercepted drivers and dealt with the identified offences.

The operation is about keeping people safe on our roads and officers are looking for people that could pose serious danger to themselves and other road users.

Over the five days, a total of 194 offences were identified from 154 vehicles, 42% of offences identified were from large commercial vehicles compared to 58% from smaller commercial and private cars.

Twenty-seven mobile phone offences were captured with two separate HGV drivers filmed using face time whilst driving on the M40. Another was seen watching Dr Who whilst his phone was in a cradle in front of him. Those drivers and the haulage companies have been reported to the Traffic Commissioner in addition to court.

The HGV provides a substantially improved perspective into drivers’ actions when compared to a patrol car, as figures show this continues to be a fantastic tool in making our roads safer by prosecuting drivers posing the most risk to other road users.

Sgt Stafford from the CVU said:

“Although the figures are a great representation of the worth of the HGV in helping to keep our roads safe, such reckless actions as using face time whilst driving and the high number of offences detected is worrying.

“The two most prominent offences detected over this operation were failure to wear a seat belt (62 offences) and using a mobile phone and we are asking the minority of people who commit these offences to please change their behaviour.

“To hold a driving licence is a privilege and a responsibility, especially those driving larger commercial vehicles, and we will continue to focus our enforcement activities on drivers who are putting themselves and the public at risk on our roads ”

Highways England Assistant Regional Safety Co-ordinator Marie Biddulph said:

“The vast majority of drivers who use our roads every day are sensible and safe behind the wheel but there are some who are putting themselves and others at risk by simply ignoring the law.

“That is why we introduced the three supercabs and are working with our police partners across the country to tackle dangerous driving such as illegally using mobile phones, not wearing seatbelts or ignoring red X signs.

“We hope this operation will encourage all motorists to think about their driving.”

Other tactics are being implemented over the coming weeks as part of the National Police Chiefs Council campaign against the minority of drivers who use a mobile phone whilst driving.

Warwickshire Police has recently been confirmed as the top performing force in 2019, not only regionally in the Midlands for Operation Tramline but nationally, above 30 other forces who participate.