Dozens of Road Safety Issues Detected in Three-Day Operation

Road safety operations in Cleveland carried out last week along with partner agencies have led to dozens of safety concerns and traffic offences being uncovered.

Officers from Cleveland Police’s Matrix Team carried out road safety operations around the county on over three days from Monday 11^th November to Wednesday 13^th November.

Colleagues from the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA), Immigration, Motor Insurance Bureau, local authorities and Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) joined officers to carry out checks on vehicles.

On Monday 11^th November, there was a vehicle seized after the driver was found to be disqualified, seven DVLA reports were issued regarding VRM misrepresentation, four prohibitions issued for insecure loads, drivers were issued fines for driving whilst on a mobile phone, one vehicle was overweight and another was without tax. Two vehicles were found to be in order.

An operation targeting large goods vehicles and those carrying dangerous goods was carried out on Tuesday 12^th November in partnership with North Yorkshire Police colleagues. Whilst seven were found to be in order, there were five issues with drivers’ hours found which will be followed up with the relevant companies, immigration checks were carried out and a driving licence offence was discovered.

On Wednesday 13^th November, the first check of the day found a driver believed to be under the influence of drugs who was subsequently arrested.  A vehicle was found to be overweight by 29%, leading to a £300 fine issued by the DVSA. One vehicle was found without tax and was seized and another four were reported by the DVLA for VRM misrepresentation.

A number of other vehicles were given prohibitions for their vehicles being defective and therefore not roadworthy.  The drivers of these vehicles were unable to leave the site until those defects were corrected and the vehicles deemed safe. Some of these defects included corroded brake disks, track rod ends and tyres.  A scrap collector was also reported to the local authority licencing team for collecting without a licence. 

Sergeant Mark Kewley said: “It is vitally important that people abide by the laws put in place to help keep people safe on our roads.

“Particularly in cases where drivers are carrying dangerous goods and heavy vehicles, we would expect them to have the highest standards when it comes to sticking to the legislation. Not only can livelihoods be affected if people don’t abide by the law, but people’s lives can be put at risk.

“We will continue to carry out road safety checks all year round to help keep people as safe as we possibly can.”

*** A van seized with no insurance ***

*** Insecure load on a flat-bed truck ***