Three Infants Found Travelling without Appropriate Restraints During Traffic Operation

Three children under the age of three were found travelling without appropriate child restraints during an operation aimed at reducing road traffic offences in Cleveland.

Roads Policing Officers from Cleveland Police made the discovery while taking part in Operation Tramline, a partnership between police and National Highways.

Police used a heavy goods vehicle (HGV) cab loaned from National Highways to make it easier to see offences committed in the cabs of other lorries and vehicles at the same height, as well as identifying offences in other types of vehicles.

38 vehicles were stopped by the Matrix Team officers during the operation between Monday 7 October and Friday 11 October, and 43 offences were detected.

These offences included three children without appropriate seat restraints, using a mobile phone whilst driving, not wearing a seatbelt, speeding and an insecure load (pictured below).

Two people were summonsed to court and a further 40 drivers were issued with fixed penalties or Traffic Offence Reports. One was also given words of advice.

Of the vehicles stopped, 18 were goods vehicles and 20 were private.

Matrix Team Sergeant Mark Kewley, said: “Keeping people safe on our roads is our priority in roads policing and during this operation, we have found 43 offences being committed by drivers on our roads.

“Staggeringly, there were three young children who were not properly restrained and had the vehicles they were in been involved in a collision, there could have been devastating consequences.
“We also stopped a driver who was travelling with a very dangerous, insecure load on one of our main arterial routes, which wasn’t strapped down properly and could have potentially caused a serious collision.

“These examples show why we carry out these operations; we’re determined to help reduce casualties and fatalities on our roads and through operations like this one, in conjunction with National Highways, we can ensure that people are abiding by the laws put in place for everyone’s safety.”

National Highways Mark Cartwright, Head of Commercial Vehicle Incident Prevention, said: “We know that not wearing seatbelts and distracted driving are key contributors in a number of incidents resulting in people being seriously injured or even killed on our roads.  

“Working with our police partners we want to make people think again about their driving behaviours and the risks to themselves and other road users.

“Road safety is, and will always be, our number one priority.  Our road users play an active role in road safety through the way they drive on our roads and are key to helping us achieve a safer network for everyone.”