The M1 Highway England safety initiative, which took place between 13th and 19th May, resulted in a fall in collisions from 90 to 64. This is the 4th lowest number of collisions of 2019 and 2nd lowest outside school holidays.
The safety initiative saw all three of Highway England’s unmarked HGV supercabs take to the M1 motorway, to allow police officers to film evidence of unsafe driving behaviour by pulling alongside the vehicles. The drivers are then stopped by police cars following a short distance behind. They recorded over 200 offences which included 57 drivers on mobile phones, 37 not wearing seatbelts and 27 who were driving carelessly or not in proper control of their vehicles. They also released a video of a driver using credit card to make a payment on his mobile phone.
Police officers filed 133 traffic offence reports – usually requiring drivers to attend a driver education course, plus points on their licence and a fine – and there were also five prosecutions for more serious offences.
Highway England’s traffic officers also joined forces with emergency services to provide free tyre checks and safety tips to hundreds of drivers at motorway services along the M1.
PC Dave Lee from Safer Roads Team said “Our main priority is to reduce the number of people killed or seriously injured on our roads by clamping down on speeding, drink/drug driving, seatbelt and mobile phone use”
Tom Cotton, Road Haulage Association’s head of licensing and infrastructure policy said “A minority of drivers think it is okay to endanger other road users by taking unnecessary risks behind the wheel – it’s not. No phone call or text is so urgent that it can’t wait until the driver is safely parked”.
Following their success on M1, similar initiatives are planned for other motorways across England. Therefore, next time you are on a motorway, drive safely as “big brother may be watching you”
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/m1-safety-week-reduces-collisions-by-a-third
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