250 hgv drivers caught offending

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS THE UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUM (INTERACTIVE)
1

Police in Norfolk and Suffolk issued 250 Traffic Offence Reports (TORs) and made one arrest, after targeting drivers of heavy goods vehicles as part of an operation which coincided with a nationwide seat belt enforcement campaign.

Operation Wyken once again saw police provided with a HGV tractor unit from Orwell Trucks in Martlesham, which allowed officers to carry out patrols on the A14, A11 and A47, and focus on offences committed by lorry drivers.

This took place last week, between Monday 6 July and Friday 10 July and ran in conjunction with the National Police Chiefs’ Council two-week seatbelt campaign (from 29 June – 12 July).

The cab, which was driven by a police officer, provides an ideal vantage point meaning officers can look into cabs of other lorry drivers or looking down at cars or vans. A team of roads policing officers accompanied them to stop any offenders.

During the operation, the Joint Norfolk and Suffolk Roads and Armed Policing Team (RAPT) and the Road Casualty Reduction Team (RCRT) arrested one man on suspicion of drug-driving and issued TORs to 250 drivers, with some of the recipients committing more than one offence.

The total number of offences detected was 280 and are as follows:

one for drug-driving
168 for not wearing a seatbelt
19 for using a mobile phone
18 for not being in proper control of the vehicle
13 for excess speed
seven for careless driving offences
six dangerous condition offences
six registration offences
18 exceeding driver hours; or carriage of dangerous goods offences
24 other miscellaneous construction and use offences
Acting Chief Inspector Gary Miller, of the Roads and Armed Policing Team, said: "This was an extremely successful week of action, during which a staggering number of offences were detected. This highlights why it is so important for us to carry-out operations such as this and I would like to thank all the officers involved for their hard work.

"We are once again grateful to Orwell Trucks for supporting this road safety campaign, which we have run for several years now and will continue to do so.

"Due to the physical height of commercial vehicles, it is often difficult for patrol officers to view into the cab and thereby detect offences, such as not wearing a seatbelt or using a mobile phone.

"The HGV cab provides officers with an ideal vantage point to spot drivers committing offences and provides us with another means to enforce the law with this specific group of road users, who due to the size of the vehicles they are in control of, pose an added risk to other motorists and also themselves if they are committing offences whilst driving.

"The most common offence detected during this operation is not wearing a seatbelt, which is one of the ‘fatal four’ main causes of fatal and serious injury collisions. It is compulsory for drivers to wear them and they should ensure their passengers buckle-up too.”

Seatbelts should be worn in any vehicle they are provided in, including buses and goods vehicles. Anyone caught not wearing a seatbelt may be issued with a TOR and face a fine, points on their licence or even court action.

2

I must agree with this. Drivers who drive with no seat belt on cause a terrible risk to other road users. Nobody wants to have a driver fly through their LGV windscreen and dent their Audi.

Good proportional use of the armed police team also. Maybe they were concerned about overweight 60 year olds giving them a slap :laughing:

UK 2020. A wonderful place…

3

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+1
as above.
tens of thousands of pounds wasted along with a cpl thousand wasted man hours for a total overkill waste of time that nobody will care the slightest about,nor will affect the way anyone drives apart from possibly someone sitting on 9 points if there was one or two in the lot that got caught.
just another waste of time and effort so plod can blow their own trumpet to try and look productive for a change.

no doubt someone will be along shortly to enlighten us as to how they did a good worthwhile job? :slight_smile:

4

No sympathy from me if the Muppets got caught wearing no seat belt , cue the lazy boy excuses of :
Ooh aar , it chaffs my neck , I’m too fat, it’s too uncomfortable , I’m allergic to the belt , then list their devices to stop the seat belt alarm going off all day .
Dieseldog , you seem very anti authority and anti police ,I’m guessing you have had a few runs in with the law and have a chip on the shoulder , a grudge maybe ?

5

dieseldog999:
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
no doubt someone will be along shortly to enlighten us as to how they did a good worthwhile job? :slight_smile:

Judging how many Fowler Welshki and Freshlincski drivers I see tramping down the A1 on a night time back to base watching a film on their tablet sat on the speedo I reckon there’s at least a couple of those in that lot.

Funny how people like you always make the same noise until you’re a victim.

6

jesus conor…!!!
that quote was the very words out of my own mouth…pots and kettles,

they made internet availabilty on mobiles so that attendants on mind numbingly boring mediocre night trunks dont get even more depressed and top themselves quicker than they already do.
theres not a lot of decent work out there,so obviously if thats what they have to do to scrape a wage on agency night trunk shifts,then its not surprising they are desperate enough to try anything to aleviate the boredom??

though the trick is just to do what you like and never get caught… :wink:

7

No surprise here.

Professional drivers? Yeah ok. Just a bunch of people with class 1 licences who clearly have no self respect and take no pride in their work.

8

It’s a horrible way to die when you are thrown through the windscreen , internal organs punctured by the rib cage then drown in your blood as the lungs fill up , the human body doesn’t cope well with rapid decelerating which can tear the liver or pancreas .

I knew a Portuguese couple , the lady passenger never wore her belt , they had a crash where the impact sheared off the cab from the chassis , on impact she braced herself by the arms , but has she was thrown out , the sun visor on top of the windscreen chopped off her arm .These visors were outside the cab on Scania 142 's .

If some people object to a period of inspection or control by the police , so be it , a simple offence detected can turn in to something more serious , such as someone on recall to prison , wanted on an arrest warrant , a banned driver that conned their employers by using fake documentation .
If it catches the cowboys , so what, let’s get them off the roads .
With my run in’s with the law , I have found them professional and courteous , if you fail the attitude test , you reap what you sow .
The Muppets driving with hi-vis don’t know that it’s obvious no seat belt is worn , the same with a white tee shirt too , probably the same idiots that tail gate and drive parcel wagons .

9

Two things that confuse me.

1 - If theres a staggering number of offences, why aren’t they running this all the time? They keep saying preventing crime is better than dealing with the after effects.

2 - Are many of those TOR offences? Eg, dangerous condition (depending whats broken), dangerous goods, registration offences and most construction and use.

Obviously some will be, but suspect they might be adding non driver offences in to make it sound like more drivers are committing offences and endangering kittens.

One thing I do take from this is most of the offences would result in possible horrible death for the driver (not nice picking up the body for services), but bit different to the aforementioned driving watching a film etc.

Seems done for publicity rather than making a serious difference to safety.

10

trevHCS:
Two things that confuse me.

1 - If theres a staggering number of offences, why aren’t they running this all the time? They keep saying preventing crime is better than dealing with the after effects.

2 - Are many of those TOR offences? Eg, dangerous condition (depending whats broken), dangerous goods, registration offences and most construction and use.

Obviously some will be, but suspect they might be adding non driver offences in to make it sound like more drivers are committing offences and endangering kittens.

One thing I do take from this is most of the offences would result in possible horrible death for the driver (not nice picking up the body for services), but bit different to the aforementioned driving watching a film etc.

Seems done for publicity rather than making a serious difference to safety.

If that publicity makes some Muppets start thinking?
Job done.

11

Was one of the excess speed offences you dieseldog?

12

toby1234abc:
No sympathy from me if the Muppets got caught wearing no seat belt , cue the lazy boy excuses of :
Ooh aar , it chaffs my neck , I’m too fat, it’s too uncomfortable , I’m allergic to the belt , then list their devices to stop the seat belt alarm going off all day .
Dieseldog , you seem very anti authority and anti police ,I’m guessing you have had a few runs in with the law and have a chip on the shoulder , a grudge maybe ?

^

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
nope,apart from the traffic plod on the A75 for the snide underhand they practice entrapment and anti truck attitude and glasgow plod in general then ive no beef with them and they do a job with their hands tied behind their back.
i ignore speed limits in general unless theres reason to abide with them ,seatbelts ect and tacho rules as best i can and have done ok with it over the years.
last time i got done for speeding was around 12 years ago i think,so not bad considering the way i drive.
i did do an awareness course around mabey 5 years ago i think,
i dont suffer fools or rules in general unless i think they may be relevant hence im so glad ive lived in northern ireland and eire these last 15 years as il be dead before it gets as bad here as the mainland.
happy days all round.

13

dieseldog999:

toby1234abc:
No sympathy from me if the Muppets got caught wearing no seat belt , cue the lazy boy excuses of :
Ooh aar , it chaffs my neck , I’m too fat, it’s too uncomfortable , I’m allergic to the belt , then list their devices to stop the seat belt alarm going off all day .
Dieseldog , you seem very anti authority and anti police ,I’m guessing you have had a few runs in with the law and have a chip on the shoulder , a grudge maybe ?

^

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
nope,apart from the traffic plod on the A75 for the snide underhand they practice entrapment and anti truck attitude and glasgow plod in general then ive no beef with them and they do a job with their hands tied behind their back.
i ignore speed limits in general unless theres reason to abide with them ,seatbelts ect and tacho rules as best i can and have done ok with it over the years.
last time i got done for speeding was around 12 years ago i think,so not bad considering the way i drive.
i did do an awareness course around mabey 5 years ago i think,
i dont suffer fools or rules in general unless i think they may be relevant hence im so glad ive lived in northern ireland and eire these last 15 years as il be dead before it gets as bad here as the mainland.
happy days all round.

Entrapment! Go on then…?

14

it would be like typing war and peace on here…lets just say they go out of their way to unfairly discriminate against trucks compared to anywhere else in the uk and most of europe and which is also the reason they havent put up the average cameras that would eradicate speeding overnight.
8 or 10 cameras would suffice for the 97 miles of road but they prefer the easy pickings hence why its still a 40 limit.

15

Crusaderrr:
Police in Norfolk and Suffolk issued 250 Traffic Offence Reports (TORs) and made one arrest, after targeting drivers of heavy goods vehicles as part of an operation which coincided with a nationwide seat belt enforcement campaign.

Operation Wyken once again saw police provided with a HGV tractor unit from Orwell Trucks in Martlesham, which allowed officers to carry out patrols on the A14, A11 and A47, and focus on offences committed by lorry drivers.

This took place last week, between Monday 6 July and Friday 10 July.

The total number of offences detected was 280 and are as follows:

one for drug-driving
168 for not wearing a seatbelt
19 for using a mobile phone
18 for not being in proper control of the vehicle
13 for excess speed
seven for careless driving offences
six dangerous condition offences
six registration offences
18 exceeding driver hours; or carriage of dangerous goods offences
24 other miscellaneous construction and use offences
Acting Chief Inspector Gary Miller, of the Roads and Armed Policing Team, said: "This was an extremely successful week of action, during which a staggering number of offences were detected. This highlights why it is so important for us to carry-out operations such as this and I would like to thank all the officers involved for their hard work.
.

Ok so a 5 day operation, no mention of how many involved, or the cost.
So let’s try and break it down…280 offences.

Most offences, 168 were not wearing a seat belt, ok fair enough against the law, but the only people who would suffer were the drivers because of it, so a win win situation for them in terms of gathering fines revenue…so let’s ignore those in terms of seriousness for starters.

1drug/driving, (absolute moron in a car, let alone a truck.) =1

18 unspecified drivers hours, but you can sure as hell bet if one or more had been taking the ■■■■ big style, it would have been mentioned, so at a guess 80/90% a few minutes over off a break say? = around 2

24 miscellaneous…(again I would presume rightly or wrongly nothing life or death, or it would have been specified…so let’s go 33%. = around 8

19 on the phone…again fair enough.= 19.

18 ‘not being in control’ let’s give them the benefit of the doubt that half were actually not in control, rather than just eating a Mars bar, or sipping a coffee…so another 9 at a generous guess. = 9.

So there you go, take the seat belt and the unspecified out of it, a rough total of around 40ish worth nicking for the actual real reason.

8 serious offenders nicked per 8 hour day over 5 days?
Hardly a roaring success, hardly an illustration of ‘Truckers causing carnage on the road’, and considering them bleating on about lack of resources, hardly anything to boast about their use of such…but I suppose the seat belt fines will have bank rolled it eh?

I’m all for road safety etc, but I’m sure if they had one of their purges on the quality of car drivers on the roads and their ■■■■ poor motorway driving techniques, they would have a lit more to boast about when trying to justify it.

So to sum up, an expensive non event blown out of all proportion for the purposes of Police PR.
And that is my cynical opinion, not after an argument or debate about it, as my opinion would not change anyway, just making a point the way I see it, and if my calculations don’t add up, fair do.s, but you will get the jist of my point anyway,

16

dieseldog999:
it would be like typing war and peace on here…lets just say they go out of their way to unfairly discriminate against trucks compared to anywhere else in the uk and most of europe and which is also the reason they havent put up the average cameras that would eradicate speeding overnight.
8 or 10 cameras would suffice for the 97 miles of road but they prefer the easy pickings hence why its still a 40 limit.

Average speed cameras?
Ahh now! Wouldn`t you be on here saying they should be catching murderers, instead of prosecuting poor, innocent, lorry drivers who have inadvertently put on the wrong trailer number plate, or got a wee bit of grease on the front plate?
:wink:

17

ok.
they should be catching murderers, instead of prosecuting poor, innocent, lorry drivers who have inadvertently put on the wrong trailer number plate, or got a wee bit of grease on the front plate.

apart from that,its the most overly ott policed 100 miles of euro route ever invented and i have no respect for them the way they like to try and enforce it compared to elsewhere. :slight_smile:

18

But look how many Nuns and innocent kittens were saved from you murderous drivers ! Bring on Brexit AND A POX ON YOU ALL.

19

Armed Policing Teams?

When the police bleat on and on about how they have such limited resources and not enough money for this, that and the other

Fantastic use of such resources :unamused:

How many violent crimes were solved/prevented in that same period of time?

20

Being a professional driver usually means they do the job well and always legit. In a short period of time over a short couple of sections of roads, they picked up on a bunch of non-professional drivers, sometimes called cowboys. Most of the offences related to the driver either solely the driver or driver & employer.
So, why would professional drivers object at trying to raise the standards of the cowboys or is it far more acceptable to encourage and support the cowboys undermining the professional ones?
On the bright side, think how many vehicles / drivers they encountered and didn’t find a reason to stop them.