No Excuse road safety campaign launches in Essex

There is no excuse for poor driving - that's the message of a new road safety campaign that has launched across Essex.



The 'No Excuse' campaign, which launched on Wednesday, January 11, 2012, sees members of the Essex Casualty Reduction Board (ECRB) targeting motorists who speed, fail to wear a seatbelt, drink and drive and use mobile devices behind the wheel.

In 2011, more than 7500 drivers were caught using a mobile phone and 8,250 motorists and passengers were spotted not wearing a seatbelt. A total of 1,516 drivers were also found to be drink driving or refused to be breathalysed on suspicion of drink driving.

As part of the campaign, a series of events known as Surround a Town will be held across the county over the coming months combining police enforcement, speedwatch events at schools, community speedwatch groups, re-education for offenders and child car seat checks.

Police and road safety officers will also be targeting hotspots where crashes and casualties are known to occur.

The first of the Surround a Town events took place in Chelmsford on the day of the launch and involved more than 40 police officers carrying out roadside checks and mobile patrols around the town.

More than 140 vehicles were stopped and checked, three people were arrested and more than 100 drivers were issued with fixed penalty notices.

The stop checks were held at five sites around the town and Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) technology was also used to identify vehicles whose drivers were committing motoring offences or had been involved in crime.

A  31-year-old man from Chelmsford wanted in connection with thefts of fuel from petrol garages was arrested and later charged with two offences. He was bailed to appear at Chelmsford Magistrates' Court  on February 3, 2012.

Two men aged 27 and 28 and both from south London were arrested in connection with a burglary at Braintree on Monday, January 9, 2012. 

Ten vehicles were seized because the drivers were not insured. A total of 56 drivers were stopped for not wearing seat belts and 26 drivers were seen driving while using mobile phones. Nineteen vehicles were found to have no MOT, two vans were taken off the roads for mechanical defects and ten other motoring offences were detected.

During commercial vehicle checks at Boreham a van that was stopped for speeding on the A12 was found to be a ton overweight and carrying two and a half tons of smuggled beer and wine. The load was seized by Customs officers.

For the day of the launch only all seatbelt offenders were given the chance to take part in a 30 minute education session at Essex County Cricket Ground in return for having their fixed penalty notice nullified. The session, run by road safety officers, explained the consequences of poor driving behaviour.

The operation also included a series of speed checks carried out by community speedwatch groups and police officers were accompanied by pupils for speed checks outside Bishops School, Springfield and Broomfield Primary School.

Councillor Tracey Chapman, Cabinet Member for Highways and Transportation and Chairman of the Essex Casualty Reduction Board said: “I have been very impressed by the level of enforcement and education activity from all of the ECRB partners and their dedication to reducing collisions in Essex. 2011 saw killed or seriously injured casualties reduce by 10% and I hope this campaign will help to achieve a further reduction in 2012 and beyond.

“Events like this give us the opportunity to talk to drivers about the most common causes of accidents and make them aware of their driving behaviour. Whilst some drivers continue to put themselves and others at risk we will continue to target those individuals and work to make our roads safer.

“We all have a part to play in this campaign and I hope that the ECRB can count on support from drivers in achieving safer roads for everyone in Essex. Remember, there’s no excuse for poor driving.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

	Printable Version		Email this to a friend