Commercial Vehicle Unit ensuring safety on our roads

Last week, our Commercial Vehicle Unit stopped 120 drivers and issued 89 penalty notices as part of their work to tackle road safety issues on our strategic road network.

Essex Police’s Commercial Vehicle Unit (CVU) used a supercab to identify unsafe and distracting driver behaviour on the major routes across our county. 

The supercab was provided by National Highways between 11 and 15 December as part of a national project which aims to reduce collisions and incidents, and improve safety, journey time and reliability on major roads.

Over the five-day period, 120 vehicles were stopped across Essex, which included 51 HGVs, 41 cars, 27 LGVs and one motorcycle.

Officers patrolled the county, focussing on major roads such as the M11, M25, A12 and A13, issuing 89 tickets and reporting two drivers for summons at a later date.

Four vehicles were seized for no insurance following roadside enquiries and three prohibition notices were issued due to the poor and dangerous conditions of the vehicles.

The height of the supercab allows an officer to look into larger vehicles to observe distracting behaviours such as mobile phone use. Once a behaviour or cause for concern is spotted, the vehicle is stopped, and the driver spoken to about the offence.

PC Steve Bowyer, who took part in the week of action, said:

Frankly, the continued use of mobile phones, failing to wear seatbelts and general poor driving across our county is worrying as it puts all road users at risk.
Three factors that contribute to serious and fatal collisions were evident throughout the operation – not wearing seatbelts, being distracted whilst driving by using a mobile phone and speeding. Collectively, along with drink or drug driving, they are known as the Fatal Four.
We will continue to use this valuable resource throughout 2024 and beyond until such time as the message is received and understood by every driver on our roads helping us towards achieving Vision Zero.

During last week’s policing patrols, 18 drivers were reported for using a mobile phone whilst driving and 32 drivers reported for not wearing a seatbelt.

We’d urge drivers to leave their mobile alone and get into the habit of waiting until your journey is finished and then use it when it’s safe to do so. When driving at speed on the strategic network, you need concentration to drive safely, but using a mobile means your attention is elsewhere. 

We want to remind drivers of their responsibilities to look after themselves and uphold the law. In the event of a collision, a seatbelt could save your life.

Offences during the five-day period included:

• 18 mobile phone offences
• 32 seatbelt offences
• 4 speeding 
• 6 no insurance
• 13 driving without due care or consideration
• 4 insecure loads

Our Roads Policing Unit, alongside the Safer Essex Roads Partnership, support Vision Zero’s ambition to have no road deaths in Essex by 2040 or sooner.

Help us reduce road collisions and casualties in Essex and make our roads even safer. Report instances of poor and dangerous driving through Safer Essex Roads Partnership's Extra Eyes initiative.

More than ever, irresponsible, dangerous and illegal road behaviour is being recorded by road users. Through Extra Eyes this footage can be sent to, and reviewed by, an investigator within Road Policing at Essex Police.

Find out how by visiting Safer Essex Roads Partnership website.

At Essex Police, we value difference. We know we’re strongest when we work together. And we want a workforce that represents our communities. 

If you share our values and want to help people, keep people safe and catch criminals, then join us as a police officer, member of staff, special constable or volunteer.

Find out if you #FitTheBill by visiting our careers page.