Latest from the UK Govt who have found lots of bored drivers on motorways, busy doing other stuff at the wheel. Some may well be checking out the Bored Panda website. Here’s the word;
In new footage released recently, a van driver is seen talking on his phone and looking at his sat nav as he travels along the A500 in Stoke-on-Trent. He transfers the phone to his left hand and picks up a drink in his right hand, leaving just two fingers on the wheel. But he then takes both hands completely off the wheel to put down his drink and move the phone back to his right hand.
Still chatting away on his phone, the driver remains oblivious to the fact he is being filmed as he takes the exit off the A500 – followed by police travelling behind who had been alerted by officers in the National Highways HGV cab.
In a second clip, a lorry driver has both of his hands in a tobacco pouch and then rolls a cigarette as he drives along the M40 in Warwickshire before looking over to see the camera rolling in the HGV next to him.
Other footage shows the moment a driver who is not wearing his seatbelt is spotted by Warwickshire Police. He was followed off the motorway by police officers travelling behind and dealt with.
These are the latest in over 28,000 offences which have been recorded by officers in the Operation Tramline HGV cabs since the national safety initiative was launched by National Highways to support its partners in roads policing.
The unmarked HGV cabs are now being used as part of a multi-agency Week of Action on the M6, taking place from Monday 13 June to Sunday 19 June, which aims to reduce the number of incidents on the motorway. The campaign takes place along the length of the M6, the longest motorway in the country, and so has been labelled Operation Vertebrae. It highlights how useful physical patrols are compared to fixed speed cameras, or even speed gun vans, parked near long open straights, hoping to catch speeders.
Not every bad driver is speeding, and this is also where ADAS tech in vehicles and telematics gadgets can monitor poor driver behaviour, like texting, dozing off, eating or simply not concentrating on traffic conditions. In reality the biggest cause of accidents is a lack of attention and observation of traffic – not speed.
More than 28,100 offences have been recorded by police partners in Operation Tramline since its launch in 2015. The most common offences are not wearing a seatbelt (8,375); using a mobile phone (7,163) and not being in proper control of a vehicle (2,083).
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