DOZENS of vehicles were stopped during Thurrock’s second “Surround the Town” day on Friday (14 August).
The scheme is part of the Safer Essex Road Partnership Group’s countywide programme to cut road accidents and injuries and is run in partnership with Essex Police.
On Friday, and led by Thurrock Council’s road safety team, there were three areas targeted, Grays, at Lodge Lane, South Ockendon, in South Road, and the Moto motorway service station near Lakeside – the latter being operated by Essex Police.
Cllr Oliver Gerrish, Thurrock Council’s transportation portfolio holder, said afterwards: “As part of these events, drivers are stopped if they are seen doing potentially dangerous driving such as not wearing a seatbelt or using a hand-held mobile phone; or if they are suspected of drink driving or being under the influence of drugs.”
He added: “Some offences lead to fixed penalty notices being issued and others see people offered the opportunity to attend a range of courses covering speed awareness, driver alertness, why it is important to wear a seatbelt, and so on.
“This was the second SAT Day in Thurrock and people should be not think that because we’ve done it twice, that’s it. We will be following up with mini SAT days to emphasize the dangers.”
Friday’s event saw the majority of people stopped for seat belt offences – 61 in all – but not always the driver, sometimes the passenger was not belted up.
There were also 15 drivers stopped for using a hand-held mobile telephone.
Cllr Gerrish added: “Contrary to what most people would expect, only ten of those stopped were aged between 17 and 24, the biggest group was 25 to 39, where 36 people were caught and a further 27 were in the 40 to 54 age group.
“The vast majority were men and almost all the vehicles were cars (44) and vans (32)."
Other results from the day included 14 vehicles without a valid MOT; one vehicle seized for no insurance and the driver given a ticket for £300 and six penalty points; seven vehicles with illegal number plates each carrying a fine of £50; the driver of a stretch limo taking a hen party from Croydon to a hotel in north Essex who was fined £300 for driver hours offences; and the driver of a van who was found by the HM Revenue and Customs’ fuel-testing team to be illegally using red diesel and fined £545.
Police also stopped a lorry laden with beer (pictured) worth more than £100,000 and travelling from France to Northern Ireland. It was stopped for a routine check and found to have an insecure load.
Further investigations revealed the owners had their operator’s licence revoked in May this year and who were also suspected of owing more than £60,000 in fines imposed for carrying illegal immigrants.
The lorry (pictured) was detained by Border Force pending further enquiries. The driver was also fined £100 for having an insecure load.
