A SUSPECTED drug driver was arrested and 57 drivers were dealt with for failing to wear a seatbelt during a road safety operation in Thurrock yesterday (April 27, 2016)
Officers from the Essex Police Casualty Reduction Section were joined by other road policing officers during Operation Surround a Town, an operation which aims to increase road safety and detect offenders using the roads.
The Surround a Town operation forms part of a long-running campaign with the Safer Essex Roads Partnership and used automatic number plate recognition technology (ANPR) to identify suspect vehicles.
Motorcycles and cars were then used to intercept vehicles which were taken to stop-check sites in West Road, South Ockendon, Lodge Lane, Grays and the Moto Services on the M25.
A 30-year-old man from Chafford Hundred was arrested on suspicion of drug driving after officers stopped the car in which he was travelling in Lodge Lane, Grays. He has been released on bail on pending further investigation until June 30, 2016.
A 39-year-old man wanted on recall to prison was arrested after officers stopped the car in which he was travelling on West Road, South Ockendon. He was taken into custody and later returned to prison.
A lorry driver was fined £550 and the 26 pallets of beer he was carrying seized when officers working with HMRC discovered a range of offences.
The driver had no tachograph driver card, failed to produce records when requested and had no valid MOT for the attached trailer. The beer was seized after the driver failed to produce proper delivery notes.
During the operation, officers dealt with 57 drivers spotted not wearing a seatbelt and 14 found to be using a mobile phone behind the wheel.
Two vehicles were seized because their drivers didn’t have appropriate insurance and a total of 18 drivers were dealt with for speeding offences.
Four vehicles were found not to have a valid MOT, one driver was dealt with for failing to stop at a red light and two were dealt with for careless driving.
Sgt Dave Rudd from the Casualty Reduction Section said: "This operation is run on a regular basis throughout the county and every week I am disappointed to see that a number of people are still failing to wear a seatbelt for reasons I cannot understand.
"It is 50 years since the first law on wearing seatbelts was passed yet people are still putting their lives at risk by failing to buckle up. Seatbelts are there for your own safety and it is disappointing that people don’t think about the possible consequences of their actions.
"If you are involved in a road traffic collision, you are twice as likely to die if you do not wear a seatbelt . And just one person not wearing a seatbelt can be thrown around with enough force to kill or seriously injure other people within the car.
"Please buckle up. Such a simple task could save your life.”
