Thousands of motoring offences detected during Summer Road Safety campaign in Wiltshire

Thursday, 7 September 2023 01:00

Wiltshire Police's summer road safety campaign has ended, with thousands of motoring offences detected.

Over the past month, Wiltshire Police has made road safety a focus for the entire Force through enforcement and intensive awareness raising, focusing predominantly on the fatal five offences contributing to serious collisions. These are:

- speeding - drink and drug driving - using a phone while driving - not wearing a seatbelt - careless and dangerous driving.

The campaign was launched following a high number of fatal and serious injury collisions on Wiltshire roads.

In August alone, the Roads Policing Unit issued 612 notices for offences, including speeding, mobile phone use and not wearing seatbelts.

During the month, they’ve also made 68 arrests for drink or drug driving.

Over the whole summer period, there have been 2,788 notices for motoring offences issued by the unit.

Assistant Inspector Will Ayres said: “News of any death on our roads is completely devastating, especially for those closest to the person involved, but when you know the death could have been prevented, it really is heart-breaking, so we’ve spent the past month raising awareness amongst drivers of the fatal five offences and how important it is to give the road your full attention at all times.

“Officers have done a really fantastic job patrolling some of our collision hotspots and targeting those drivers who fail to abide by the law. It’s easy to become complacent when getting behind the wheel of a car as it’s something we do every day, but if we can change people’s attitudes then we will make our roads a safer place to be.”

Most of the fatalities this year have occurred on the M4, A303, A338, A360, A3102 and A4.

A/Insp Ayres said: “As roads policing officers, road safety is our number one priority every day of the year, but this month has seen us intensify our resources and clamp down on those drivers who fail to abide by the law.

"We know what it is like to have to deliver a death message to a family following a fatal collision, and we know how it can impact such a huge number of people, and that is why we feel so passionate about raising awareness about road safety, especially the fatal five offences.

“We’ve used a variety of tactics to identify offenders including the use of the unmarked HGV and an unmarked mini bus.

“Although the campaign is over, we will continue with our work to improve road safety in Wiltshire and would urge all drivers to keep the fatal five offences in the forefront of their minds when driving.”