Surrey Police, in association with Highways England, undertook Operation Tramline between July 31 and August 11 to target dangerous, distracted, or anti-social drivers on motorways and major road networks.
Using an HGV rigged with cameras, police captured footage of 148 offences, including 79 cases of people using their mobile phone while at the wheel. There were also six cases of driving without due care and attention and 23 not being in proper control of their vehicle – examples including reading, writing, or eating while driving.
Sergeant Sharon Kingston, co-ordinator for the Roads Policing Unit said: “Poor driver behaviour leads to people losing their lives and for many it seems driving is still secondary to other activities, but if a driver is not paying attention it can have fatal consequences.
“Footage captured during the operation shows dangerous, anti-social and distracted driving is still all too prevalent and we’ve seen examples over the last 18 months of lives lost because a driver has not had their full attention on the road.
“A driver was even captured eating from a container in one hand with a fork in the other, another was reading a broadsheet paper across the steering wheel, and there was also a taxi driver writing notes in a notebook in the outside lane of the M25.”
Police intervened on a total of 148 occasions including words of advice in some cases, but in others Fixed Penalty Notices and summons to appear in court for more serious violations, including driving with a mobile phone.
Sergeant Kingston added: “Many will remember the horrifying dashcam footage capturing the moment a woman and her three children were killed by a lorry driver ploughing into their stationary car while scrolling through music on his mobile phone on the A34 in August 2016. The driver was jailed for ten years.
“Incidents like these leave such a devastating impact on innocent people, which is why we will continue to target drivers who chose to disregard the safety of others.
“First trialled in 2014, Op Tramline is an ongoing campaign coordinated by Highways England, working with police forces across the country with the joint aim of reducing the number of incidents and casualties on our roads.
“Surrey Police run these partnership operations regularly, and we are very grateful to Highways England for their support.”
Incident Prevention Assistant Project Manager for Highways England, Anthony Thorpe, added: “We are delighted that 28 police forces across England and Wales are involved in Operation Tramline to lessen incidents on our roads.
“Together, we have stopped in excess of 4,000 vehicles for 5,039 offences and made 5,207 interventions in two years.”
