More than 180 offences detected during four-day Operation Tramline patrols on major routes

Police in Suffolk stopped 163 vehicles and detected 184 offences during a recent roads policing operation on the county’s major routes.

Operation Tramline ran between 13 July and 17 July, with officers from the Commercial Vehicle Unit, the Joint Norfolk and Suffolk Roads and Armed Policing Team, and the Road Casualty Reduction Team using an HGV tractor unit supplied by National Highways.

The vehicle gave officers a high-level vantage point to patrol the A14, A12 and A11, allowing them to spot offences committed by motorists driving lorries, vans and cars.

During the four-and-a-half-day operation, 40 drivers were caught using mobile phones and 49 were found not wearing a seat belt. A further 40 offences related to vehicle construction and use, while 17 people were stopped for driving without due care.

Officers also detected 12 cases of insecure loads, ten traffic light offences and four instances of driving without insurance.

Of the 163 vehicles stopped, 49 were HGVs and 38 were light goods vehicles. A total of 150 traffic offence reports were issued, five vehicles were seized and five drivers received advice from officers.

One van driver was stopped for using his mobile phone and not wearing a seatbelt, and was subsequently arrested for drug-driving. He had been on his way to court for a previous drug-drive offence.

Two graduated fixed penalty notices were issued, with fines of £200 each, and 15 referrals were made to the Traffic Commissioner.

PC Wayne Sturman, of the Commercial Vehicle Unit, said too many drivers continued to take unnecessary risks and present a danger to other road users as well as themselves.

He said Operation Tramline gave officers the opportunity to take positive action to improve safety on strategic roads, adding that while the number of offences detected in the latest campaign – around 35 per day – remained too high, it had fallen considerably from 75 offences a day five years ago.

PC Sturman thanked National Highways for providing the HGV tractor unit, which he said enabled enforcement not only of drivers in control of the largest and potentially most dangerous vehicles on the roads, but also provided additional opportunities to detect offences being committed by all road users.

He added that Suffolk Police was committed to making the county’s roads safer and would continue to work hard on a daily basis and hold operations such as Tramline to achieve that.

Tim Passmore, Suffolk’s Police and Crime Commissioner, described the results as shocking and said they showed just how important proactive roads policing operations were, along with the critical need for policing to crack down on irresponsible drivers using the strategic road network.

He said he hoped the well-publicised approach to enforcement would finally drive the message home, adding that to think someone could act so irresponsibly on the way to court for a previous driving offence “absolutely beggars belief”.

Mr Passmore said the Commercial Vehicle Unit, which played a crucial role in the operations, was set up through investment from the council tax precept, and added that he hoped Suffolk residents could see their money was being directed into operational policing very effectively.