Undercover police HGV film HGV driver offences

Posted by AndrewT on 9th Apr 2015

North Yorkshire Police officers driving an un-liveried HGV drove alongside HGVs and found that almost ten per cent of the HGV drivers observed were committing offences. 86 offences were recorded against the 1,000 HGVs observed on the A1, A19 and A168 during March. Officers used a camcorder to record driver behaviour in neighbouring cabs.  Most of the offences involved drivers not paying due care and attention as they were making mobile phone calls at the time.  Poor lane behaviour, dangerous parking and failure to use seat belts were also recorded. Sergeant Yvonne Taylor said officers were surprised at the scale of anti-social driving recorded, given that truck drivers livelihoods depends on them retaining their licences. This highlights the benefits of active road traffic policing when the numbers of dedicated road traffic officers have been reduced. Finding almost 10% committing an offence seems to be on a par with other non-HGV drivers use of mobile devices.  Is it time the police stepped up their enforcement on the use of mobile devices for ALL road users? Source: The Northern Echo.