6 days Ago
POLICE officers have defended stopping drivers on the M5 for offences after facing criticism on social media. West Mercia Roads Policing officers and staff from the DVSA took part in a traffic operation on the M5 northbound in Worcestershire. Almost thirty drivers were found to have issues with their vehicles while one was behind the wheel with no insurance on Tuesday (December 10).
Prohibition notices, known as PG9s, banning the use of vehicles on a public road were handed to six people for tyre offences and four for insecure loads. Five drivers were handed the notices for their window tints, eight for overweight offences and one for no insurance. Despite Tuesday's (December 10) successful operation, officers found themselves criticised by people online with some saying they should focus on other crimes.
In response, West Mercia Roads Policing Team said: "We think it’s worth addressing some of the comments on here relating to this operation. "Last year 55 people lost their lives in road traffic collisions and 473 were seriously injured. "If you haven’t been affected by something like this you are lucky.
"The devastation it leaves behind for loved ones and families is immense." Worcester News is backing a campaign to make sure everyone arrives home safely this Christmas and do not drink or drug driving. READ MORE: Spetchley Road fatal crash family Christmas drink drive plea READ MORE: Spetchley crash victims 'together as stars in heaven' READ MORE: West Mercia Police drink drive death toll The statement continued: "Our roads policing officers work 24/7 throughout the year on operations such as this to make our roads safer for all and we will continue to do so.
"Motorists that choose to use vehicles with defective tyres or are dangerously overloaded are just some of the issues that contribute to collisions and this post was to purely highlight some of the other work that we do with our partner agencies. What are your thoughts? You can send a letter to the editor to have your say by clicking here . Letters should not exceed 250 words and local issues take precedence.
"Partnership working with DVSA and other organisations is at the heart of what we do to ensure we remove vehicles and motorists from the roads that are not willing to abide by the law. "Legislation is in place for a reason, to keep everyone safe, and we don’t apologise for proactively enforcing this.".
