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Hampshire and Thames Valley Police recently had a blitz for three days focusing on van drivers who were speeding. In that period they issued 47 tickets.
Police in an unmarked vehicle pulled over 88 light goods vehicles near Havant.
Of the 47 tickets, six related to offences in respect of van insurance, licensing and invalid MOT certificates, two drivers received fixed penalty notices of £200 each and 39 tickets were issued for a number of things including speeding, driving without wearing a seatbelt and using a mobile phone.
Another 41 drivers received warnings about speeding and defects to their vehicles.
Sergeant Paul Diamond of Hampshire and Thames Valley Police stated: ‘This was not about dishing out fines – although some offences were too serious to avoid it. It was about increasing awareness of the law and improving driving behaviour in order to reduce serious injury or fatal collisions on our roads.
‘For this reason some of the 39 drivers who received tickets will qualify to be offered education as an alternative to prosecution.
‘These Driver Awareness Training courses are paid for by the offending driver.
‘Of course we are not saying that van drivers are responsible for every collision they may be involved in. But it’s important to remind drivers that speed limits are there for a reason. No job or delivery is so important that it’s worth risking your life for.’
The exercise was set up following figures revealing that, of the 451 accidents involving vans last year on the Isle of Wight and Hampshire, 83 of the accidents involved serious injury or death and that was an increase of 10 when compared with the previous year.
There have been 218 accidents involving light goods vehicles weighing below 7.5 tonnes so far this year with 37 serious injuries and 3 people dying.
Many drivers that were stopped for speeding were not aware that, if driving a light goods vehicle, they were restricted to driving at a maximum speed of 60mph that is 10 miles less than car drivers.
Of course, the above findings will result in many of these van drivers seeing their van insurance premiums increase as a result of receiving points on their licenses as they will now be considered a greater risk.
Source: Hampshire and Thames Valley Police August 2012