Safer Roads Team urge all road users to take extra care after receiving more examples of poor driver behaviour

As the UK continues to ease out of Covid-19 restrictions, the volume of traffic on our roads has also steadily increased with more people taking advantage of the lifting of travel restrictions.

For some motorists it could be the furthest they’ve travelled in the past 12 months, which has prompted Northamptonshire Police to encourage everyone to take extra care when using the county’s roads.

To reinforce this message, officers from the Safer Roads Team have complied a short video of clips of dangerous incidents to raise awareness of the need to drive safely, legally and in accordance with the conditions.

During the first three months of 2021, the Force received more than a 100 of examples of poor driver behaviour, which had been captured on helmet or dash-cam footage and submitted to the Operation Snap online portal.

In total, there were 131 video submissions from 103 individual witnesses between January and March, resulting in 62 Notice of Intended Prosecution (NIP) letters being sent to registered vehicle owners.

Driving without due care and attention was the most common offence detected with a total of 32 registered owners sent NIP letters as a result of the dash-cam footage submitted.

Other offences caught on camera ranged from driving dangerously and drivers not being in proper control of a vehicle to failure to comply with solid white line road markings, dangerous passenger load and ignoring traffic lights.

Northamptonshire Police’s Safer Roads Operations Manager, Matthew O’Connell, said: “In partnership with our Northamptonshire Safer Roads Alliance colleagues, we will continue to encourage everyone to respect our roads by driving both legally and responsibly.

“However, despite raising awareness of the tragic consequences which can happen on our roads, it’s always disappointing to receive so many examples of poor driver behaviour, and that some drivers are still willing to put themselves and others at risk.

“Thanks to Operation Snap and the continued support from the public, there are now thousands of additional eyes helping to keep the county’s road safer. This has enabled the Force to act against driving offences it otherwise wouldn’t see.”

People can report driving offences by uploading video evidence via a simple online portal on the Force website and completing a form, which automatically creates a witness statement to provide a full account of the incident.

Reports are then triaged by trained police staff, who check the footage to ensure it falls within the scheme's remit and contains clear views of an offenders' number plates so they can be identified.

If it matches the Operation Snap criteria, police officers in the Safer Roads Team then examine the footage. If a driving offence is identified, they will then start legal proceedings where required.

The most common reason for a rejected submission is insufficient video evidence to support a prosecution, or the video has not been submitted within 14 days of the offence being committed.

Matt added: “Although this service allows people to share evidence of driving offences with us quickly and easily, it’s important to remember we only have 14 days from when the offence is committed to take appropriate action.

“It's also important to remember we examine footage for evidence of offences by all parties, so please don't break the law in order to report someone else to us, or you could be in trouble as well.”

For more information about Operation Snap or to submit video footage, visit the Northamptonshire Police website at www.northants.police.uk/OpSnap