Unsafe commercial vehicles targeted in week of action by North Yorkshire Police
It's being carried out across the county by the force's roads policing unit
Unsafe commercial vehicles including lorries and vans are being targeted by North Yorkshire’s Roads Policing team during an intensive week of action.
Officers are working with the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA), the fire service and colleagues from Cleveland and Durham Specialist Operations to detect unsafe vehicles and loads, check hazardous freight and catch illegal stowaways.
Covert and high-visibility patrols are being used along with vehicle checks in target areas.
Roads Policing and DVSA officers are also educating and engaging with drivers to help them keep their vehicles safe and secure.
Traffic Sergeant Andy Morton, who is leading the operation for North Yorkshire Police, said: “Unfortunately we do detect a significant number of offences relating to the use of commercial vehicles using our roads.
“These offences include vehicles with serious mechanical defects, overweight vehicles and breaches of drivers hours rules but also offences such as drink and drug driving, no insurance and licencing offences.
“In the past year alone, we’ve dealt with a number of incidents, some very serious, that have happened as a result of insecure or excessive loads, vehicle defects, tiredness, poor driving or a combination of all three.
“Police are engaging with the haulage industry nationally as well as working In partnership with the DVSA and other agencies this week to ensure these sort of incidents are prevented, offences are dealt with and everyone is safer on our roads.”
Data provided by Highways England shows that in the Yorkshire and the North East region between 2015 and 2019 collisions involving commercial vehicles on main arterial routes resulted in 1,401 casualties – 19% of total casualties.
The number of “clandestine” people found in lorries in North Yorkshire is relatively low but the road network includes key freight routes, so checking vehicles means stowaways can be intercepted if they are en-route to other areas.