Leicestershire Police issue warning to drivers during Operation Tramline
For the last week, officers have been based in an unmarked HGV lorry on the look out for driving offences
Leicestershire Police are urging road users to drive safely, or run the risk of being spotted by officers out on patrol in an unmarked HGV lorry.
Operation Tramline first launched in 2015, and sees police use a HGV "tractor unit" to monitor motorists and keep an eye out for driving offences, such as not wearing a seatbelt, using a mobile phone or ignoring red X signs on the motorway.
Since its launch, police forces across the country have recorded more than 46,000 motoring offences.
The most common offences were not wearing a seatbelt (13,362) and using a mobile phone (11,965).
The HGV is one of three available nationally to police forces, to help authorities crackdown on dangerous driving.
All three vehicles are funded by National Highways and are part of their long-term ambition that no one should be harmed when travelling on, or working on, the strategic road network.
PC Kieran Dempsey, who's been stationed out on roads during Operation Tramline, said: "...Operation Tramline, which is a national operation, is the use of a unmarked HGV tractor unit which is used to spot offences on the strategic road network, mainly the fatal four offences.
So we use the lorry to actually spot people not wearing seatbelts, using mobile telephones or doing other activities in the car that may distract them from their driving.
Once that's identified by the officers in the lorry or in the cab, that's then communicated back to what we call the stopping cars and then they stop the vehicles that are responsible for the offences and deal with the drivers for those offences that have been witnessed."
He added: "...it's always busy, it is always busy and you can look at that in two ways really.
One - it's busy, so we're actually stopping and dealing with these offenders that are doing it, but then it's quite sad that people are still committing these road traffic offences and risking their lives and everybody else's lives doing what they're doing on the road."