Five arrested for traffic offences as part of young driver awareness campaign – Op Spotlight

Five people have been arrested in Derbyshire as part of a national campaign focusing on young motorists and the ‘fatal four’ – factors which are most often linked to serious injury or death on our roads.

Derbyshire’s Road Policing team took to the county’s roads between 23rd September and 6th October to detect and educate younger motorists around the biggest risk factors leading to serious collisions, which include:

• Speeding or inappropriate speed
• Distractions, such as mobile phone
• Driving under the influence of drink or drugs
• Not wearing a seatbelt

Last year, across Derbyshire, 34 people lost their lives in collisions and 473 people suffered serious injuries -- a quarter of these involved drivers between the age of 17-25.

During the campaign, officers detected 75 traffic offences amongst young motorists: with 41 of these being directly attributable to fatal four offences.

There were 15 cases involving mobile phones, 11 where seatbelts were not worn, 10 where motorists were speeding, and five where drivers were impaired through use of drink or drugs.

Two people aged 22 and 25 were arrested on suspicion of drug driving, three people aged 19,23, and 24 were arrested for drink driving – with the 23-year-old also being arrested for driving without a licence and insurance and aggravated vehicle taking.

Sergeant Scott Riley, from the Derbyshire Police Road Policing team said: “We know that younger drivers are often more vulnerable when it comes to the ‘fatal four’ and by taking part in Operation Spotlight, we have been able to highlight these risks, take action against those breaking the law, and hopefully prevent more young people becoming a statistic.

“It’s very easy to assume that the worst won’t happen to us – and it may well be that people have driven while distracted, impaired, or sped in the past and nothing bad has happened -- but as our statistics show this is a very dangerous game of Russian Roulette.

“By highlighting the traffic offences detected as part of this operation we hope that it will encourage motorists to think twice about their fitness to drive before getting behind the wheel.

“This time it might be a fine, or an arrest, next time it could be a life.”