In an enhanced two week enforcement programme codenamed Operation Vision Zero, UK police caught 4,758 traffic offenders in London.
The Operation Vision Zero scheme, implemented jointly by Transport for London (TfL) and the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), aims to ramp up enforcement of existing traffic laws in order to make London’s roads safer and deter future offenders.
The offences recorded in the Operation Vision Zero programme included:
176 arrests for impaired, dangerous or disqualified driving;
507 drivers stopped for mobile phone use;
559 drivers without insurance;
654 cases of speeding;
1394 stopped for mechanical defects; and
519 cycling offences.
Chief Superintendent Colin Wingrove, from the MPS, said: “The Metropolitan Police, in partnership with TfL, is committed to Vision Zero and is taking positive action with those who use London’s roads dangerously, carelessly or illegally, to make the roads safer for all road users, reduce road danger and reduce the number of people killed or seriously injured. Driving a vehicle illegally, dangerously or carelessly is an offence under the Road Traffic Act. Not only are you breaking the law but you are posing an unacceptable risk to yourself and others. The results of this latest two-week enhanced enforcement ‘Operation Vision Zero’ shows that we are prepared to crack down and catch those who break the law of the road.”
The MPS’s Roads and Transport Policing Command, partially funded by TfL, is implementing a three tiered approach to traffic enforcement as part of Operation Vision Zero. The first tier is targeted activity focused on high risk offenders, such as dangerous drivers and repeat offenders. The second tier is intelligence-led activity, where officers pay particular attention to places and timeframes that see the highest rates of high risk driving offences; and the third tier will see an increase in visible police patrols across the capital to increase deterrence of irresponsible driving.
