IAMRoadSmart: Over a third of police use mobile safety camera vans

More than a third of UK police forces used mobile safety camera vans to prosecute over 8,000 drivers for not wearing seatbelts and around 1,000 with a mobile phone in their hand in, according to IAM RoadSmart’s freedom of Information request in 2016. It was submitted to 44 police forces which revealed that 16 of them used pictures from the cameras in their vans to pursue these offences as a matter of routine while a further four did so occasionally.
February 2, 2018 Read time: 2 mins
More than a third of UK police forces used mobile safety camera vans to prosecute over 8,000 drivers for not wearing seatbelts and around 1,000 with a mobile phone in their hand in, according to IAM RoadSmart’s freedom of Information request in 2016. It was submitted to 44 police forces which revealed that 16 of them used pictures from the cameras in their vans to pursue these offences as a matter of routine while a further four did so occasionally.


IAM RoadSmart’s surveys also showed that drivers place enforcing mobile phone laws in second place behind drink and drug driving as a road traffic policing priority with seatbelt use in sixth place.

While some police forces had reservations about using safety cameras or camera vans to record non-speeding offences, IAM Roadsmart highlighted that questio still need to be resolved around Home Office Type and image quality for successful prosecution.

Sarah Sillars, IAM RoadSmart Chief Executive Officer, said: “Drivers should be reassured that the police are using all the tools in their road safety toolkit to address their top worries. For too many drivers it is only the fear of being caught that will stop them putting themselves and others at risk from smartphone distraction. Not wearing a seatbelt also puts an unfair burden on our emergency services who have to deal with the aftermath of such selfish behaviour. If drivers don’t know about this added enforcement technique then its impact will be reduced so the police should have no hesitation in publicising its use.”

“Our research shows that the use of mobile safety camera vans to pursue phone users and seatbelt offenders varies from one force to another. What we need are clear and consistent guidelines on what the cameras are being used for, what training staff are being given and how the images are being used as evidence. The last thing we want to see are resources being wasted or the road safety message being diluted by careless drivers being acquitted”, Sillars added.

Urban Traffic Control

Related Content

  • Debating contactless toll charging by smartphone
    April 25, 2012
    Developments in the mass transit sector could provide indicators of potential for greater use of mobile consumer electronic devices for charging and tolling, according to Consult Hyperion’s Mike Burden. However, opinion among toll system suppliers is divided. Jason Barnes reports The combination of mass-market devices and their protocols, typified by smartphones featuring near field communication (NFC), points to some exciting cross-fertilisation possibilities in the charging and tolling sector, says Consul
    Read More
  • The future of mobility: designed for life
    August 16, 2019
    The future of mobility…sounds exciting, doesn’t it? But try to define it and you soon find it’s like putting a fence round a cloud. What will it look like? When will we get there? Who decides? And why are we still not wearing jetpacks? Maybe next year. The Royal College of Art in London does not seem like the most obvious place to look for hard-headed thinking on these things. But it has a long heritage in designing beautiful cars – and it is also home to the Intelligent Mobility Design Centre, which is lo
    Read More
  • Driver of cloned car escapes speeding fine thanks to in-car telematics device
    March 10, 2016
    A UK motorist has escaped a fine and points on his licence after anti-motor fraud specialist, Asset Protection Unit (APU), was able to prove his innocence by analysing the vehicle’s telematics data. The driver, from Wembley, London was accused of speeding in Lincoln in November last year even though the vehicle thought to be involved, a BMW 2 Series, was actually still in Wembley. Police issued the fine of £100 and three penalty points when a vehicle was caught by a fixed speed camera in Lincoln trave
    Read More
  • Regulation time-lag will hit driverless technology hard says leading consultancy BDO
    August 8, 2018
    The legislation surrounding driverless cars is lagging so far behind the technology involved that the industry is unlikely to see a regulatory framework in place any time soon says leading international business, finance and taxation consultancy BDO. And IEEE, "the world’s largest technical professional organisation dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity" can only see problems ahead as the politicians fall further and further behind. BDO has been looking at a report from www.Spectr
    Read More

Highlighted Content