Overloaded vans and illegal vehicles stopped by police

Overloaded vans, untaxed cars, vehicles with illegal tints and unroadworthy vehicles were all stopped by officers as part of two days of action yesterday (Thursday 25 January) and Wednesday 24 January.

Police from our Operational Patrol Unit were joined by officers from our Safer Neighbourhood Teams for the operations at Frankley Services on the M5 in North Worcestershire and Strensham Services on the M5 in South Worcestershire.

Response cars pulled over motorists whose vehicles were checked over for their roadworthiness, weight limits, valid MOT and insurance certificates and displaying number plates incorrectly or having tinted windows.

At Strensham yesterday (Thursday 25 January) officers pulled over six overweight vehicles – the highest being 16.5 per cent over its payload.

Seven vehicles were prohibited for either weight or defects, one driver was given a ticket for being on his mobile phone, three motorists stopped and given £50 tickets for having illegally tinted windows and another for a defective tyre.

At Frankley on Wednesday, officers pulled in a flatbed truck that was half a tonne overweight with palettes that were stacked too high over the bulkhead and loosely secured with harnesses in the wrong position. The driver got a £300 fine.

A low loader carrying a car was stopped and found to be overweight by half a tonne and the cabin had tinted windows. The driver was fined £200 for the weight limit offence and volunteered to remove the tints. The car it was carrying was then taxed before it could be driven away.

A car driver with all the front windows tinted too dark received a £50 fine.

Sergeant David Clark of the Operational Patrol Unit said: “We conducted this operation because as a force we want to ensure that the roads networks are safe and to reduce fatalities from the fatal four – speeding, drink, and drug driving, driving while distracted (such as being on a mobile phone) and the non-wearing of seatbelts.

“We targeted vehicles that were of interest to us, making sure they were in a roadworthy condition and insured for the safety of all road users.

“It was a positive operation – we’ve had weight offences on vehicles, illegally tinted front windows, drivers using mobiles, defective vehicles, and bald tyres.

“It’s worth saying that drivers caught for offences some people may consider to be minor are often a gateway to other ‘bigger’ offences which they might be trying to hide from us so that’s why we stop them.

“Drivers with heavily tinted windows are effectively driving like they have sunglasses on at nighttime which is clearly a huge risk to them and other road users.

“Vehicles that are overweight or poorly loaded will have longer braking distances, poorer handling and weakened suspension which could have consequences for other road users if they had to stop suddenly so stopping them averts another potentially dangerous situation.
“Our advice to road users is to make sure you are insured, and your vehicle is in a roadworthy condition for everyone’s sake. Please also make sure your tyres are properly inflated by checking once a week and make sure you have wash wipe with the correct anti-freeze solution in them at this time of year.”

JI, Corporate Communications