Roadside hours blitz nabs foreign drivers
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• by Guy Sheppard One in four drivers stopped in a police crackdown on foreign-registered trucks wore found to have exceeded their permitted driving hours.
Operation Enforcer was launched by Gloucestershire police four days after a truck driver who fell asleep at the wheel was jailed for three years for causing death by dangerous driving {CM 8-14 March).
Police spokesman David Avery says the daylong operation at Strensham Services resulted in 36 offences being detected in the 80 trucks stopped. "It was planned as a one-off, but because of its success I think we will be carrying out similar operations in future," he adds.
He explains that foreign vehicles were targeted because their drivers tend to do longer journeys and are therefore more likely to break the drivers' hours regulations.
Of the 21 drivers found to have exceeded their hours one, with an Irish-registered vehicle, was delayed for 45 hours; two with Dutch and Irish vehicles were delayed for 24 hours; and three were delayed for 11 hours. A further 15 drivers were cautioned for minor breaches, and four vehicles received immediate prohibitions for mechanical defects.
The operation was prompted by a string of accidents on the M5 caused by tired truck drivers. William Lanham, the driver who was jailed, overturned his truck on the M5 onto a passing car. He had failed to take proper rest breaks during a three-day trip to Ireland and back.