Police target vehicles in road safety bid

Sep 10 2008 by Robert Mitchell, Wishaw Press

TRAFFIC police and environmental agencies embarked on a day-long vehicle inspection initiative in a bid to make the roads around Wishaw and Motherwell that bit safer.

Police officers from Motherwell’s Road Policing unit, assisted by local cops, were joined by a raft of other agencies for Operation Mermaid last Thursday.

Now in its fifth year, the Strathclyde Police initiative sees officers working in conjunction with representatives from the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency, the Vehicle Operation Safety Agency, North Lanarkshire Council’s environmental protection services, HM Customs and Excise and trading standards.

And during this year’s operation, teams of inspectors carried out rigorous checks on heavy good vehicles, flat bed trucks, vans and even the odd car.

Around 100 vehicles were checked for things such as emission levels, road worthiness and whether they were carrying the correct load or illegal goods.

Some were checked to find if they were using the correct fuel and not agricultural red diesel.

During the highly successful operation, officers caught a number of drivers without insurance and found a handful of HGV drivers did not have up-to-date tachograph records showing their hours behind the wheel.

While checks were being carried out, officers also recovered stolen goods from a vehicle and one driver was detained after a warrant had been issued.