Biker with L plates caught casually using mobile phone on motorway
A biker with L plates has been caught casually scrolling through his mobile phone on a motorway by West Midlands Police. The biker even appears to have a phone cable attached in an effort to charge the device.
The force has revealed that hundreds of dangerous and careless drivers have been caught out thanks to footage members of the public have sent to officers at West Midlands Police[1]. In this case, the biker was handed a fine and points were put on his licence.
But he is far from the only one. Other footage released by WMP captures a driver mounting a pavement and driving just inches away from pedestrians in a ridiculous bid to beat the traffic.
That motorist now has three points on their licence, and were issued a £100 fine, report our colleagues at Birmingham Live[3]. A police operation has been playing a key role in tackling more of these cases in our area.
The force says that it has secured a 'positive outcome' in 81 per cent of the 734 cases sent their way during Operation Triton in October. Those caught out were in different cases slapped with fines, forced to attend court, sent warning letters or dispatched to educational courses.
Things are getting better. Back in July, officers were only able to act in four per cent of the 325 cases they were alerted to. Now an increase in the size of the team and a campaign to ask more people to send in clips means more work is being done to punish bad drivers - and more public videos are being sent in.
Taking to X, formerly Twitter[4], West Midlands Police posted: "Hundreds more careless and dangerous motorists have been caught by footage you’ve sent to us as part of our efforts to make the region’s roads safer. We had positive outcomes in 81 percent of the 734 cases people sent in last month. Take a look, and send your footage."
Tanya Johnson, who leads the op team, added: “We’ve seen a massive increase in the amount of submissions, and we’ve been working really hard to deal with drivers in the most appropriate way.
“We hope that by sharing some of the footage that’s been sent in today, it’ll encourage other dashcam and helmet cam users to send in their own images, and to make people think twice before they run a red light, use their phone while driving, or put lives at risk by other dangerous or careless driving.” You can send footage to police here[5].
For all the latest Coventry news sign up to our daily newsletter here.[6]
References
- ^ West Midlands Police (www.coventrytelegraph.net)
- ^ Woman suffers life-changing injuries in 'serious' M&S car park incident (www.coventrytelegraph.net)
- ^ Birmingham Live (www.birminghammail.co.uk)
- ^ Twitter (www.coventrytelegraph.net)
- ^ here (ow.ly)
- ^ here. (data.reachplc.com)