Operation Wightwash has been in full swing this week on the Isle of Wight, with mainland-based Roads Policing Unit (RPU) officers joining forces with the Island’s RPU and dual skilled armed response/roads policing team (RP/ARV) to target offenders behind the wheel.
Wightwash is a two-day intensified period of enforcement action to tackle poor driving standards and drug/drink drivers who put our road users at serious risk of coming to harm.
Increasing results from the teams
The op has been stood up in recent years to bolster our efforts in intercepting drivers committing offences on Isle of Wight roads, and is run at regular intervals throughout the year. Over three years we have seen increasing results from the teams, and this operation will continue to be a regular occurrence.
This month, the teams came together over the course of Wednesday 19th April and Thursday 20th April.
Across these two days, officers identified 179 road-related offences. Six of these resulted in drivers being arrested on suspicion of drug driving. A further 12 motorists had their vehicles seized for lack of insurance and tax.
161 fixed penalty notices
161 drivers were given a fixed penalty notice or reported for offences including speeding, driving without a seatbelt, using a mobile phone behind the wheel, driving without due care and attention, driving without a licence, driving with insecure loads, driving with tinted windows or visors, and driving with number plates that did not conform to legal requirements.
The teams were encouraged to see that vehicles that had been stopped in the past for number plate issues were observed with legal plates, and lots of flatbed vehicles with netting to secure their loads, which suggests that previous work, education and engagement with drivers is having the desired effect.
Road safety issues a concern to residents
Road safety issues are regularly brought to our attention and are clearly of concern to Island residents. We want you to be reassured that we listen to these concerns, and regularly conduct enforcement action to target the minority of drivers whose standards fall far below what is legally expected of them.
Our activity has a particular focus on stopping drivers who display the ‘fatal four’ behaviours – these are the four poor driving habits that pose the greatest risk of leading to a serious or fatal collision, and include drink/drug driving, driving without a seatbelt, speeding, and mobile phone use whilst driving.
Charge: Our teams are all pulling together to make this possible
Chief Inspector Alex Charge said,
“We want road users to be safe, and to feel safe behind the wheel. We know the public are concerned about driving standards so we are doing all we can to target offenders, actively track which areas are most affected, and work with partners to address matters on the road network.
“Our teams are all pulling together to make this possible. We are fortunate to have the combined efforts of the dedicated RPU, the dual skilled RP/ARV team, as well as Neighbourhoods teams and Response and Patrol teams collectively working together to address these issues more broadly and as a priority under Operation Mile.
“We continue to encourage members of the public to report driving offences, and concerns around driving standards, to police so we can identify any hotspots and take action to keep road users safer.”
Make a report
To make a report to police, call 101, or submit information via the report tool on the Hampshire Constabulary website. Always dial 999 in the event of an emergency.
If you have video footage of a road incident that you would like to submit to us, you can do this using the Hants Snap tool on our Website.
News shared by Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary, in their own words. Ed
