Footage aids police crackdown on careless drivers

Footage of more than 700 incidents of careless or dangerous driving has been sent by members of the public to West Midlands Police.

Under Operation Triton, officers said they acted upon 81% of the 734 cases sent in last month, with warning letters, education courses, fines, or court appearances handed out to offenders.

West Midlands Police has increased the size of its team working on road incidents. It has also launched a campaign called Operation Snap, urging the public to submit more video evidence from their fixed dashcams of irresponsible motorists' driving.

In July, the force said it had only been able to act upon four per cent of the 325 cases of which it was made aware.

Tanya Johnson, who leads the team, said: “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, it’ll encourage other dashcam 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.”