Record number of illegal driving videos sent to police

A record number of videos featuring illegal driving were sent to a police force in August, figures show.

Devon and Cornwall Police received 747 submissions from the public, through road safety initiative Operation Snap.

The operation is designed to identify dangerous and unlawful driving through video footage submitted to it.

As a result, 246 notices of intended prosecution and 172 police warnings have been issued to offenders.

Road safety initiative Vision Zero is a shared commitment between a number of organisations across Devon and Cornwall

A third (244) of August's submissions were from cyclists, with 147 of those being subject to action by police.

Vision Zero South West (VZSW), the road safety partnership covering Devon and Cornwall, has released a selection of video clips to highlight the variety of offences Operation Snap collated.

Footage comes from numerous sources, including dashcams, helmet cameras, mobile phones and even footage from doorbells.

The videos feature dangerous overtaking manoeuvres, near misses, a driver jumping a red light and one motorist swerving across two lanes on the A38 near Plymouth - an offence captured on an iPad by a rear seat passenger.

'Clearly worrying'

Adrian Leisk, head of road safety for the force and chair of VZSW's enforcement group, said: "It has been a very busy summer for Op Snap, with the number of submissions hitting record levels and consistently increasing over the past three months.

"While it is clearly worrying that so many instances of dangerous driving are being witnessed on our roads, it's encouraging that members of the public are coming on board with this campaign and submitting footage of poor driving.

"We are so grateful for the public's support in addressing a real issue of concern.

"We have 13,670 miles of road network and cannot be everywhere, but you are."

In 2022, 48 people were killed and 738 were seriously injured on roads in Devon and Cornwall, according to Vision Zero South West

Mr Leisk said since the operation began the force had taken action against 8,586 drivers.

He added: "These drivers would have escaped prosecution without this partnership with responsible road users. We want drivers to think twice before making that risky decision.

"More people are using dashcams and helmet cameras than ever before and as the profile of Op Snap continues to increase, it's increasingly likely that poor drivers will be caught on camera.

"But it's not getting caught that drivers should be worried about - many of the instances we see could have easily escalated into collisions causing serious and potentially even fatal injuries."

Mr Leisk said the partnership aims to halve all serious and fatal injuries on the roads by 2030.