Two road safety operations launched to protect Derbyshire's road users

Speeding is one of the biggest contributors to fatal road collisions, with someone injured on UK roads every four minutes. Last year, uninsured and hit-and-run drivers also caused over 26,000 injuries.

In Derbyshire this year, CREST cameras have detected 44,677 speeding offences, which is a 27% increase on this time the previous year, and our Roads Policing Unit (RPU) and local policing sections have witnessed a further 949 drivers speeding on our roads and detected 453 uninsured drivers - putting our county's road users at risk.

Road Safety Week is the UK's biggest road safety event, coordinated annually by the charity Brake and supported by the Department for Transport, NPCC and forces across the country.

Between 15-21 November 2021, two national campaigns will be taking place with the focus being on dedicated activity to tackle speeding offences and also deal with uninsured drivers on our roads.

Recently, over our Facebook and Twitter channels, we asked you to report areas of concern in Derbyshire where speeding offences have impacted upon your local community. After receiving over 1000 comments, our Casualty Reduction Officer has analysed these findings, and as a result, 50 hot-spot speeding locations have been identified for our officers to attend over November - 16 of which, have already been visited by our Roads Policing Unit. Further sites are currently being assessed and RPU will deployed to these areas over the coming months.

Throughout this week, our Roads Policing Unit, Casualty Reduction Enforcement Support Team and the local Safer Neighbourhood Team will be out at these targeted areas, along with routes with high-harm statistics, undertaking positive action with offending road users, to help educate those that choose to flout the law and increase road safety – with the overall aim in reducing the amount of killed and seriously injured on the road networks within Derbyshire.

Our officers will also be carrying out enhanced enforcement activity to crackdown on dangerous uninsured drivers as part of the Motor Insurers’ Bureau (MIB) #OpDriveInsured campaign. The force will be accessing the Motor Insurance Database (MID), a central record of all live motor insurance policies, to quickly detect if a driver appears to be uninsured at the roadside, along with targeting those with Tutelage markers - who have failed to insure their vehicles since receiving an advisory letter from us.  

Drivers found without insurance can have their vehicle seized and potentially crushed, along with a £300 fixed penalty notice and six points on their licence. Individuals can also face court and receive a further fine and a driving ban.

If a member of the pubic would like to check that their vehicle is showing as insured on the MID, please visit: www.askMID.com.

Sergeant Scott Riley, Derbyshire Constabulary’s operational RPU lead, said: “Each day, road collisions cause devastation to victims, families and communities across Derbyshire. Often, each crash could have easily been avoided if adhering to the rules of the road - speed limits are in place for a reason and there's never an excuse for lack of correct documentation whilst in a vehicle.

"These operations help us to safeguard the residents of Derbyshire and enhances our chance to enforce and educate offending drivers, who are causing harm to our communities and placing lives at risk.

"I'd like to take this opportunity to thank those who engaged with our recent post, letting us know where speeding offences are taking place in your local communities - you've played your part in helping us to keep our roads that bit safer and we'll do all we can to tackle these offences.

"You can keep up-to-date with this enforcement activity via RPU's Twitter page and see if it's one of the areas that you have reported to us."