North Yorkshire Police is sharing footage of some of the worst driving recorded by the public as the force relaunches a popular road safety initiative today.
Dashcam footage captured by road users and sent to police as part of Operation Spartan has resulted in drivers being convicted of dangerous driving and other serious road offences.
People who have captured clips of poor driving or riding can now visit www.northyorkshire.police.uk/baddriving and flag it up to North Yorkshire Police in just a few clicks using a system developed by in-car technology firm, Nextbase.
They can also easily submit a written description of the offence if they do not have video.
Specially-trained officers will review every report to see if an offence has been captured and whether they can prosecute the offender.
Motorists may then be taken to court, where they could face fines, penalty points, a driving ban or even a prison sentence.
For lesser offences, police may offer them an educational driver awareness course, personal visits or send them a written warning or educational letter about their actions.
North Yorkshire Police has used video supplied by members of the public to successfully prosecute:
- A man who was given a suspended prison sentence for dangerous driving after a shocking high-speed overtake on the A19 in the face of oncoming traffic. He was also banned from driving for 20 months after the footage was used in his court case.
- A man was banned from driving for a year for a dangerous undertake and erratic driving on the A1(M).
- A 4×4 driver who squeezed between two vehicles as they travelled at speed on the A59 was banned from driving for 18 months and made to do unpaid community work after another driver sent dashcam footage to Op Spartan officers. He was convicted of dangerous driving and failing to stop after a collision.
Inspector Jeremy Bartley, who leads Op Spartan, said: “Even very experienced traffic officers sometimes gasp at the dashcam footage we’re sent by members of the public as part of Op Spartan.
“It shows astonishingly bad driving that could have killed or horrifically injured innocent road users.
“We police 6,000 miles of road 365 days of the year but we can’t be everywhere, and Operation Spartan has been a huge hit with the public. So we’ve relaunched it with upgrades to the way dashcam footage can be submitted, improvements to the web page and more. This makes the whole process a lot easier and quicker – people can send us reports of bad driving in just a few clicks.
“We’ve also fine tuned the way our officers can access and process videos and written reports. This means we can review more reported incidents, tackle more driving offences and ultimately make the roads of North Yorkshire safer for everyone.”
The new way to submit dashcam footage developed by Nextbase is police-approved, used by a number of other forces and is extremely secure.
It uses a specially-developed platform called the National Dash Cam Safety Portal, which is hosted by Egress Software Technologies.
Bryn Brooker, Marketing Director of Nextbase, said: “The National Dash Cam Safety Portal (NDCSP) currently gives road users the ability to report serious cases of dangerous driving to Police in 23 areas across the country, with more forces intending to come on board soon.
“A year on from launch, the endorsement of the NDCSP from police partners such as North Yorkshire Police – both in terms of efficiency of processing and the success in prosecuting dangerous driving – is very rewarding.
“Our mission in building the platform was to remove the most dangerous drivers from our roads and it sounds like that is happening, slowly but surely.
“The three million dashcams on UK roads are a powerful tool that can be used to deter road users from putting others at risk, provided the forces have the means to deal with the footage. That’s now the case and we are confident the NDCSP will continue to make our roads safer as more forces adopt the technology.”
To share dashcam footage or written information about bad driving you have experienced, and for more information about Op Spartan, visit www.northyorkshire.police.uk/baddriving
It is important to report the incident within 14 days of it taking place, as this increases our chance of successfully investigating and prosecuting offences.
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