Dozens of drivers have been caught not wearing seatbelts during a police crackdown in Norfolk.

Officers stopped 147 vehicles and detected more than 180 offences after targeting lorry drivers across the county during the week-long Operation Tramline.

Supported by National Highways, the operation took place between March 18 and March 22 and involved officers from the Roads and Armed Policing Team.

A tractor unit was used to provide an "ideal vantage point" for officers to look directly into the cabs of lorry drivers while also dealing with offending drivers in vans or cars.

Designed to spot drivers who were failing to wear their seatbelts and using mobile phones or watching videos, supporting police officers were on hand to pull over any offenders.

 

Sgt Ade Hales, of the joint Roads and Armed Policing Team, said: “The sheer volume of drivers choosing not to wear a seatbelt while they are driving is incredibly worrying, it takes seconds and could save your life.

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“Working with National Highways on operations such as these allows for us to reduce the risk to the road users of Norfolk by removing the threat distracted drivers pose."

A total of 147 vehicles were stopped, including 44 HGVs, 12 LGVs, two public service vehicles, 86 private vehicles and three agricultural vehicles.

The operation detected 181 offences including 62 drivers who were found not wearing a seatbelt and 22 drivers using a mobile phone.

Other offences included insecure loads, driving without due care and speeding. 

Officers issued 126 Traffic Offence Reports, 19 prohibition notices and five drivers were referred to the Traffic Commissioner. 

Lawrence Seager, safety programme manager for National Highways in the East of England, added: “Our goal, through operations like these, is to make our roads safer by encouraging road users to consider their driving behaviour."