Number of driving offences caught on public dashcams in Herefordshire revealed

The number of Herefordshire’s bad drivers being caught by video footage taken by fellow road users has been revealed.

Under the Operation Snap scheme, “we encourage members of the public to use their dashcams to report any poor driving”, according to West Mercia Police senior traffic management advisor Robert Haynes.

Between last July and February, “between 300 and 600 submissions a month” were submitted across the force area, he told councillors last week at a meeting on measures to improve road safety.

A police spokesperson added that within Herefordshire alone, 336 submissions have been made since July under the scheme, of which 242 “have led to some form of positive action, from advice letters, right through to education courses, fines, points and prosecutions”.

The West Mercia Police website suggests such footage could “range from driving dangerously or carelessly to overtaking on solid white lines, using a mobile phone while driving, ignoring traffic lights or dangerous driving around other road users such as horse riders and cyclists”.

Mr Haynes added that its own officers “spend 12 months a year” tackling what it calls the “fatal four” of speeding, namely distraction by mobile phones and other causes, driving under the influence of drink or drugs, and not wearing a seatbelt, while also targeting individual roads based on local intelligence.

“This can be seasonal,” he said. “We get a lot of complaints about motorcycles at this time of year through to September so we target them now.”

The force has also attempted to head off the problem by delivering “VR-led” road safety awareness sessions to 1,566 14–16-year-olds at nine schools and colleges between September and March.

“This lets kids experience what a collision is like,” Mr Haynes said.