Hundreds of vehicles have been stopped by police as part of a road policing operation carried out on the M90/A90 between Edinburgh and Fraserburgh in Aberdeenshire.
The operation, involving multiple divisions of Police Scotland, along with the Scottish Camera Safety Partnership, was run from Friday, 28 October, to Monday, 31 October, 2016.
Officers patrolled the 176 mile stretch of road, attending a number of minor collisions and carrying out static checks at key locations, supported by the safety camera units.
Nearly 850 vehicles were either stopped by road policing officers or detected speeding by the safety camera unit.
Despite repeated messages regarding inappropriate speed being a factor in collisions, over 350 vehicles were found to be speeding. A total of 28 drivers were stopped for careless driving, 9 drivers were not wearing their seatbelts and 16 were using mobile phones while driving.
In addition 23 vehicles were found to have no insurance with 12 being seized immediately. Most of the drivers with no insurance were issued with fixed penalties of 6 points on their licence and a £300 fine with the others being reported to the Procurator Fiscal.
In addition over 150 minor road traffic offences were detected, with 4 vehicles being prohibited from continuing their journeys. The vast majority of these were vehicle defects such as lighting, tyre and other construction and use offences.
Officers carried out a number of searches of vehicles, recovering small quantities of drugs as well as seizing over £14,000 under the proceeds of crime legislation.
North East based Road Policing Sergeant Steve Manson, who led the operation, said: “We carried out a very similar operation at the start of this year and received positive feedback. These dedicated patrols are intended to reduce road casualties by influencing driver and road user behaviour, as well as detecting and deterring criminality on our roads. Road users will have noticed the increased presence on the road over the weekend and it will hopefully have made them think more about how they drive.
“The A90, particularly north of Dundee, has a poor collision history with numerous fatal collisions. In the vast majority of these collisions, inappropriate speed or inattentiveness by drivers is a contributory factor.
“The figures demonstrate why we run these operations and why the road has a poor history of collisions. Many of the drivers stopped were issued with fixed penalties of 3 points on their licence and a £100 fine with the more serious offences being reported to the Procurator Fiscal.
“Road policing officers and units will continue to work together carrying out similar operations to target specific areas or routes.”
John graduated from Telford College in 2010 with an HNC in Practical Journalism and since then he worked for the North Edinburgh News, The Southern Reporter, the Irish News Review and The Edinburgh Reporter. In addition he has been published in the Edinburgh Evening News and the Hibernian FC Programme.
