A day of action to promote road safety in Thanet has led to the arrests of two people and four vehicles being seized.
In total, 46 vehicles were stopped during the initiative on Friday (October 16), which took place in Canterbury Road and Marine Terrace in Margate and the London Road area in Ramsgate.
Officers from the Thanet Community Policing Team, the Road Safety Team and the Rural Task Force took part in the operation.
A 33-year-old man from Margate was arrested on suspicion of drug driving. A 37-year-old man from Birchington was arrested on suspicion of drug driving and driving without insurance. They were both released pending further investigation.
Speed checks were carried out with 13 drivers spoken to. Three owners were reported to the DVLA for not having road tax. Thirteen people were reported for various traffic offences, including no MOT, not wearing a seatbelt, having incorrectly tinted glass on the vehicles, defective tyres and not being in proper control when driving. They will now face further action, including fines and court appearances.
Inspector Sean Scarsbrook, of Thanet Community Safety Unit, said: “During this operation we chose to patrol roads where concerns about bad driving have been reported to us by residents and we focused on key offences which have been shown to increase the risk of having a serious collision.
“While many of the people we stopped were driving responsibly and without issue, we did identify those who fell short of the law and four vehicles were seized when they were found to be uninsured.
“During Autumn, motorists will have to contend with less daylight hours and poorer weather conditions, so it is imperative that people ensure their vehicles are roadworthy and legally sound and they adhere to the speed limit. Take time to check lights, tyres and ensure your documents are up to date. There is a responsibility on every road user to play their part to keep roads in Thanet safe.”
Those individuals who drive without Insurance, a licence or MOT, who drug drive care not one jot for the safety and wellbeing of others. People like that deserve our contempt.
Yet I know of a vehicle imported over 7 yes ago, still driving on foreign plates, bald tyres, rusted out sills, peppered with rust holes through out, in places you can look through and see daylight, yet it’s still on the road – it’s a death trap and worse still, used to take children to and from school
. . . and how many times in the last seven years have you reported this to the police or DVLA ?
That’s a quarter of the drivers the Police stopped, that is worse than Russia, on average.
Goes to show, the Police have a lot more work to do around Thanet, before our roads are cleared of rubbish vehicles and trash can drivers!
A quarter of Thanet vehicles! Unbelievable.
They’d have field day if they did this in the hours of darkness the number of cars with defective lights would keep them very busy.
Tip of the iceberg.
More of the same needed ASAP . Ramsgate is flush with drug drivers, uninsured, untaxed vehicles and habitual speeders. It’s a pity we are celebrating an event that used to be pretty much an everyday occurrence.
The people who are driving illegally, speeding and drug driving have been empowered to do so because of a complete lack of a police presence on our roads and minimal enforcement of our laws.
Money, or lack of it!!
Great news, Hope the police do a speed check on Newington Road Ramsgate .The best place is between the windmil pub and Chichester road . Any time is good but the best is between 6 and 8 AM.
I used to be a driver but gave up due to the expence of running a car.
At a quess cars doing 50 /60 MPH .
With this level of criminal driving, is the obsession amongst some with 20mph zones not perhaps the wrong solution to the problems onmour roads? None of those mentioned in the article are going to care one jot about another restriction.
Well said. Unfortunately the 20 is plenty brigade do not listen to reason.
The people who are a danger to other road users and pedestrians will still drive down the road at 40 plus mph regardless of a 20 or 30mph speed limit, they simply don’t care.
What’s worrying is the amount of Drug Driving ! And not drunk driving ! Too many stoned people in Thanet .
How many got nicked for illegal numbers plates ? Lots of people in thanet move their letters and numbers to make their name or a word, easier nick , plus alot are now being tainted to make them harder to read.
Illegal number plates lol. Is this Motor Insurace data base (MID) or the mot check online a good idea?
The removal of the tax disk.
In my days of driving 70s was easy , Tax in post sticker on window , Insurance was just take one out and cancel but lost the pololicy .
With the internet now one just looks on an auction site (any) cop the reg , check it out , get a set of plates made up and one has a fully legal vehile on the road.
Pleased I dont drive anymore in me 70s now.
BA54 ROD …But you see nothing wrong in moving the letters or numbers which is a £1000 fine ? So you are happy with BA54 ROD being changed to say
BA5 4 ROD ? might be easier to remember buts the spacing is wrong so illegal !