Crackdown on menace drivers

PULL over . . . a driver is ordered to stop during yesterday's police crackdown

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RECKLESS drivers felt the long arm of the law during a roadside blitz which saw dozens of motorists pulled over ­- and one flee across the road.

The crackdown, held at Oldham Fire Station from 10-11am yesterday, is part of a national campaign where forces united to raise awareness of the dangers of using a mobile while driving.

Dozens of vehicles along Lees Road were pulled for using their phone ­- as well as other driving offences.

One driver, in a white tow truck, panicked after being pulled and dodged traffic as he fled across the road with officers in pursuit.

New legislation later this year will see motorists caught using a mobile slapped with six points on their licence and a £200 fine ­- double the current punishment.

The new law could also see new drivers punished by having their licence revoked for a first offence under the New Driver Act.

PC Steve Bretnall, of Greater Manchester Police, believed the operation in Oldham had been a success.

He said: "It seems to have gone quite well. We had a number of people pulled over. I was out in a plain car and did two motorists for insurance offences. It was successful."

Using a mobile phone is viewed as just as bad as drink driving by GMP chiefs and PC Bretnall believed it was the prolificness of mobile phone use that contributed to that comparison.

He added: "The thing about drink driving is it is not as prolific as people using their mobile phone.

"You may stop 10 drivers who are using their mobile phone and one may be drunk, but then they are all using their phone.

"You just have to look at the case of the Polish wagon driver who is now in prison after killing a mother and three children to see the dangers.

"It is about getting it into the heads of drivers and having them in that mindset of not using their phone."

During his time as an officer, PC Bretnall has heard numerous excuses with drivers trying to justify mobile phone use. Others deny they even have a phone, while some thought it was OK to use as a sat nav.

"You get excuses all the time. A common one is saying they are using their phone for satellite navigation but even so they are still using their phone. You hear stories of people holding their phone in front of their face."

But by far the worst excuse was a woman who claimed she had taken a call to hear that her father was dying.

He said: "The worst excuse I have heard was quite cynical. A woman who was stopped said she had a phone call saying her father was going to die in the hospital and she was rushing there. Using discretion we let her go on her way to the hospital.

"But we fell behind her in the traffic by chance and we saw she went to a McDonald's drive-through.

"We stopped her again and she said he had actually been in the hospital for three weeks and was hungry.

"They try and play on your emotions but she got done in the end."