Police try education to tackle road safety sins

Jun 27 2008 by Rebecca Edwards, Chester Chronicle

Police try education to tackle road safety sins

GIVEN the choice of points on your licence or watching a 15-minute video, which penalty would you choose for flouting road laws?

Emergency services teams were out in force in Chester at Sealand Road on Monday and Hoole Road on Tuesday and pulled over 89 drivers speeding, using their mobile phone, eating or not wearing their seatbelt.

Police waived penalties for the days, instead offering drivers a presentation by Chester fire crews about the fatal consequences of driving while distracted.

Sgt Rachel Gallagher of Chester Police said: “This is about changing people’s attitude and raising awareness without penalising them.

“Our plain clothes spotters caught one man driving along with both hands off the steering wheel unwrapping a biscuit. You can’t be in control doing that.

“Sometimes the only way to get through to them is by showing them how they could be hurt or killed by what they are doing, as well as how selfish they are for putting other people at risk.”

On Tuesday officers stopped the Ford Fiesta driven by Adam McInnes of Upton after seeing his friend – who refused to be named – was not wearing his seatbelt.

The five boys in the car, who have just finished their A-levels at Upton High School, watched a reconstruction of a crash in which a belt-less passenger died, killed his three friends and left his girlfriend brain damaged.

Driver Adam said: “Usually we are responsible, we have seen these videos before in school and they do make you think.

“This is a good idea but I don’t think people ever learn until a crash happens to them.”

His friend, who was not wearing his seatbelt, said: “I’ve been in a crash on the A41 before and I know that if I hadn’t been wearing a seatbelt that time I would have been hurt. But we had only just left the shops so I just forgot to put my seatbelt on.”

Delivery drivers Andy Clayton and John Martin were also stopped for not wearing seatbelts. They said: “We were doing multi-drop deliveries so it was a pain to put our seatbelts on between jobs, even though we know it is dangerous.”

Another woman, who had her seatbelt draped over her but not fastened, said: “It was an excellent presentation, a far better way to get people to listen than to fine them.”

Chester Safer Roads Partnership are planning further action days in the city and surrounding rural areas.