A close pass operation saw West Midlands Police stop 185 motorists who were potentially putting the safety of other road users at risk.
The action took place between July 29 and August 11 as part of a series of days where routes of concern were highlighted in partnership with West Midlands Fire Service (WMFS) and Transport for West Midlands (TfWM).
Around 30 people were reported for driving offences, ranging from driving without due care and attention to driving without insurance, The Express and Star reports.
Others were educated around the dangers of not keeping at a safe distance – a minimum of 1.5 metres, when travelling past cyclists – by road casualty reduction officers from WMFS.
A few months ago road.cc discussed whether West Midlands Police had ‘lost their way’ when it came to cycling.
> Have West Midlands Police lost their way on cycling?
The latest operations took place at locations that were highlighted by TfWM, including Chester Road in Birmingham; Foleshill Road, Manor Way, in Dudley, Birmingham New Road in Sandwell, Wolverhampton Road West in Walsall and Cannock Road in Wolverhampton.
Sergeant Jon Butler, from the road harm prevention team, said: “We want all of our road users to be safe and feel safe when travelling across our region.
“Operation Close Pass enables us to speak to road users individually and educate them on the dangers of overtaking too close. This includes an interactive input from our fire service colleagues.”
He added: “In the most serious cases, we won’t hesitate to prosecute those who recklessly put lives at risk.
“It is important everyone feels a sense of responsibility in keeping each other safe and preventing collisions.
“I would encourage all road users who see anyone falling below acceptable driving standards to report this, with camera footage, via our online portal.”
> Near Miss of the Day 622: Driver nearly right-hooks cyclist on roundabout
Watch Commander Adrian Spencer, of WMFS’s road casualty reduction team, added: “In helping to deliver the West Midland’s Regional Road Safety Strategy, we’re working to reduce the number of people who are killed or seriously injured on our roads.
“By joining forces with our police colleagues on behalf of TfWM Active Travel Fund, we’ve been spreading the ‘share space’ message among drivers and other road users to help everyone enjoy safer journeys.
“The majority of drivers we’ve spoken to have welcomed our approach, which involves showing them videos, scenario-based demonstrations and simply talking through the issues.
“It’s a great example of how our partnership work is making the West Midlands safer, stronger and healthier.”
15 thoughts on “Police stop nearly 200 motorists during close pass operation”
Now, we need West Midlands
Now, we need West Midlands police to explain how to do this, and the benefits behind it, to those other regional forces who seem to be shirking their responsibilities.
A bit of peer reviewing wouldn’t go amiss, either
Yes indeed – so many of the
Yes indeed – so many of the driving offences are committed by people who have committed other offences, some quite serious too. Cracking down on bad driving typically yields bonuses with regard to tackling crime on a wider level. From a police perspective, doing close pass operations or doing roadside spotchecks for DUI or on vehicle condition will deliver results.
They should have a good idea
They should have a good idea of the problem areas by now. I’ve submitted around 70 incidents to them in a year, and most are in the same few places each day. Driver education seems to be sorely lacking.
I would love to see example
I would love to see example footage of when drivers were ” educated” and when they were prosecuted. It would be useful to know the standards we are working to when we submit footage. I’m in Glucestershire but the standards shouldn’t be any different, should they?
Well done for keeping this up
Well done for keeping this up WMP.
One question though, were you deliberately not noticing mobile phone use?
No mark Hodson mentioned in
No mark Hodson mentioned in the article. He is usually at the forefront of these and used to make a related tweet ‘ video to show what is definitely unacceptable. Instead we have no real details on this
Missing General Details; Chester road for example goes from 30 mph dual carriageway to 50-60 mph single carriageway across the whole WMP region, So where was this one done?
And finally, I’m sure from previous years, WMPRHRT used to do close pass, op park safe, op mobilespotting-from-a-bus, op speed checks (including a 90mph in a 40 whilst the mayor was there) at least several times a month. Now they do it once a year if we are lucky. Nope, they are definitely not as back as they once were.
By the way, a decent chance of a line or four corners in bicycle bingo in the comments. No tax or insurance although Police not chasing real criminals seems to be a new go to.But one person has posted that riders cycling two abreast forces him to go “miles onto the other side of the carriageway”. With that grasp of measurement, I would hate to be be the disappointed sexual partner told about the size of his tackle beforehand. Still I’m sure that length qualifies him for a rather large BMW.
So about 16% of the drivers
So about 16% of the drivers were reported for breaking the law, which seems about right, or maybe it a bit low, but I suppose they weren’t checking everything on the vehicles, just the VED, insurance and MoTs. So much for the law-abiding drivers!
Is anyone else getting annoyingly large adverts on the left of the page, obstructing the text?
Yes! Getting adverts all
Yes! Getting adverts all across the article
Yes – I thought it was just
Yes – I thought it was just me!
The majority of drivers we’ve
The majority of drivers we’ve spoken to have welcomed our approach, which involves showing them videos, scenario-based demonstrations and simply talking through the issues
Ha, bloody ha! “Dear me, Officer, you mean we’re not supposed to go past cyclists at 50 mph 20 cms away? Goodness me- we always do in Lancashire and we’ve never been told that by the police”
I tend to skip over your
I tend to skip over your photos as they are mainly repeats but that one is ridiculous.
Must have brushed your elbow?
are there some semi
are there some semi-apologetic posts on their Twitter feed? Ones that read “some of you criminals have contacted us to say (mustn’t call them that: it’s only driving) you don’t like being caught committing crimes…”
There’s still too much of a
There’s still too much of a disconnect between the vocabulary of motorists and cycling.
Motorists talk about ‘dangerous cyclists making them feel unsafe’ in context where the cyclist actually has no chance whatsoever of causing them harm. What they mean is ‘they will inconvenience me’, possibly ‘they make me have to concentrate and make choices’ or ‘they might scratch my car’.
Conversely, there is really no awareness that from the cyclists perspective, motorists are a very real and constant threat to life. If a cyclist does not constantly react to motorists, they will die. If a motorist does not react to a cyclist, the driver will not.
Out of 200, I wonder how many
Out of 200, I wonder how many people (when stopped) said something along the lines of “What did I do? I gave them plenty of room“…
Where I live we have the 3
Where I live we have the 3 foot law, but the cops here don’t care about it! I was riding my bike the other day and some guy passed me within a foot of me, with a cop right behind him, the cop didn’t do a darn thing. As long as the cops don’t take any action than the 3 foot law is meaningless, all that law does is make cyclists happy that their little law got on the books.