Operation Orbital sees the Essex Police Commercial Vehicle and Road Crime Units patrolling the M25 in unmarked “supercabs” in a bid to keep our roads safe.
Operation Orbital focusses on detecting and deterring driver behaviour that increases the risk to everyone. Poor driver behaviour often contributes to collisions on the M25, which adds time to everyone’s journey and has a cost to the economy.
The week-long operation sees Essex Police and five other forces work with National Highways and the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency from Monday 14 November to patrol the M25 through each of their respective counties.
Essex and the combined Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, and Hertfordshire Commercial Vehicle Unit met together one day during the week of deployments (pictured).
Operation Orbital is also able to combine this operation with the charity Brake and their National Road Safety Week to support their vital work in caring for bereaved families by making the roads of Essex a safer place to use.
Sergeant Jason Dearsley, who leads Essex Police’s CVU, said:
“Every year there are serious collisions on the M25 and our focus throughout this operation is to tackle the factors that contribute to those collisions and to identify high harm crimes committed on our roads that put other road users at risk.
“By collaboratively working to tackle offences such non-wearing of seat belts or being distracted through using a mobile phone, we hope to reduce the number of collisions, something we are supporting through our work with the Safer Essex Road Partnership under Operation Vision Zero.
“It’s our ambition to have no road deaths by 2040 and anything we can do now to help us achieve that can only be a good thing.”
So far this week, CVU officers have used the truck, funded by National Highways, to great effect. The “supercabs” as they are known allow officers the extra vision they need to see into commercial vehicles where the cabs are higher than normal vehicles, as well as lookdown into smaller vehicles where drivers try to hide their behaviour.
“Professional drivers move goods all around the country, and we need them. But the selfish actions of the minority can result in delays or tragedy to families and employers. Most drivers adhere to the rules of the road and the support we receive from Transport Managers is fantastic. By using the truck cab, we can spot infringements of the law as they happen. This week we spotted a driver using cutlery and a plate to eat their meal whilst driving along!”
Operation Orbital also sees our officers carry out vital safety checks on vans and lorries to check they are not overloaded, that they are road-worthy and drivers’ hours will be checked to help keep drivers on the M25 network safe.
