Officers ride public buses to catch motorists committing ‘fatal five’ traffic offences

South Wales Police Roads Policing Unit teamed up with First Cymru for Operation Routemaster, which aims to change driver behaviour and keep motorists safe.

Officers were on a bus recording passing motorists to try and catch those who were committing ‘fatal five’ traffic offences, which include using their mobile phone, not wearing a seatbelt, driving carelessly, speeding or drink/drug driving.

Starting their partnership with First Cymru on 11 September, South Wales Police, in just one day, found 26 motorists committing one of the fatal five. This resulted in them being stopped by roads police officers in marked police vehicles, who gave advice, traffic offence reports, Report for Summons, fixed penalties, PG6 Prohibitions and vehicle seized for no insurance.

Police Constable Nick Thomas, from the Road Safety and Commercial Vehicle Unit who led on the operation, said:

“Motorists are four times more likely to crash if they use their phone behind the wheel and South Wales Police are committed to targeting dangerous driving behaviours to keep our roads as safe as possible.

“Operation Routemaster is a new initiative where we have police officers gathering evidence of fatal five offences. Working with First Cymru bus company who share our passion for road safety, we had a successful day engaging with and educating drivers around the city of Swansea. With a successful trial of the operation, we intend to roll out the operation to other areas across the force.”

Think you’ve filmed a road traffic offence in action? #OpSnap, hosted by South Wales Police’s partner agency Go Safe, enables you to report traffic offence concerns and easily submit footage.

Find out more about the process: https://gosafe.org/faq/operation-snap/