Essex: Police collect almost £3,000 in fines in road safety inspection (From Maldon and Burnham Standard)

Essex: Police collect almost £3,000 in fines in road safety inspection

2:47pm Wednesday 5th September 2012 in News By Emma Robinson

Police stopped and checked more than 40 vans and HGVs during a road safety operation.

A total of £2,830 was collected in fines for the various offences detected yesterday in and around Boreham.

Officers stopped vehicles on the A12 and nearby roads and escorted them to the Boreham services area where drivers' loads and documents were checked.

Officers from the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) were also making enquiries into false benefit claims.

They will be making enquiries about a number of drivers they stopped and interviewed.

Seven vehicles were found to be overweight, including a van carrying fruit and vegetables that was 30 per cent overloaded.

A total of 57 driver hours offences were detected and resulted in nine fixed penalties.

A Hungarian lorry driver was forced to spend nearly two days in Boreham and Chelmsford after police found that he had driven across Europe for nine days without taking an adequate break.

Police checks on the vehicle’s tachograph showed that the driver had failed to take a  compulsory two-day break during his journey.

The vehicle was then clamped by officers and the driver fined £400.

He was ordered to take a 45-hour break to comply with strict European-wide working regulations that were introduced to reduce the risk of drivers falling asleep at the wheel.

The checks were carried out under Operation Mermaid, the national campaign to rid the roads of unsafe or dangerously-driven commercial vehicles.