26 people fined for not wearing a seatbelt in Hatfield

THREE vehicles were seized and 26 people fined for not wearing a seatbelt as specialist police teams set up camp in Hatfield this week.

More than 60 vehicles were stopped and checked during an Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) operation run by the Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Road Policing Special Constabulary Team, on Saturday.

Around 1,000 vehicle number plates were scanned on Comet Way, between 10.30am and 3.30pm, which resulted in the three vehicles being seized.

Two were for not having valid insurance and one because the driver was driving other than in accordance with his licence (he only had a provisional licence).

Twenty-six �60 fixed penalty notices were also issued to drivers and passengers being conveyed because they were not wearing seat belts and eight �60 fixed penalty notices were issued to drivers because their number plates did not conform to road traffic legislation

Beds and Herts RPU Specials inspector Kevin Burton, who organised and ran Operation Counter, said: “We run these operations across the county regularly to make sure we catch criminals and help save lives. Rather disappointingly, 26 drivers or their passengers were not wearing seat belts – if they are involved in a road traffic collision, they are far more likely to be seriously injured or even killed.

“The county’s roads are not a safe hiding place for criminals - with the use of ANPR technology, we will catch you.”

The dedicated Special RPU Unit was set up three months ago and Kevin heads up a team of 15 officers.

He added: “Our main job is obviously the reduction of people killed and seriously injured on the county’s roads. And having more eyes on the roads can only be a good thing to improve road safety. My pet hate is people speaking on mobile phones and the job is about educating drivers about the consequences of their actions.”