West Yorkshire Police recently marked a successful 12 months of enforcement activity for Operation Steerside during the pandemic
In 2016, Operation Steerside was launched, specifically to tackle dangerous and anti-social driving in Bradford and then evolved in 2018 into a multi-agency partnership and continue to work to proactively tackle illegal use of the roads.
Since the beginning of the Coronavirus pandemic, there has been a significant increase in reports of anti-social use of motor vehicles in the Bradford District.
In response to this, the Operation Steerside team has worked tirelessly through the pandemic, seven days a week, using innovative tactics to tackle anti-social and dangerous driving on the District’s road network. Since March 2020, the Operation Steerside Team has made 76 arrests, issued 242 (Section 59) warning to drivers, issued 1,115 fixed penalty notices, and seized 327 vehicles.
As well as enforcement activity, the partnership work closely with schools and youth groups and deliver educational initiatives. This work was impacted by the Coronavirus pandemic and the closure of schools, but we are currently working with schools to establish how this can be resumed utilizing technological solutions.
TTC Group was awarded a road safety contract with West Yorkshire Police in 2018 for the delivery of National Driver Offender Retraining Scheme (NDORS) courses and continues to work in partnership with the Force to offer innovative, behaviour changing road safety training. West Yorkshire Police have become the latest Force to adopt the award-winning Young Driver programme (FirstCar Award 2017), which was first developed for Avon & Somerset Police as part of their Road Smart campaign. Young Driver workshops have also been adopted by regional schemes and campaigns, such as the South Yorkshire Road Safety Partnership.
TTC will deliver Young Driver Workshops in collaboration with Bradford Council’s Road Safety Team, recognising that younger, inexperienced drivers were overrepresented within their regional casualty statistics.
Glen Suttenwood, Consultant Regional Manager for TTC Group has been working with West Yorkshire Police and Bradford Council to introduce Young Driver workshops, commented: “Working with young drivers is a crucial element in addressing dangerous and anti-social driving within any community.
“Research shows that the combination of youth and inexperience puts younger drivers at high risk. Their inexperience means they have less ability to spot hazards, and their youth means they are particularly likely to take risks. The mix of overconfidence & inexperience means that young drivers are overrepresented in collision statistics.”
Glen concluded: “Young drivers are more likely to take serious risk particularly around what are commonly referred to as the ‘Fatal Four’, which include speeding, driving while impaired through drink/drugs/fatigue, distractions – such as mobile phones, and not wearing of seatbelts.
“TTC’s Young Driver workshops are designed to address the ‘Fatal Four’, aiming to enhance knowledge of key collision causation factors, helping young people to avoiding being involved in similar incidents themselves through greater understanding and more informed decision making.”
