Hundreds more bad drivers caught by the public’s video footage following Transport for West Midlands appeal

Hundreds more careless and dangerous motorists have been caught by footage sent to the police by the public as part of a crackdown to make the region’s roads safer.

Operation Triton was launched in August in a coordinated response by Transport for West Midlands (TfWM), West Midlands Police (WMP), Birmingham City Council, and the region’s Police and Crime Commissioner to a spate of fatal and serious injury incidents.

The crackdown included an appeal spearheaded by TfWM, which is part of the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA), for the public to submit video and other evidence of dangerous driving to police.

Of the 734 cases that people submitted last month (October), just over 80% resulted in drivers either receiving warning letters, education courses, fines, or court appearances.

See the latest compilation of the public’s clips showing bad driving

In the cases where police could not act, most were due to insufficient evidence, related to incidents that took place outside the West Midlands or showed crimes or collisions that needed further investigation.

In July, police were only able to act in 4% of the 325 cases submitted. But, thanks to an increase in the size of the team and the campaign to encourage more people to submit clips, there has been a substantial increase in the number of videos sent in with police acting in far more cases.

The latest figures have been released ahead of Road Safety Week (19–25 November) which will see a crackdown focussed on uninsured motorists, who cause more collisions and are often linked to crimes such as hit and runs and drug offences.

Andy Street, Mayor of the West Midlands and WMCA chair, said: “It is very encouraging to see communities working to make their roads safer and tackling the scourge of dangerous driving. The dashcam footage highlights the scale of the issue and shows why this is about both educating people to drive more responsibly and taking action against those who refuse to obey the rules of the road.

“I’m grateful to all regional partners who got around the table earlier in the year to produce an action plan for improving road safety. To succeed in tackling this, we need to use all the levers available, including enforcement and education as well as better design of our roads and transport networks, such safe cycle routes and pedestrian crossings, and improved public transport.”

The Mayor’s Cycling & Walking Commissioner, Adam Tranter, joined officers ahead of road safety week on one of their operations focused on the Belgrave Middleway in Birmingham city centre, a collision hot spot which, in May 2023, saw husband-to-be Hussein Nur Teklise, aged 45, killed in a hit-and-run when cycling

The Commissioner is encouraging members of the public to join the hundreds already taking action and submit dash and helmet cam footage to the police.

He said: “Working in partnership we can make sure everyone who uses our roads and pavements feels safe. It won’t be easy, and the scale of the challenge is huge, but I’m very grateful to partners including the police for the improvements they’ve made to their third-party reporting service and new roads policing teams.”

Tanya Johnson, who leads the police team, added: “We’ve seen a massive increase in the amount of submissions, and we’ve been working really hard to deal with drivers in the most appropriate way.

“We hope that by sharing some of the footage that’s been sent in today, it’ll encourage other dashcam and helmet cam users to send in their own images, and to make people think twice before they run a red light, use their phone while driving, or put lives at risk by other dangerous or careless driving.”

A new Regional Road Safety Strategy was adopted earlier this year which sets out how a wide-ranging group of partners, including local authorities and police, will work together towards Vision Zero – the target of no fatalities or serious injuries on our roads.

Following that, Transport for West Midlands (TfWM) will be working with partners and local residents to draw up a road safety action plan to set out exactly what steps, both in terms of better enforcement and better design, will be taken to improve safety.

The travelling public are being invited to share their views on how we can make journeys across the region safer at a series of drop in events across the region or online. These views will be used to help produce an evidence-backed list of possible actions, which will be sharing with the public in the new year.

Send footage of bad driving via the West Midlands Police website.