Officers from the mainland-based Roads Policing Unit joined Isle of Wight colleagues this week for a 2-day enforcement operation on the Island’s Roads, with 78 tickets issued.
Operation Wightwash has been stood up in recent years to bolster efforts in intercepting drivers committing offences on Isle of Wight roads, and is run at regular intervals throughout the year.
This week, on Wednesday and Thursday, Wightwash commenced once again and saw a number of motorists stopped and ticketed for a range of offences as unmarked and marked Police vehicles travelled across the Solent for the operation.
Across the 2 days, a total of 78 tickets were given out after officers observed people driving without seatbelts, contravening red lights, driving without a licence, not being in proper control of their vehicle, driving without due care and attention and driving with tinted windows or visors.
Other offences observed and enforced included driving with insecure loads, altered exhausts and vehicles driving either without a number plate at all, or with number plates that did not conform to legal requirements.
Drivers were also unfortunately observed using their mobile phones behind the wheel, with 15 tickets handed out for this specifically.
Operation Wightwash has this month coincided with a national campaign aimed at raising awareness of the dangers of using your phone behind the wheel.
Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary and Thames Valley Police’s Joint Operations Roads Policing Unit has been supporting this campaign, which began on 2th7 February and runs until 12th March.
Chief Inspector Alex Charge said:
“It’s clear that there are public concerns around road safety and driving standards on the Isle of Wight. We want residents to be reassured that we are listening, we are actively tracking which areas are most affected, and we are working with partners to address matters on the road network.
“The work to tackle poor driving standards continues, with the combined efforts of the dedicated RPU, the dual skilled RP/ARV team, as well as Neighbourhoods teams and Response & Patrol teams who are collectively working together to address any issues as a priority under Operation Mile”.
Nice to see the Police do a good job, well done chaps!
Great work, need now to hitlhand held phone users hard, and the red light jumpers. Also numerous illegal number plates and endless trailers on vehicles with different number plates to trailer. People do not care , and need to be brought into line.
Also their insurance can be invalidated , if they have any.
Yawn! Yawn!
Now maybe they’ll get the pay rise they deserve.
Just go down union road in ryde yelfs carpark theres 3 cars without MOT & Tax any officers going to sort that out?
Well done Police, too many flout the law, unmarked cars, and HIDDEN cameras would if on commission increase your wages ten fold.
I help slow cars by careful parking but still some speed along Great Preston rd
Too many drivers flash oncoming cars, so only a tiny percentage of those speeding get caught and likely most only doing five to ten over the limit.
Shame the Police do not act and STOP vehicles blocking
Public Highways by allowing vehicles to park on pavements.
Regent Street Shanklin and outside the old council houses
along Great Preston Road, Ryde are 2 locations that need tackling.
Public Highways should be free for pedestrians.
The Island needs Sadiq Khan running the show,
he would have a field day.
Think of all the money he would raise towing vehicles away who
Park on Pavements.
What about the vehicles on union road in ryde untaxed and without MOT in yelfs carpark?
The vast majority of residents on the island welcome these operations. They have been a long time coming!
I would love to read a post informing us of more unmarked cars patrolling the island roads and also, Police bikes. Riders of all motorcycles, whatever the size of engine, don’t think the speed limits apply to them. They need a wake up call too!
Good job, now What about the other 350 days?
Well done, and that’s just the ones they caught.
Feel free to pop down Atherley Park Way Shanklin. The male idiot at 17 just nearly hit my wife’s car flying out of his drive
Well done the plod, next you could catch some real criminals instead of wasting resources on petty ticket offences
When speeding car kills it doesn’t matter if it was driven by real criminal or real stupid.
Plenty of cars and small motorbikes with ‘ Altered Exhaust ‘ just sit down Ryde Esplanade and listen to them, can hear them coming and going from a long way away… also some idiot, that likes to make their tyres spin , almost losing control as going down Well Street yesterday… i was just waiting to hear the bang !!!
What about all those drivers using their vehicles without proper lights (side lights / only one headlight working/ no lights at all) in murky conditions or fail to indicate? All of this is definitely more dangerous than the admittedly very annoying noisy exhausts and the altered number plates.
I would like to see people who don’t indicate punished also those who are continuously looking back at the kids instead of concentrating on the rd
Great work.
Regularly see cars going through red lights on West Street in Ryde to the point we thought the lights were out of phase.
Regular speeding along Upton Road in Ryde, illegal exhaust cars wake you up going up, speeding early evening and at night
Unfortunately we see repeat offences of people driving without tax, MOT and insurance etc, visual tax disc used to be helpful
Must agree on the visual tax disc, why they every scrapped that I have no idea – another mistake by the ruling government of the time.