Police Spot Checks in Lyneham Village
26th February 2008
Wiltshire Police took the opportunity to carry out a stringent check on many motorists travelling through the village today. The large police presence, included numerous motor cycle police, support cars and patrolling officers stopping vehicles to carry out the checks.

In conjunction with Lyneham's police officers, the Wiltshire Police unit utilised RAF Lyneham's former vehicle exclusion special parking area, located on the airbase boundary, to check for drivers who were using mobile phones while driving, any motor tax dodgers, drivers without safety belts worn properly, unroadworthy vehicles, suspicious cargo, banned drivers and any other offenders.

The road team had number plate identification database links to quickly check the validity of driver details and number plate identification of the vehicles. The patrolling officers were stopping suspicious drivers and any vehicles that caused concern for the Vehicle Safety Officers.

We understand that during the morning session the Wiltshire Police team had caught many drivers either failing to display a valid tax disc, no recorded motor insurance, not recorded as having a valid driving licence, or indeed already disqualified from driving, motorists using mobile phones, heavy goods vehicles that were unsafe and untrustworthy and also the usual speeding motorist. Despite numerous interactive speed warning signs drivers chose to ignore the warnings at their peril.

Earlier in the month we asked the Wiltshire & Swindon Safety Camera Partnership the amount of drivers that have been caught speeding in the village over the last 12 months, we have been advised that since speed enforcement began in Lyneham village, the number of speeding offences detected at the sites was 857.

Wiltshire County Council are currently, as part of a general review of all speed limits in the county, carrying out checks of the signage and lighting in the Lyneham area. In the three year period prior to enforcement being taken up in Lyneham, our records show that there was 1 KSI (Killed or Serious Injury) Collision and 10 Slight Injury Collisions. These, respectively caused 3 killed/KSI injuries and 21 slight injuries. Since camera enforcement commenced in February 2005, there has been 1 KSI Collisions resulting in one serious injury which occurred in August 2005. Source: Wiltshire & Swindon Safety Camera Partnership.

The percentile results from the data recorded are not obtained from the enforcement films but from periodic speed surveys (you will note a set of two rubber tubes laid across some roads). The results of the last test carried out in Lyneham showed that the average speed of vehicles at the enforcement site was a fraction over 31 mph – a marginal increase on the figures shown on the Safety Camera Partnership website – and the 85th percentile (Speed at which 85% of motorists were travelling at or below (mph)) was 36.2 mph – again, a marginal improvement.

The Wiltshire & Swindon Safety Camera Partnership can advise that the latest figures available show that the number of drivers detected exceeding the speed limit has fallen by 30%.