A new three month road safety campaign which aims to reduce the number of casualties on the county’s roads has been launched.
Last year 42 people were killed and a further 347 seriously injured (KSI) across the county’s road network - the highest number recorded in eight years.
Led by the Safer Roads and Road Crime teams, with support of our partners in the Northamptonshire Safer Roads Alliance (NSRA), the campaign will be a mixture of both education and enforcement.
One of the main aims of Operation Journey is to educate people on all aspects of road safety in a bid to reduce the number of KSIs in Northamptonshire.
Operation Journey will focus on challenging and changing the behaviour of those who put their own safety, or that of other road users at risk, with special emphasis on the fatal four offences.
The Fatal Four - speeding, drink/drug driving, not wearing a seatbelt and using a mobile phone at the wheel - are the motoring offences which are most commonly linked to death or serious injury on the roads.
In addition to this, Operation Journey aims to deny criminals’ access to the more than 3,000 miles of road network across the county by making Northamptonshire a hostile place to commit crime.
Central Operations Superintendent, Adam Ward, who is also the chair of the NSRA, is calling for the public to get behind the campaign to help save lives and improve road safety.
Supt Ward said: “Every person who dies or is seriously injured on our roads is one too many and we must not forget that behind each statistic is a grieving family or someone coming to terms with a life changing injury.
“We understand this and have been working hard with our partners at the Safer Roads Alliance to try to reduce the number of people killed or seriously injured in Northamptonshire.
“To improve road safety, we need to change how our roads are used by challenging the behaviour of those who put themselves and others at risk by using our roads irresponsibly and illegally.
“However, with more than 3,000 miles of road network in this county, we cannot do this on our own, and we need support from the public, to help us improve road safety within our local communities and not just on the major routes.
“We need the public’s help to address road safety concerns in our towns and rural communities, to identify those who are using our roads dangerously or to commit crime, and to help remove uninsured vehicles off our roads.”
The launch of Operation Journey is part of a wider strategy to improve road safety, and links several initiatives, including the £1.3 million investment from Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner Stephen Mold, to add around 100 new cameras to the ANPR network across the county.
The cameras will help to support the Force tackle anti-social driving and identify uninsured vehicles - research shows drivers who have no insurance are more likely to be involved in serious road traffic collisions or other types of criminality.
Supt Ward added: “We want to set up best practice across the Force when it comes to road safety, and to ensure we build on the education and enforcement activities beyond December.
“Operation Journey is more than a three month campaign, it is a commitment by the Force to ensure we not only reduce KSIs this year, but for years to come and to make the roads a safer place for all those that use them.”
To keep up-to-date with all the activity under Operation Journey, follow the Force on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram or visit www.northants.police.uk.