Police release footage of 'worst driving' in Yorkshire

A Yorkshire police force has released footage of some of the worst driving recorded by the public in a bid to get more people to report motoring offences to its new 'bad driving' group.

North Yorkshire Police has shared the shocking footage as part of the launch of its road safety campaign Operation Spartan.

Dashcam footage captured by road users and sent to the force has resulted in drivers being convicted of dangerous driving and other serious road offences.

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The footage, shared with the Yorkshire Post, shows a driver overtaking a vehicle at a shockingly high speed in the face of oncoming traffic on the A19. This particular driver was given a suspended prison sentence and banned from getting behind the wheel for 20 months.

Footage of some of the "worst driving" recorded by the public has been released by North Yorkshire Police.Footage of some of the "worst driving" recorded by the public has been released by North Yorkshire Police.
Footage of some of the "worst driving" recorded by the public has been released by North Yorkshire Police.

Other examples include a man dangerously undertaking and driving erratically on the A1(M) and a 4x4 driver who squeezed between two cars as they travelled at speed on the A59. Both motorists received lengthy driving bans.

Inspector Jeremy Bartley, who leads Operation Spartan, said: “Even very experienced traffic officers sometimes gasp at the dashcam footage we’re sent by members of the public as part of Op Spartan.

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“We police 6,000 miles of road 365 days of the year but we can’t be everywhere, and Operation Spartan has been a huge hit with the public. So we’ve relaunched it with upgrades to the way dashcam footage can be submitted, improvements to the web page and more. This makes the whole process a lot easier and quicker - people can send us reports of bad driving in just a few clicks.

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“We’ve also fine tuned the way our officers can access and process videos and written reports. This means we can review more reported incidents, tackle more driving offences and ultimately make the roads of North Yorkshire safer for everyone.”

They can also easily submit a written description of the offence if they do not have video.

Specially-trained officers will review every report to see if an offence has been captured and whether they can prosecute the offender.

Motorists may then be taken to court, where they could face fines, penalty points, a driving ban or even a prison sentence.

For lesser offences, police may offer them an educational driver awareness course, personal visits or send them a written warning or educational letter about their actions.