Police film from double decker buses to catch motorists on mobile phones

POLICE are carrying out surveillance operations on motorists from the top of double-decker buses in an attempt to clamp down on mobile phone use at the wheel, as figures show convictions have fallen by nearly 50 per cent.

West Yorkshire Police is using the tactic as government statistics show the numbers of traffic officers in England and Wales have fallen from 3,766 to 2,643 since 2007.

The cut in resources has had an effect on the number of drivers convicted of using a mobile at the wheel, the RAC said, as numbers almost halved to just under 12,000 between 2012 and 2016, according to figures from the Ministry of Transport.

BBC One’s Inside Out Yorkshire and Lincolnshire programme reveals that officers have been placed on doubledecker buses to catch drivers using their phones. The strategy resulted in such a high volume of sightings that investigators were unable to record some offenders’ details quickly enough, according to the programme.

The cash-strapped force has even appealed for the public’s help to bring prosecutions, by asking regular bus passengers on the upper deck to video motorists who they see offending.

Nick Lyes, an RAC spokesman, said: “We’re concerned that our most recent data shows that bad habits are creeping up again. What we’ve got to do is make the use of a hand-held mobile phone while driving as socially unacceptable as drink-driving.”

RAC figures show that a quarter of drivers admitted to talking on a handheld phone as they drove, while 40per cent admitted to texting at the wheel. Many drivers hide the devices on their laps, so that officers need a high vantage point from which to gather evidence. The RAC figures also showed there were nearly 2,300 crashes caused by drivers using a mobile phone between 2013 and 2017. In 2017, 33 of these crashes were fatal.

David Kirk, of Horncastle, Lincs, was killed in 2016 when a driver using her phone veered across the road and knocked him off his motorbike. Katie Kirk, his widow, urged motorists not to drive while using a phone. She said: “It’s not worth it. It’s just stupid.”

Russell Miller, a West Yorkshire Police community support officer, said: “There was a point when we spotted one [offender] and started to pass on those details. Then, literally, out of the next 10 or 12 vehicles, about 70 per cent were using their mobile phones and we can’t … record them quickly enough.”

Inside Out Yorkshire and Lincolnshire will air today at 7.30pm on BBC One.