Nearly 20,000 drivers sent on courses as police reveal two months of road safety work

Devon & Cornwall Police have lifted the lid on how hard their Road Safety Team has been working to keep people safe on the region’s roads, releasing figures covering May and June.

The headline number is a big one: 19,846 NDORS educational courses were delivered across the two months — 9,886 in May and 9,960 in June. The National Driver Offender Retraining Scheme gives drivers who commit lower-level offences the chance to take a course rather than points and a fine — part of the force’s push to change behaviour rather than simply punish it.

Alongside the classroom work, officers and camera operators were busy out on the roads. The team clocked up 1,411 hours of speed detection across the two months and ran 403 Community Speed Watch (CSW) sessions, the volunteer-led scheme that lets local residents help monitor speeds in their own neighbourhoods. A further 1,316 Operation Snap submissions — dashcam and helmet-cam footage sent in by members of the public — were processed, showing just how much road safety has become a shared effort between the police and the communities they serve.

Enforcement wasn’t far behind. Officers recorded 1,492 seatbelt offences and 491 mobile phone offences over the two months, two of the so-called “fatal four” behaviours most closely linked to deaths and serious injuries on the roads. Another 511 uninsured or unlicensed vehicles were seized, and 633 officer-issued tickets were received across May and June.

The team’s work also stretched into fitness to drive and rider training. There were 105 medical referrals to the DVLA, flagging drivers whose health may affect their ability to be behind the wheel. On the two-wheeled side, June saw a special Bike Safe Ladies Day, with 35 riders attending to sharpen their skills and stay safe — following on from the 10 Bike Safe courses run in May.

Sharing the figures, the Road Safety Team said the monthly infographics are designed to show the public exactly what’s going on behind the scenes.

“We want to encourage people to slow down and make safer choices on our roads,” a spokesperson said. “With these monthly updated infographics, we can share just how hard our Road Safety Team is working to accomplish this goal.”

The updates form part of the wider Vision Zero South West partnership, which has set the ambitious target of eliminating deaths and serious injuries on the region’s roads. The message from officers remains a simple one: slow down, buckle up, put the phone away — and help everyone get home safely.

The figures at a glance