Cornwall and Devon roads: 296 vehicles seized in a single month

Ever wondered what a month on the roads looks like from the police side? Devon & Cornwall Police has put numbers to it, and some of them are bigger than you might expect.

The force’s Road Safety Team has shared its monthly summary for September, setting out the work done to keep communities safe on and by the roads across Devon and Cornwall. The team says the aim is simple. It wants people to slow down and make safer choices behind the wheel, and the monthly infographic is its way of showing how hard officers are working towards that.

📷Devon & Cornwall Police Road Safety Team figures for September. Credit: Devon & Cornwall Police

296 vehicles taken off the road

Among the September figures, 296 uninsured or unlicensed vehicles were seized.

The team also delivered 13,179 NDORS educational courses during the month, by far the largest number on the summary.

What is NDORS?

NDORS is the National Driver Offender Retraining Scheme. It covers the courses police can offer some drivers caught committing an offence as an alternative to prosecution. The best known is the National Speed Awareness Course, but there are others aimed at different types of offence.

Drivers pay for the course themselves. The scheme is managed by UKROEd, a not-for-profit company that runs it on behalf of police forces.

Seatbelts, phones and tickets

The infographic records 443 seatbelt offences and 173 mobile phone offences.

There were also 451 officer-issued tickets received in September.

Speed checks and dashcam footage

Speed was a big part of the month’s work. The team logged 570 speed detection hours and 220 Community Speed Watch (CSW) sessions.

On top of that, 689 submissions came in through Op Snap.

What is Op Snap?

Op Snap is the force’s online portal for members of the public to send in footage of driving offences. It was set up in the region in 2019 and accepts clips from dashcams, helmet cameras, mobile phones and even video doorbells.

Every submission is reviewed by the Road Safety Team to check the footage is good enough quality and clearly shows an offence. Police can usually only take a case forward if it is sent in within 10 days of the incident. And it is not the route for reporting a collision, which should go through 101 or the force’s website.

Medical referrals and engagement

The figures show 215 medical referrals made to the DVLA in September.

And 10 people were engaged with, a figure the infographic pairs with a motorbike symbol. The summary also carries the Vision Zero South West logo.

“We want to encourage people to slow down and make safer choices on our roads,” the team said.