TRAFFIC police are pushing for a specialist unit to help them tackle the issue of speeding in Jersey as late-night drivers continue to use the Island’s roads as a racetrack.
Operation Canvas, a crackdown on anti-social driving – which was relaunched in June – has resulted in the owners of 35 vehicles being warned about their behaviour, with covert patrols and checks used to catch speeders.
For months, Islanders have been taking to social media to share their safety concerns and vent their frustration that they are being kept awake by revving engines and the sound of squealing tyres in the night. The worst-affected parishes include St John, St Ouen, St Mary and Trinity.
Jersey has a higher rate of road injuries per 100,000 people than Great Britain and the Isle of Man, according to police data.
Now head of roads policing, Inspector Callum O’Connor, has said he wants to introduce a roads policing unit, which would comprise a team targeting ‘high-harm, high-risk activity on the Island’s roads’.
This ‘targeted and surgical intelligence-led approach would bring offenders to justice, reduce injuries and harm and increase safety’, he continued.
Insp O’Connor said: ‘I have made an initial presentation to the senior leadership team here to explore the possibility of introducing a roads policing unit.’
The team would consist of five or six specialist officers as well as a sergeant and lead inspector – all sourced from the force – who would work ‘solely on roads policing in the community’.
At last month’s launch of Operation Canvas, Insp O’Connor said officers were ‘specifically targeting those individuals who continue to use our Island’s roads as a racetrack’.
He said that the Island had an annual road traffic casualty rate of 312 people per 100,000 compared to Great Britain’s figure of 262, and the Isle of Man’s equivalent rate – minus the TT racing injuries – of 236.
‘For some of those accidents, speed won’t be a contributing factor but it will be for the vast majority of them,’ he said, adding: ‘We are at that position now because I think we have better data and better working relationships with key stakeholders such as the government and the honorary police.
‘For the chief [officer], it is about managing resources and making sure we have the right resources in the right place.’
*See tomorrow’s JEP for the second story in our focus on speeding.
