Jaguar bites 183
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• Police from three forces organised a combined traffic check called Operation Jaguar last week which resulted in the examination of 719 vehicles at three different checkpoints, and the discovery of 183 traffic offences.
Operation Jaguar was originally conceived as a means of monitoring the movement of tankers in the South East, but the Metropolitan Police's South East Traffic Department and the Kent Police Force chose to widen the check to all types of commercial vehicle.
In the event, tankers fared well in the check with only 32 offences, mostly for minor problem, such as incorrect placing of fire extinguishers.
One tanker vehicle, stopped by the Surrey Police at the A22 intersection with the M25, passed through Italy, Switzerland, France and crossed the Channel whilst incorrectly labelled as carrying hazardous chemicals — it was actually empty.
A second vehicle was stopped at the southern approach to Dartford Tunnel where it was found to be leaking a toxic arsenic compound. The Fire Brigade isolated the vehicle and sealed the leak, and the Health and Safety Executive is now con sidering whether to begin prosecution proceedings.
A total of four GV9s were issued during Operation Jaguar for a variety of offences, and there was one arrest for using stolen documentation, but none of these applied to tanker vehicles.
In the past 12 months, tanker movements in the South East have increased by almost a third, says Sergeant Richard Coles of Surrey Police, so Operation Jaguar was devised to examine standards. From the end of this year, the police are due to hand over the responsibility for enforcing tanker standards to the Health and Safety Executive.
0 One unusual aspect of Operation Jaguar was the method by which Surrey Police chose to call in vehicles, for checking. Unlike the A2 and Dartford Tunnel traffic checks there is no natural tanker route through Surrey, except around the M25.
Sergeant Coles chose to establish the checkpoint on the A22 just by the M25, and then operated a team of five police motorcyclists on the motorway, who flagged down all passing tankers and redirected them, under the Health and Safety at Work Act, to the traffic check.