Lorry driver arrested after hitting cars in attempt to evade police
A LORRY driver has been arrested on suspicion of drink-driving after hitting cars in an attempt to avoid police.
The lorry was stopped on the M50 motorway, with one man in his 40s arrested after he drove through the Strensham Services car park to avoid a police inspection area, hitting two cars before rejoining the motorway.
The incident happened during a road safety operation carried out by West Mercia Police, the DVSA and VOSA on the M5 southbound on Tuesday, November 4.
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The operation resulted in two arrests and found a number of unroadworthy vehicles, with 31 vehicles brought into the site and 20 served with traffic offence reports for offences including no road tax, no insurance, driving other than in accordance with their licence, excessive tints and mobile phone offences.
Ten vans were over their weight limit, with one van being a huge three tonnes over. Another had a tyre so bald the core was exposed around the whole circumference, a police spokesperson said.
A lorry driver was pulled in for being on his mobile phone has been reported to the Traffic Commissioner.
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A man in his 30s was also arrested on suspicion of drug driving during the operation.
DVSA prohibited eight vehicles, with a total of 14 defects detected meaning they were immediately prohibited. These included a defective handbrake and an ABS brakes issue. Ten had defects which resulted in delayed prohibitions.
Two fixed penalty notices were issued for inoperative indicators, and one vehicle was found to have removed the diesel particulate filter from the exhaust with fumes entering the driver's cab.
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In total, three were immobilised by the DVSA and left at the site as they were not fit to rejoin the roads.
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Police constable Gethin Venn said: "Our vehicle safety operation successfully took unroadworthy and dangerous vehicles off our roads on Tuesday, many of which were in a dangerous condition that were a risk to all road users.
"The HGV driver who tried to evade police was thankfully arrested and detained.
It does not need saying how dangerous driving while under the influence of alcohol is wherever it happens, let alone in a large and heavy vehicle on a busy motorway.
"Another man who was stopped was arrested on suspicion of being under the influence of drugs while driving too - aside from this, the state of his vehicle could have had consequences for others if he had to stop suddenly so that's another potentially dangerous situation averted."
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