OVERLOADED vans, untaxed cars, vehicles with illegal tints and unroadworthy vehicles were all stopped during a clampdown on the M5.
Officers from West Mercia Police were at Worcestershire service stations on Wednesday and Thursday (January 24 and 25).
Operational Patrol Unit (OPU) officers were joined by members from the Safer Neighbourhood Teams at Frankley and Strensham services.
Response cars pulled over motorists whose vehicles were checked over for their roadworthiness, weight limits, valid MOT and insurance certificates.
Incorrectly displayed number plates or tinted windows were also checked.
One of the six overweight vehicles stopped at Strensham services was 16.5 per cent above its capacity.
Seven vehicles were stopped for weight or other defects and one driver on his mobile was given a ticket.
A trio of drivers were stopped and handed £50 tickets for illegally tinted windows and another for a defective tyre.
A half a tonne overweight flatbed truck with palettes stacked too high cost its driver £300 at Frankley services.
Meanwhile a low loader carrying a car was found to be half a tonne overweight and the cabin had tinted windows.
The driver was fined £200 for the weight limit offence and volunteered to remove the tints. The car it was carrying was then taxed before it could be driven away.
A car driver with all the front windows tinted too dark received a £50 fine.
Sgt David Clark of the Operational Patrol Unit said:
“We conducted this operation because as a force we want to ensure that the roads networks are safe and to reduce fatalities from the fatal four – speeding, drink, and drug driving, driving while distracted (such as being on a mobile phone) and the non-wearing of seatbelts.
“We targeted vehicles of interest to us, making sure they were in a roadworthy condition and insured for the safety of all road users.
“It was a positive operation – we’ve had weight offences on vehicles, illegally tinted front windows, drivers using mobiles, defective vehicles, and bald tyres.
“Drivers caught for offences some people may consider to be minor are often a gateway to other ‘bigger’ offences which they might be trying to hide from us so that’s why we stop them.
“Drivers with heavily tinted windows are effectively driving like they have sunglasses on at nighttime which is clearly a huge risk to them and other road users.
“Vehicles which are overweight or poorly loaded will have longer braking distances, poorer handling and weakened suspension which could have consequences for other road users.
“Our advice to road users is to make sure you are insured, and your vehicle is in a roadworthy condition for everyone’s sake.
“Please also make sure your tyres are properly inflated by checking once a week and make sure you have wash wipe with the correct anti-freeze solution in them at this time of year.”
