27 April 2007
Of the 42 vehicles stopped on Wednesday 25 April in a road check in St Helier, two small commercial vehicles were impounded, three drivers were found to have failed to notify change of vehicle or keeper details, six drivers were issued with defect notices and one person was reported for driving without a seat belt.
Officers from Driver and Vehicle Standards, (DVS) and the States of Jersey Police Road Policing Unit conducted a short road check at the Weighbridge during the morning rush hour, inspecting vehicles travelling East in to the tunnel.
Using the bus station for inspections, the check site was selected to obtain a high volume of vehicles passing the check with negligible disruption to traffic flow.
Two small commercial vehicles were impounded due to defective bodywork, and both will be inspected further and reports submitted to the Police for consideration of prosecution.
Three drivers were found to have failed to notify DVS of a change of registered keeper or vehicle details.
The drivers of 6 further vehicles were issued with defect notices requiring them to present their vehicles at DVS with the defects rectified. Defects included: bodywork; lighting, and excessively tinted windows.
One person was found to be driving without a seat belt.
Alan Muir , Inspector of Motor Traffic, said, “It was good to see that people were wearing seat belts and particularly that rear seat passengers in younger drivers’ cars tended to wear seat belts. The two vehicles impounded had significant amounts of corroded bodywork and are likely to be scrapped. The corrosion was easy to spot and had either of these vehicles been involved in a crash, the likelihood is the vehicles would have more or less disintegrated and those travelling in the vehicle would have suffered more serious injuries.”
Suggestions in the media that the road checks contributed to traffic disruption were refuted by the Transport and Technical Services Minister, Deputy Guy de Faye.
“The slightest level of investigation or inquiry by the news organisations concerned would have revealed that there was no substance to the traffic disruption story whatsoever. It is very disappointing when these reports emerge, after so much effort is put in to ensure that traffic flows are unaffected by the inspection process”.
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