An HGV driver on the M40 was so distracted by his mobile phone he was unaware of two police cars with their blue lights flashing attempting to stop him.
The detail emerged following “record breaking” results from Warwickshire’s commercial vehicle unit (CVU), which patrolled motorways in the county in a lorry looking for drivers putting themselves and others at risk.
The unit captured footage of an HGV driver who is believed to have been watching a video while driving and spotted another vehicle loaded with more than 30-tonnes of bricks, which was being held down only by gravity.
However, the top offence committed by drivers was not wearing a seatbelt, with 69 out of 97 people stopped for the offence being professional lorry drivers.
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The CVU also stopped numerous overweight vehicles.
One HGV was 53% overweight gross and 67% on the rear axle. It was prohibited and immobilised and took the driver nearly four hours to unload the vehicle after another attempt showed it was still overweight.
Sergeant Carl Stafford said: “Whilst this has been a record breaking operation for offences detected by our officers, it has also been an extremely disappointing one, as even with a reduced amount of traffic from the current epidemic we are seeing an increase in offences.
“The increase in mobile phone usage whilst driving has been staggering despite all of the publicity and increase in penalties people are still selfishly putting themselves and others at risk by being distracted by their phones, exacerbated even more when in charge of heavy goods vehicles.”
