Lancashire Police: Operation Vanquish aims to tackle ‘fatal five’ road offences

The operation will see a fortnight of surge activity take place, aimed at tackling those who use the county’s roads for criminality, from using a mobile phone at the wheel to transporting stolen vehicles.

Operation Vanquish will focus on the ‘Fatal Five’ offences on the road which are: speeding, drink/drug-driving, using a mobile phone at the wheel, not wearing a seatbelt and careless driving within Lancashire.

Over the next two weeks officers, including specialist teams, will be stopping vehicles and targeting people where intelligence suggests they may be involved in this type of criminality.

The police force also say they intend to run checkpoints across the county.

Lancashire Police plans to accommodate days of action focused on specific issues, such as speeding and drink and drug-driving, and will also be supporting a national initiative named Project Edward from today (October 17th) until Friday (October 21st).

E.D.W.A.R.D stands for Every Day Without a Road Death and brings together emergency services, highways agencies, road safety organisations, the government and businesses, with a week of action to get the message out about safer driving.

Supt Mark Morley, of Lancashire Police, said: “We appreciate that the majority of people follow the law on the road, and to those people we say ‘thankyou’. However, there is a minority of people who believe the law doesn’t apply to them and Op Vanquish is about them.

“Over the coming fortnight we will be proactively targeting those who use the county’s road networks to commit crime, from dangerous driving to bringing drugs into our communities. We will be out and about stopping people and targeting those we are led to by community intelligence.

“We will also be supporting Project Edward over the next five days, which has been set up to reduce the number of deaths and serious injury collisions on the country’s roads.

“It goes without saying that this is part and parcel of our daily business, but we hope the surge activity will send a message that we will not tolerate those who commit criminal activity on our roads and that we are committed to making the road network safer for those who live and work in Lancashire.”

Lancashire’s Police and Crime Commissioner, Andrew Snowden, said: "This latest surge in enforcement through Operation Vanquish, which is an important part of the Constabulary's response to the priorities in my Fighting Crime Plan, is what the public tell me time and again they want to see and is exactly the type of positive action I fully support.

"It sends the message that officers are out in our communities, targeting those who put innocent people at risk through reckless, dangerous driving, acting on information from the public and proactively making our communities and roads safer.

"I will continue to back the Chief Constable with the resources he needs to take the fight to criminals and keep people safe, making those arrests that protect the overwhelming, law abiding majority and making life as difficult as we can for offenders.”