Yoghurt-eating lorry driver caught on police camera

An Evri HGV driver appearing to eat a yoghurt with a spoon while behind the wheel on the M5 was caught on video by roads policing officers.

Operation Tramline saw an unmarked lorry loaned by National Highways being driven between junctions 8 and 14 last month and resulted in 20 drivers being stopped.

The elevated position of the lorry cab helped the police to identify and deal with a number of issues.

Drivers were stopped for offences including use of a mobile phone, not being in proper control of a vehicle, failure to wear seatbelts and driving with an insecure load.

Officers who identified a driver committing an offence recorded video footage from the cab before notifying officers in an accompanying car.

These officers then intercepted the offending vehicle, pulling it over and dealing with the driver.

Offences were dealt with by way of traffic offence reports and summons. These can potentially result in a fine of £100 for failing to wear a seatbelt, £200 and six penalty points for using a handheld mobile device and a £300 fine for driving a vehicle in contravention of a prohibition.

Sergeant Matt Firth from the roads policing unit said: “The use of the HGV from National Highways enables our roads policing officers to detect some offences that would otherwise be a challenge to identify.”