Regional patrols could cut deaths

The new Yorkshire-wide traffic team - which would cover routes such as the M62 and M606 - would represent the biggest shake-up of road policing in decades.

The move, which could cut carnage on the district's roads, comes just days after our sister paper the T&A launched a major campaign urging drivers to take more care and cut the high number of road deaths.

The Be Safe Not Sorry campaign is urging road users to do their bit to contribute to road safety and it has won widespread backing from the police, fire service, ambulance service and Yorkshire Air Ambulance.

It is hoped the designated police team would attract more funding for traffic policing, while ensuring motorists passing through West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, North Yorkshire and Humberside get the same treatment.

The traffic team, expected to be made up of hundreds of officers from across Yorkshire, would have its own uniform.

The idea, being spearheaded by South Yorkshire Chief Constable Meredydd Hughes, is intended to break down the artificial barriers on arterial roads created by force boundaries.

West Yorkshire's Assistant Chief Constable Jawaid Akhtar, the former Divisional Commander for Bradford South Police who is co-ordinating the scheme's development, said: "The four chief constables have recently agreed to set up a project team to look at how they may work more closely together on the issue of strategic roads policing across the region.

"I have been appointed to lead a project board on behalf of the four forces.

This is in its very early stages.

"The next step is to agree the terms of reference for the project and where, how and in what way collaboration on issues of roads policing may work.

"It is too soon to speculate on what those areas may be."

Decisions about when the new traffic team will hit the streets and where it will be based are yet to be made.

The idea of a Yorkshire-wide traffic team, which would be only the third of its kind in the UK, was mooted just weeks after the Government's plan to amalgamate forces collapsed.

Bradford South MP Gerry Sutcliffe said: "I welcome anything that's going to improve the environment in terms of flow of traffic in West Yorkshire and cutting accidents. It's a good idea and we will have to wait and see if it works."

Mr Sutcliffe said he was right behind the Be Safe Not Sorry' road safety campaign.

"It's great to see a campaign which raises people's awareness about vehicles because they can be lethal weapons when they are not used properly," he said.

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