Operation Airwalk gets off the ground in Littlehampton

Dozens of road users in the town were stopped by Sussex Police as part of a joint operation with West Sussex Fire and Rescue and West Sussex County Council’s road safety team, to combat drivers using mobile phones, speeding, or driving without a seat belt or insurance.

Officers stopped almost 40 vehicles along Franciscan Way, Arundel Road and Terminus Road, after identifying drivers who had breached road safety laws, with one car proving to be so dangerous it was seized and scrapped.

Sergeant Russell Phillips, who was helping to co-ordinate the operation, said: “We pulled over a male for driving with no seat belt.

“He had two children in the back of the vehicle who also weren’t wearing seat belts.

“It was clear, after a closer inspection from members of the vehicle operator service agency, that the vehicle he was driving was not road worthy.

“The car’s suspension, on the passenger side, had been so dangerously compromised that it could have given way at any moment.

“If it had gone over a pot hole or hit a kerb, there’s no doubt in my mind that something tragic would have happened.”

Most drivers who were stopped by the police had the option to either pay an on-the-spot fixed penalty notice or watch a short, hard-hitting film about the potential consequences of their action.

The film, which was screened in the West Sussex Fire and Rescue’s information and incident support unit, parked in St Martin’s car park, showed graphic reconstructions and powerful first-person accounts from paramedics about the horrors they face in the immediate aftermath of a crash.

Robert Byrne, of West Sussex Fire and Rescue, said: “During a 30 mile an hour crash a back seat passenger, not wearing a seat belt, can be thrown against a window with the force of three-and-a-half tonnes.

“It still astounds me how many people don’t do something as simple as wearing a seat belt.”