Significant investment is needed in roads policing, South Yorkshire Police Federation has said, as the number of people being killed and injured in road crashes hits a record high.<\/p>\n
New Department for Transport figures show that, in 2022, 2,715 people around the country were injured or killed, compared to 944 a decade ago. A growing number of crashes were attributed to drug-driving.<\/p>\n
South Yorkshire Police Federation Chair Steve Kent said: \u201cSadly, this doesn\u2019t surprise me, because we\u2019ve moved away from traffic policing and roads policing. We rely on static cameras, and everyone just speeds up and slows down for them. They\u2019re pointless, and what they take away is any kind of governance on the roads, where people\u2019s driving is scrutinised. There\u2019s no checks and balances.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to have significant investment in roads policing and a reintroduction of roads police officers, because I can\u2019t remember the last time I saw a traffic cop patrolling the motorway, and I use the motorway every day. It\u2019s not good enough. There\u2019s too few of them and too many incidents going on.<\/p>\n
\u201cDrug and drunk driving, and poor driving, isn\u2019t going to get dealt with by static cameras. We know speed is sometimes a factor in accidents. Of course it is. But we also need to deal with people who are driving inappropriately in slow speed areas, and inappropriately in weather conditions, and the only way we\u2019re going to do that is getting boots on the ground and eyes and ears on the motorway, which will spot this level of driving and then deal with it through education or prosecution.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steve said he was also concerned about the impact on the mental health of traffic officers.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cThat small number of traffic officers are dealing with a higher number of very serious and often catastrophically traumatic accidents. They need to be given extra support to do that.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy colleagues are having to attend these incidents and sometimes have to take bad news home to loved ones. That\u2019s a horrendous thing to do. We often think that it\u2019s just the incident itself that can be traumatic for officers and everybody involved, but I can speak personally that one of the most traumatic things I\u2019ve done is telling a mother that her children had been killed in a car accident.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt haunts me, and that\u2019s just one incident for me, so I can imagine that for our colleagues in traffic who are doing this regularly, it can be absolutely harrowing.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll officers who are dealing with trauma need to have regular check-ups. Otherwise it just gets bottled up, until one day it bursts out and we have people off with stress or depression.\u201d<\/p>\n