POLICE have been cracking down on motorists breaking the law in Dorchester town centre.

In the latest phase of Operation Indri, officers from Dorchester Police were joined by their colleagues from the traffic department to spot drivers committing offences on their way through the town.

They spent yesterday morning targeting motorists passing through High West and High East Street and issuing fixed penalty notices to anyone committing offences.

Within two hours they issued 14 tickets, although compared to a previous operation where, nearly 80 motorists were penalised, the numbers suggested drivers were getting the message after several crackdowns in Dorchester.

Dorchester Police’s Safer Neighbourhood Team Sergeant Steve Yeoman said: “Operation Indri is aimed at reducing the number of people killed or seriously injured on our roads. We do a mixture of education and enforcement and this was an enforcement operation.

“The areas that we are targeting are speeding, no seat belts and using mobile phones because they are major contributors to people being seriously injured.

“We have had a mixture of people using mobile phones and seat belt offences and we also had one individual on a motorcycle with no chin strap on.”

Sgt Yeoman said that the officers had been targeting drivers in High West Street and High East Street because it was a major route through the town where drivers using mobile phone and not concentrating could cause serious risks to other road users.

He said: “People do use their mobile phones coming through the town and there are so many small roads that come off the road. That means, as well as the amount of pedestrians crossing High East Street and High West Street, it’s always a concern when somebody is not concentrating.”

In 2010 police in Dorchester carried out Operation Indri exercises outside schools in the county town after concerns were raised about the number of parents breaking the law on the school run.

Last June a full day operation in the town centre saw 32 motorists penalised for using a mobile phone, 28 for speeding and a further 18 for not wearing a seatbelt.

Operation Indri comes on the back of Dorset Road Safe’s No Excuse campaign, which has been cracking down on motorists across the county.

The excuses that just don't work

POLICE officers and road safety cameras have issued a further 957 tickets on Dorset roads – emphasising that there is still ‘no excuse’ for bad driving.

The No Excuse team said they continued to be amazed at some of the excuses given for bad drivers.

One motorcyclist, who was stopped by officers on Chickerell Road while riding at 42mph, said it was unfair of police to position themselves at the bottom of the hill because his bike went faster downhill. And a woman who was caught travelling at 44mph on Littlemoor Road said she was keeping up with other traffic, despite being the only vehicle on the road at the time.

Officers observed a male standing by the side of a road in Bridport, waiting for his lift. It arrived at 53 miles per hour. Despite being caught driving at over 50 miles per hour, the driver said: “Sorry I thought it was a 40 miles per hour zone.”

A woman in the Purbecks denied to officers that she was using her mobile phone while driving. She said that she was eating a prawn cracker and she didn’t have a phone with her. She provided her mobile number to the officer when asked. The officer rang the number and, unsurprisingly to the officer, the woman’s phone rang in the car. The lady immediately apologised and offered the officer a prawn cracker. She was issued with a ticket.

Brian Austin, ‘no excuse’ Project Manager, said: “We are continually amazed at the thought processes of some of the bad and inconsiderate drivers on Dorset’s roads.

“Although the ‘no excuse’ message is widely known in Dorset, nationally and even internationally, we still have drivers travelling on our roads that show time and again that they have no concern for other road users and pedestrians.”

The total tickets issued for offences between January and March is 4,067.