New Cumbria road safety team established as traffic levels rise across region

As Covid-19 restrictions continue to be eased, the number of cars in the region's roads is continuing to increase, bringing with it a greater risk of accidents.

Commissioner Peter McCall said: "Cumbria has seen a massive increase in traffic over the summer and although we do welcome all visitors we need to remember to be considerate when driving.

“The new roads safety team will bring even more coherence to our road safety approach and they will engage proactively to improve safety on the county roads and dealing with those who drive in an antisocial manner or fail to observe the law.”

“Cumbria has many rural roads with varying speed limits and warning signs that are there to keep all drivers safe – every driver should follow these, local or not, as we never know what is waiting around the bend."

Mr McCall revealed he had been made aware of reports of anti social driving, with dangerous parking on single track roads on Newlands pass, an dangerous driving on other stretches of road.

And he also confirmed a new roads safety team has been set up to deal with the traffic increases.

He added: "We’ve had officers over various weekends on this stretch of road ticketing drivers for parking dangerously, placing other drivers at risk of accident with no passing places available and forcing passersby to reverse up/down a steep single track hill – this is just not acceptable behaviour.

"A new roads safety team has been introduced in Cumbria Constabulary which brings together the already existing teams that work to make our roads safer including the Mobile Support Group, Road Safety Cameras and Collision Reduction Officers.The aim of this unit it to reduce anti-social driving, streamline road patrols, decrease timings around road collision investigations, gather evidence around road accidents in Cumbria to highlight problem areas."