The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
A free text services has been set up to allow people to quickly report drink or drug drivers.
Lincolnshire Police launched their summer drink and drug driving campaign on Sunday with a new text service.
Police said the idea came about from the belief that people know of drink drivers but do nothing about it for fear of retribution or conflict.
It was first trialled in summer 2014 and the service received more than 200 text messages from concerned people.
With the text service, members of the public can report a drink or drug driver by texting DRINK to 80800 with the “who, where and when” details of the driver.
The who refers to the vehicle’s registration, where is the location the person is drinking or taking drugs, and when is the time they intend to set off.
A road safety spokesman said this information will then be used by police to “stop, arrest and process the driver through the courts”.
The service stresses this is for non-emergency cases only.
“If members of the public see a drink/drug driver actually driving, they should treat it as an emergency and call 999,” said the spokesman.
Lincolnshire Police said they will also be carrying out roadside checks at all times of the day throughout summer.
They said they now carry kits to test for drug use so drivers can be tested accurately at the roadside.
John Siddle of the Lincolnshire Road Safety Partnership said this text service runs alongside the police’s current “zero tolerance” policy on what it calls the Fatal Four (speeding, drink/drug driving, mobile phone use and not wearing seatbelts).
Mr Siddle said: “The Safer Roads Team have been highly active across the county and, whilst targeting the Fatal 4, they have also seized an number of uninsured vehicles.”
In April, when the zero tolerance scheme was launched by Sergeant Mile Alford, with a stark warning: “The sad reality is that in Lincolnshire, you are more likely to be involved and injured in a road traffic collision than you are to be a victim of serious crime,” he said.
In 2017, there were more than 3,300 road traffic collisions in Lincolnshire, with 2,577 injuries – 519 of them serious. 49 people died, most of which were innocent victims, said Sgt Alford.
