CHESHIRE Constabulary's Traffic Enforcement Unit has outlined its strategy to reduce the number of people killed or seriously injured on the road.

The unit is centrally based at Winsford, enabling it to move into any problem area and assist in enforcement and high visibility policing.

The 18 officers who form the TEU are trained accident investigators who attend the scene of every incident involving serious injury or fatality.

They provide a full analysis of the incident and may be called upon as expert witnesses in subsequent criminal or inquest hearings.

They have six key intentions. To:

Reduce fatal road accidents and injury through a balance of enforcement and education.

Provide a professional standard of service when dealing with road incidents.

Improve driver behaviour.

Reduce vehicle-related offences.

Work with other agencies to improve the safety of roads.

Improve the safety of vehicles.

Assistant Chief Constable John Dwyer said: "The constabulary deploys more than 200 officers in the county who are dedicated to traffic policing.

"These officers provide a 24-hour, seven days a week service which is structured to ensure that local issues, county strategic objectives and specialist traffic policing requirements are identified and acted upon.

"The Cheshire Constabulary intends to achieve its aim through a balanced policy of enforcement, education, engineering and evaluation."

Although analysis has shown that the number of fatal accidents in Cheshire has fallen by 32 per cent between 1990 and 1997, the number involving injury has risen by 13 per cent.

The statistics show that there is still a lot of work for both police and public to do to make roads a safer place.

Mr Dwyer continued: "While the constabulary continues to exercise a firm policy, it is important to remember that the responsibility lies with the road user to ensure that vehicles are maintained to a standard of roadworthiness which complies with legislation, and driven in compliance with road traffic legislation.

"The resources invested in the constabulary's traffic strategy policy must be met by a commitment from road users to act sensibly and in compliance with the law of the land."

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