'Fatal Four' campaign catches 172

A crackdown on motorists in the Forest of Dean has netted 172 drivers in the past 13 days, police say.

The Fatal Four campaign focussed on the four main causes of accidents on the roads - speed, inattention, not wearing a seat belt and drink-driving.

A police spokesman described the numbers caught in the operation as "astonishing and beggaring belief".

More than 30 vehicles were found to have defects and nine were ordered off the road immediately.

The spokesman added 100 people had also been caught speeding by fixed cameras along the A48 between 8 May and 5 June.

"These fixed cameras are at sites with a high number of speed related collisions and are highly visible. It beggars belief that drivers still speed through these locations.

"We would urge drivers not to become a statistic by being caught breaking the laws of the road, or even worse by being involved in a collision," he said.