Call to take bad drivers off road

Over 2,800 cars have already been seized

A crackdown on dangerous drivers is focussing on friends and relatives of offenders to alert the authorities.

Nottinghamshire police want to hear about drunk-drivers and those who are disqualified, uninsured or unlicensed.

Operating alongside the Crimestoppers service, officers said the public were the best way of getting more unsafe vehicles off the road.

They accepted people might be reluctant to cause trouble for friends but said one call could save lives.

I think information on a car's MoT and the driver's licence should be displayed on the windscreen Geoff Pay, father of crash victim

Sarah Smithurst, regional co-ordinator for Crimestoppers, said: "It's not just a question of these people putting themselves at risk.

"If someone chooses to drive drunk or in an unroadworthy car they are risking the lives of not only the other people in the car but all the other drivers, passengers and pedestrians they pass."

Geoff Pay, from Hucknall in Nottingham, lost his daughter Kirsty in a car crash near Mablethorpe, Lincolnshire, four years ago.

The driver, who also died in the crash, was disqualified at the time and the car had originally been sold as scrap, not for use on the road.

Mr Pay said: "It all happens so quickly. One minute you are chatting to them and the next they are gone.

"I do not believe Kirsty would have got into a car if she knew it was illegal or unsafe.

"I think information on a car's MoT and the driver's licence should be displayed on the windscreen alongside the tax disc."

Police are hoping the initiative will build on the success of Operation Rustproof, which over the past 12 months has seized 2,841 cars being driven without a licence or insurance.

About 1800 of these have already been scrapped.