Greater Manchester Police (GMP) have been conducting specialist operations in Manchester via the region’s Bee Network buses to improve road safety in the region.
Police officers deployed on a Bee Network bus detected more than 30 distracted drivers as part of a road safety initiative aimed at targeting road users putting themselves and others at risk.
GMP reported that Operation Top Deck is one of the many methods regularly used to enforce the roads.
The operation involves specially trained officers boarding a Bee Network bus, provided by Diamond Bus, and using cameras from an elevated position to detect dangerous driving behaviour on key roads during peak periods.
These include the Fatal 4 offences, which are drink and drug driving, distractions such as using a mobile phone behind the wheels, speeding and not wearing seat belts.
During the most recent Operation Top Deck deployment on 13 May, the following offences were captured over a two-hour period:
- 17 people caught using their mobile phone while driving, including one instance where a driver was found with a phone in each of their hands
- Seven reports of people not wearing seat belts, including young children
- Seven instances of a vehicle crossing a solid white line
- One offence relating to a vehicle’s number plate
GMP also stated that Operation Top Deck was inspired by National Highways’ Operation Tramline, which sees police officers capture footage of dangerous driving from the cabs of heavy goods vehicles (HGVs).
Since launching in 2015, 51,500 offences have been reported by 35 police forces across the UK.
In the last 10 years, 10,000 people have been killed or seriously injured on GM roads.
Between 2014 and 2024, there were approximately 1,174 incidents where driver distraction was a contributing factor, with 117 serious collisions and 17 resulting in fatalities.
Last year more than 3,200 people in Greater Manchester were caught driving while using their phone or not wearing a seat belt properly over a five-week period as part of a trial of cameras carried out by Safer Roads Greater Manchester.
Inspector Bradley Ormesher, from GMP’s Roads Policing Unit, said: “We are committed to taking direct and positive action to make roads safer across Greater Manchester, and our latest bus-based operation is just one strand of the wider work we are doing.
“Distractions can cost lives and cause serious injury, and we will never take offences lightly where someone is distracted and not fully in control of their vehicle.
“If you are on your phone, not wearing a seatbelt, or driving without due care and attention, you are ultimately breaking the law, and we will take the most appropriate action required.
“Our new operation targets roads at peak times, to allow for maximum impact in our work, and we have already identified dozens of offences when we have been out.
“Driving offences can receive any punishment, from a huge fine, to losing your licence, to potentially spending time behind bars. I would urge drivers to think twice before breaking the law.”
Achievements in road safety will be recognised and celebrated at the fourth annual CiTTi Awards on 25 November 2025 at De Vere Grand Connaught Rooms in London. Visit www.cittiawards.co.uk to learn more about this unmissable event for the UK’s transportation sector!
