Footage shows HGV driver using two phones while driving

HIGHWAYS England has released video footage showing an HGV driver on the motorway using two mobile phones while driving.

The driver of the truck didn’t realise that the lorry pulling up next to him had two police officers inside it with filming equipment fixed on his cabin.

The footage emerged the same week the UK government announced plans to help combat the HGV driver shortage by fast-tracking licence applications. Filmed from an unmarked Highways England HGV Cab, the footage shows the driver of the lorry seemingly speaking on two phones simultaneously while driving in the inside lane of the motorway.

As the undercover HGV cab pulls alongside the articulated truck, the driver notices the operative filming him and coyly drops the mobile phones down and continues on his way.

A Mercedes Actros truck similar to the one drive in the video

The footage shared by Highways England is one of the thousands of incidents caught by the undercover trucks taking part in Operation Tramline. The operation has been patrolling the M4 and M5 motorways in southwest England and is being credited with recording more than 21,000 motoring offences.

It’s reported that National Highways deals with a great number of incidents on the M5 and M4 motorways, and in the latest figures, the company attended a large number of traffic collisions - 526 on the M4 and 821 on the M5 in 2019. Since the launch of Operation Tramline in 2015, more than 21,600 offences have been recorded on the National Highways motorway network. The most common offences have included:

• using a mobile phone – 6,073
• not wearing a seatbelt – 6,253
• not in proper control of the vehicle – 1,501
• speeding – 1,199

While the situation is bad enough considering he could have hit a car, the resultant crash had the driver become distracted and come into contact with a motorcyclist is even more scary. Making the whole video even more frustrating is the fact a number of Mercedes trucks and lorries either come with Apple CarPlay or can be retrofitted with it.