Nearly 90 vehicles were stopped as part of a police crackdown on the transport of dangerous goods. 

The region's commercial vehicle units joined together for Operation Chemical over four days between Tuesday, May 7 and Friday, May 10. 

Suffolk police joined officers from Norfolk, Essex, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire and participated at different check sites each day including the A14 near Bury St Edmunds and the A11 near Thetford. 

Across the operation a total of 86 vehicles were checked comprising of 60 heavy goods vehicles (HGVs), 24 large good vehicles (LGVs) and two cars. 

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41 of these were carriers of dangerous goods with 16 issued with warnings or advisory notices, four were issued with fixed penalty notices and one required further enquiries regarding radioactive shipment. 

Officers also issued nearly 50 Traffic Offence Reports (TOR) across the four days for offences such as insecure loads, mechanical faults, driving without an HGV licence, not wearing a seatbelt and vehicles being overweight. 

The drivers of the two cars were issued with TORs for using a mobile phone while driving. 

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PC Terry Harvey, from Suffolk police's commercial vehicle unit, said: "This was an excellent four days of regional cooperation working with our colleagues from neighbouring police forces.

"I cannot stress how important it is to ensure dangerous goods are being transported in a safe and legal manner. The potential for serious harm to be caused if they are not means there is a real necessity for us to carry-out operations such as this."

East Anglian Daily Times: Tim PassmoreTim Passmore (Image: Newsquest)

Suffolk police and crime commissioner Tim Passmore said: "Keeping our roads safe and the traffic moving is vital for both residents and businesses in the county. 

"The A14 is a significant national gateway to the Port of Felixstowe and we have a huge amount of local and international commercial traffic working its way across the county which needs to be monitored for dangerous vehicles and driver offences."