From today until the tenth of March, North Yorkshire Police will be cracking down on drivers who use their hand held devices while behind the wheel.

This will be enforced by both marked and unmarked vehicles in hopes to find offenders. The force has also announced that a specialist unmarked HGV will be used in their patrols to help catch people in the act.

Distracted driving is known as one of the “fatal five” which causes most road accidents, with people using their phones behind the wheel being four times more likely to get into an accident. The offence carries a minimum fine of £200 and six licence points.

Inspector Clive Turner said: “Last year, we issued six hundred and ninety seven traffic offence reports for people using a handheld device when driving on North Yorkshire’s roads,” which equates to over two a day for using these devices while driving.

With these motorists watching or using their phones it delays reaction times increasing the likelihood of serious and fatal accidents creating risks for themselves and other road users.

It is important to remember that it is illegal to use a handheld device when stopped at traffic lights, queuing in traffic, supervising a learner driver, while driving a car that turns its engine off when stopped or even using the device when in offline or in-flight mode.

North Yorkshire Police is hoping this will reduce the amount of distracted drivers on the roads or at least make them reconsider before opening snapchat while behind the wheel.

Inspector Clive Turner added: “I would like to remind people that they can submit their own footage of people committing driving offences on the road network as part of Operation Snap”.