Under Embargo Until Tuesday 30Th March 2010

All new POLICE, CAMERA, ACTION!

PAGE CONTENT 2 General series information 3 - 6 Interview with Gethin Jones 7 - 14 Episode synopses

**UNDER EMBARGO UNTIL TUESDAY 30TH MARCH 2010** An Optomen Television production for ITV1

BRAND NEW ‘POLICE, CAMERA, ACTION!’

“I’ve never worked like this before. The hours on the programme were so intense. The new format is totally different and I completely immersed myself in what was going on. It was an emotional journey and I will stay friends with some of some of the people I’ve met for a long time to come. I really hope the viewers feel the same and are moved by the stories. And maybe a few people will change their ways on the road.” GETHIN JONES

Brand new series presenter GETHIN JONES is at the helm of an action packed, fresh new format as the revamped Police Camera Action returns to ITV1 with four new programmes this summer.

Every show tackles head on a different issue currently affecting Britain’s road safety including speeding, distracted driving, young drivers and sleep deprived lorry drivers.

In each programme Gethin meets drivers who admit to taking risks behind the wheel. In-car camera footage shows how reckless their driving can be. The series challenges them to confront the reality of the dangers they pose to themselves and others in hard-hitting tests. Gethin also meets families forced to live with the devastating consequences of criminal driving and introduces them to the drivers who, hearing their tragic stories, are left to reflect on their own habits on the road.

Each episode also sees Gethin out on patrol with the police, as he immerses himself in the world of traffic crime, drawing attention to some of the most significant law enforcement issues on the road today.

And Gethin admits to his own past driving mistakes, speeding and using a mobile phone. He demonstrates the potential danger of one of them, speeding, along with other transgressions by getting behind the wheel in a series of experiments. He compares the effect of texting whilst driving to the consequences of being over the drink driving limit. He also drives an HGV after just four hours of sleep to examine how devastating the consequences of sleep deprivation can be. The shocking results of these challenges highlight just how easy it is to become a dangerous driver.

The series features insightful and emotional first-hand accounts from both victims and perpetrators of driving crimes. Some are telling their stories for the very first time to send out a strong road safety message in the hope of preventing tragedies similar to those they have experienced.

And Police Camera Action still contains heart stopping police footage showing the real life dangers of speeding and other reckless manoeuvres. The new series is must-see television and sees the return of one of ITV’s best loved brands.

‘Police, Camera, Action!’ is brand new & exclusive to ITV1. Thursdays from 29th July at 9pm

For further information/images please contact: Fiona Galliver Peter Gray

www.itv.com **UNDER EMBARGO UNTIL TUESDAY 30TH MARCH 2010** Publicity Manager Factual & Daytime Picture Publicity Manager Factual & Daytime Tel: 020 7157 3025 Tel: 0207 157 3046 Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] GETHIN JONES PRESS PACK INTERVIEW

Are you excited to be taking on the role of presenting the brand new series of Police, Camera, Action? What appealed to you about the programme?

“I did a Police, Camera, Action! drink drive special for ITV in 2008. It was incredibly powerful and more hard-hitting than I thought it would be. This new series of Police Camera Action is like a mini series of specials and it contains the kind of issues that could affect anyone every day. Each episode features a specific problem, including distracted driving, speeding, young drivers and the dangers of lorry drivers on the motorway, which is a huge problem.

“I like to get involved with a programme and I am definitely not just doing a voiceover here. I’ve never worked like this before. The hours on the programme were so intensive and the people we met were incredible. It was amazing seeing the police on patrol. They have to be so correct all the time and abide by the law but also try and get that extra bit of information out of the drivers they stop. I think the four programmes have actually been a huge success in that respect.

“The new format is totally different and I completely immersed myself in what was going on. I felt very involved in all the stories, from meeting victims’ families, to re-tracing some of the final steps of one of the accidents we cover on the show.

“It was an emotional journey and I will stay friends with the likes of Cerys Edward’s family for a long time to come (Cerys was just a year old when a driver crashed into her family’s car and disabled her for life). I really hope the viewers feel the same and are moved by the stories. And maybe a few people will change their ways on the road.”

Three of the episodes each feature four people who all admit to the driving problem targeted in that episode. Were you shocked by their attitudes towards careful driving and their misplaced confidence that they were still a safe driver in spite of speeding, applying make up, texting or driving with a dog on their lap?

“Well some of them were unbelievable. Where do I even start? I could talk for half an hour about each programme. Despite their behaviour on the road they all kept saying, ‘Don’t be silly, I am totally in control.’ That was the most astounding thing. To learn that they actually thought they weren’t a risk to anyone. One guy said, ‘I can text and drive.’ And then the camera we installed in his car saw him nearly crash, catch his breath and then carry on texting. How could he not realise what could’ve happened?

“It was really difficult from my point of view as the presenter because you don’t want to be preaching. And I’ve got 6 points on my licence, which we look into on the show. I hold my hands up, we all do things wrong on the road. But it’s about learning from our mistakes.”

Who do you think was the worst of the 12 ‘bad drivers’ who featured in the series?

“I think the distracted drivers were really interesting. Their attitude at the start was horrific. They said things like, ‘It’s fine, I can drive with my dog on my lap. I can easily text while I drive.’

“ Even after testing them on a driving course with various distractions that could have happened on a real road, some didn’t seem to take on board the seriousness of their actions.

“Finally, we introduced them to Pauline Bradley, whose life has changed completely since she was hit on a pedestrian crossing a few years ago. Her face was smashed in and she can’t work. After seeing the possible consequences of their behaviour I’d say they pretty much changed their views completely. If the same can be replicated with the viewers and the majority of people watching think, “I’m going to slow down or stop getting distracted behind the wheel,’ then as far as I’m concerned, the programme will be a massive success.”

www.itv.com **UNDER EMBARGO UNTIL TUESDAY 30TH MARCH 2010**

How did you find meeting the families and victims of road accidents, who have to live with the consequences of careless or dangerous driving?

“Before we filmed with each family I asked the production team if I could speak to them first. I explained who I was and the fact that I wasn’t there for my own benefit. I was there because I really cared about the issues. Because of that they were all very warm and very willing to tell their stories because ultimately, they don’t want it to happen to anyone else.

“Some of the things people have been through are just awful. I remember meeting Cerys Edwards for the first time in her adapted house and I had a tear in my eye. She was just a year old when the crash happened. According to the evidence, her mum did everything she could to prevent an accident but what can you do when there’s a car coming towards you at 70 mph?

“The father of a boy who was a passenger in a speeding car, couldn’t get through a sentence without falling apart. I said to him, ‘I can’t ask you to do anymore then what you’re doing. I’m only going to ask you the question. If you’re not happy we’ll turn the camera off. If you are, do your best to answer because ultimately your story is the one that’s going to change people’s attitudes.’

“ One woman I had a huge amount of respect for because of her strength was Juliette Greenwood. She had two girls, Alice and Clara. When they crashed, Juliette was badly injured in the car herself. She could only watch Alice dying in the back and wasn’t able to reach her.

“I was in the Greenwood’s home having a cup of tea, talking to them about that. What gets me is that they weren’t doing anything wrong. None of these people were doing anything wrong.”

In the episode ‘Fast & Furious’ you meet a policeman who was able to re-create the accident involving the Edwards family and Antonio Boparan, who caused the accident, using a computer animation video. Were you impressed with the level of detail the police are able to retrieve from the scene of a crash in order to bring a conviction?

“That was quite phenomenal. It was all about a little black box in the Range Rover. That box meant they could work out the speed he was travelling at, the angles of impact, everything. They worked out that he had a minimum speed of 71 mph in a 30 mph zone.

“And from that they were even able to recreate the accident digitally. I was able to watch the sequence of events and when you actually watch it on camera it is shocking. When you see the speed of the Range Rover compared to the other cars on the road it’s just breathtaking.

“It just comes at the Edwards family car so fast. I could talk through what happened and it would read like any other car crash story in the papers. But when you see the reconstruction of what actually happened, it’s unbelievably powerful. I’ve been to that road. Seventy miles an hour is insane, you can’t even see where you’re going.”

How did you find the general attitude of drivers on Britain’s roads, who were stopped by the police for various driving offences?

“It varied massively. And we covered a huge spread of the country. The younger drivers were actually more co-operative with the police then the older drivers. I think the older drivers were cross with the police that they’d been stopped. Their attitude was, ‘Why are you stopping me doing 90 mph on a motorway when last week this boy came round and swore at me? You should be on the streets.’ It was an old fashioned attitude that there are more important things in life. They had no understanding of the dangers of doing 20-30 miles an hour over the speed limit.”

Has your involvement in the programme had any effect on your driving and your awareness of safety?

“Absolutely. Like I said earlier, I’ve got 6 points on my licence. Three of those are for quickly using my mobile to call my sister in an emergency. Ultimately I was selfish because I was trying to deal with one of my problems but I could have put someone else at risk because of that. Was the emergency life and death? No it wasn’t. So I was fined accordingly and got three points. I knew it was wrong at the time but I didn’t know how wrong it was.

“I wanted to talk about having points on the show. Then I could openly say to people on the street, ‘I’ve got points on my licence as well, everybody makes mistakes. But do you really understand what’s going on here and how bad the consequences could be?’

“The other thing that really shocked me was speeding. I got done for driving at 58 mph in a 50 mph zone. I was coming home late at night from a job in North Wales and there wasn’t much traffic on the road. And 58 mph in a 50 mph zone doesn’t sound bad does it?

“So in the programme we re-enacted it on a track. A policeman was driving at 50 mph and I was doing 58 mph. There was a cordon set up at the end of the track and we both braked at the same time coming towards it. What I didn’t realise was that the majority of your breaking happens in the last fraction of a second. So when the 50mph car had stopped, I was still doing almost 30 mph and crashed straight into the cordon. That’s the danger and that’s why I could have killed someone.”

In the episode ‘Distracted, Dangerous & Dumb’ we see you undergo tests to examine the danger posed by texting while driving and also being under the influence of alcohol. You seemed shocked to discover that texting was as dangerous as being over the limit?

“Who would have thought? Surely sending a quick text can’t be as bad as being drunk? But we did the same test for both distractions. My reactions when texting were so slow. Ultimately, when I was texting my eyes were off the road more then they were on it. I actually felt more vulnerable driving while texting, rather then when drunk, as I had one hand off the wheel.

“If you’ve had a few drinks, the specialists say that you try to slow down because you know you’re drunk. Your senses are slower so you over compensate by looking out more. Don’t get me wrong, my driving whilst drunk was still very, very poor. But my driving when texting was just as bad which I found shocking.

“Ultimately what the tests proved is that both alcohol and texting can have terrifying results when driving.”

What was the most shocking or terrifying thing you witnessed / discovered during the filming of the series?

“The statistics about lorry drivers doing well over the legal number of hours without a break are unreal.

“I was absolutely shocked to discover that I was experiencing ‘micro-sleeps’ at the wheel and fell asleep for a total of 18 seconds within a two minute period after being sleep deprived the night before. If asked, I would have said I was tired but at no point was I actually asleep.”

What did you hope to achieve with the series?

“One thing I wanted to do, was make sure that people realised the police were human. I think the police can get a really hard time. They’re not out to catch people. They do stand on the motorway with a speed gun but that’s because people are doing 140 mph and they need

www.itv.com **UNDER EMBARGO UNTIL TUESDAY 30TH MARCH 2010** to slow down. They are the people who are going to cause an accident and seriously injure or kill someone.

“That’s why the police are there and yet people get really annoyed with them. I asked them, ‘Why are you getting annoyed with a police officer when you’re doing 110 mph?’ And they’d say, ‘Well the speed limit should be increased.’

“They’d be given some facts about how much more likely it is for an accident to happen at faster speeds and the devastation it can cause. The response was often, ‘I don’t care.’

“But what we did was get four of those types of people into most of the programmes and showed them what happens when you speed or are distracted. And on the whole, they’ve changed their views.”

Why should viewers tune into the new series of ‘Police, Camera, Action’?

“People should watch it because it’s different to any other police programme I’ve seen on TV. It’s not just a voiceover show. I really immersed myself in all the challenges, I met all the victims. I came face to face with the people causing the problems. It’s emotional, it’s shocking, there’s incredible archive footage in it. I hope it’s the kind of thing that people will talk about after they’ve watched it because of the issues it brings up. It’s honestly one of the most amazing programmes I’ve been involved with.

“All the tests were done properly. I wasn’t told what I would be doing until I turned up to do them. When I tested my ability to text and drive alongside my ability to drive after a few glasses of wine, hey literally gave me the alcohol and set me off. I tried to do it as honestly as I could. As if I had just been down the pub and had a few glasses of wine before heading home.

“I think that’s important because people need to be able to relate to the programmes. So when watching it they can think, ‘God that could be me, I had a few glasses of wine the other night and drove home.’

“Hopefully the programme will make people think. And as well as all the new elements it still has its traditional values with the incredible archive footage.”

Episode One - YOUNG, LEGAL BUT LETHAL (TX 29th July, 9pm)

In ‘Young, Legal but Lethal’, presenter Gethin Jones investigates why young drivers are such a menace on the road. Impatient to get behind the wheel, with limited experience driving on motorways and in adverse weather conditions, young drivers potentially pose a hazard to themselves and other motorists.

‘Young, Legal but Lethal’ explores how immature behaviour behind the wheel can kill. The programme showcases a range of criminal behaviour on the roads caused by over-confident and relatively inexperienced young drivers who easily forget the car they are driving can be a lethal weapon.

The programme begins with Gethin on patrol with the police. PC Copley of Operation Calypso in Essex is tasked with targeting young drivers and Gethin sees first hand just how dangerous they can be. PC Copley pulls over the driver of a modified Vauxhall Corsa with tinted windows who has taken a roundabout at speed and without indicating.

The 18 year old driver has only had his licence for three months. PC Copley believes his tinted windows are too dark and potentially very dangerous. The driver is not happy when asked to peel off his tints but the only alternative is to face prosecution for careless driving.

PC Copley tells him, “I can’t let you carry on driving with them that dark. It’s like you’re driving at night time with sunglasses on.”

While on patrol with the police, Gethin encounters a full car from Hull, driving without any lights. When the vehicle is searched, a further two passengers are discovered in the boot.

An officer informs the driver of the potential devastating consequences: “There was a fatal road accident in very similar circumstances. Two people were in the boot, the driver lost control and the two people in the boot were killed because obviously that’s not the correct place to carry them.”

One in six young drivers admit to drink driving, which is the second greatest killer on our roads after speeding. Gethin witnesses the arrest of a young drink driver who police discover only has a provisional licence. It then comes to light that the driver was also previously convicted of drink driving when he was just 15.

Gethin says: “My first reaction was to feel a bit sorry for him because he’s just 18 but then you start thinking of how potentially dangerous he could have been tonight.”

Risky driving costs many motorists their license. Out of nearly 600,000 people who pass their driving test in the UK, 15,000 lose it in the first two years. Gethin aims to find out if the driving test does enough to prevent bad driving.

He meets Rachel, Tom, Martin and Joe, four young drivers who all admit to driving dangerously and using their cars for thrill seeking. Gethin wants to understand why they take such risks and is shocked to hear about their driving habits which include; driving hands free, switching headlights off in the dark for a thrill, racing on public roads and not wearing a seat belt.

A stunned Gethin comments: “These guys openly admit to being quite dangerous behind the wheel but what they don’t realise is how much of a hazard they are to innocent people around them. They are only thinking about what they’re doing at the time and that’s a real worry.”

www.itv.com **UNDER EMBARGO UNTIL TUESDAY 30TH MARCH 2010** Gethin takes the four young drivers to a test centre, where their driving skills are challenged to cope in difficult weather conditions. How well will they be able to handle icy roads and wet weather as they try to control a car? Will they be able to stop and avoid an inflatable dummy car?

In an emotional meeting, Gethin speaks to Juliette Greenwood and Shay Connell whose lives have been devastated by reckless driving. Juliette’s daughter Alice was killed by a young driver who was driving competitively in a convoy with four friends. Juliette was so badly injured in the crash she was unable to touch her daughter as she lay dying in the back seat.

Juliette recalls that terrible day. “One of the hardest things to know is that Alice was dying there in the backseat of the car and I couldn’t get to her.”

Shay Connell’s son Liam was a passenger in the car that caused the accident and he died at the scene. Shay has been in the accident recovery business for 30 years, but now when he gets a call from the scene of an accident, he cannot bring himself to turn up.

Shay says: “I had to identify my child, in body bag. It never goes away. He was my only son and I can’t replace him.”

In a groundbreaking conviction, police proved that the reckless and competitive behaviour of the other four drivers was instrumental to the crash. The four surviving drivers were convicted of death by careless driving and were given sentences of between 27 and 33 months and were disqualified from driving for three years.

Juliette says: “These young people were playing Russian roulette and you don’t have the right to play Russian roulette with other people’s lives.”

Finally, Gethin introduces the four young drivers to Juliette and Shay who reveal the tragic details of the crash that killed their children.

The four individuals are visibly shocked and moved by what they hear. The confrontation enables them to see the consequences of their recklessness and persuades them to take fewer risks.

Martin tells Gethin: “Today has really opened my eyes.”

Rachel says tearfully: “I think this will be what makes me slow down.”

Episode Two - FAST & FURIOUS (TX 5th August, 9pm)

Speeding is the most common offence committed on British roads and leads to thousands of accidents a year, with one in four deaths on the road involving someone driving too fast. Yet many drivers continue to risk speeding at some point. In this episode, Gethin Jones investigates drivers who risk lives by recklessly going too fast and breaking the rules of the road.

The programme features shocking footage showing the risks people are prepared to take while speeding. This includes an American man reckless enough to climb into the cab of a speeding pick-up truck while being pursued by the police and a woman caught doing 118 miles an hour with a baby in the front seat next to her.

Gethin visits Oulton Park race track to experience the thrill of driving at 120 miles per hour. He discovers the rush driving at speed creates and what drives people to speed on the roads.

Gethin says: “That is just unreal. That feeling of pure speed is a massive adrenalin rush and you can probably tell I’ve got a big smile on my face.”

He then goes out on patrol with Central Motorways Police and Essex Police to search for speeding drivers on Britain’s roads. Among those stopped by the police is a man caught doing 104 mph with his wife and two children in the car.

Gethin also meets four drivers who are happy to admit they are serial speeders.

Mark, a manager in a packaging company, admits to speeding every day and has driven at a top speed of 150 miles per hour. Having been caught three times, he has received nine points. Property consultant Sunny, drives an Aston Martin and admits to a top speed of 170 miles per hour. He has been disqualified from driving three times and admits to having done 120 miles per hour in a 30 mile per hour zone. Michelle, a sales rep, is also addicted to the thrill of speeding and is quite happy to drive at 110 miles per hour in her car. Despite this Michelle says: “When I’m doing 100 miles an hour I feel completely safe. I don’t feel in any danger at all.”

Service engineer, Naz, drives over 60,000 miles a year for his job and has been banned in the past. Despite having 8 points on his license and admitting to a top speed of 155 miles per hour, he says: “I personally don’t think it’s speeding that kills. I think it’s incompetent drivers who kill. It’s people who don’t know how to handle their car and how to drive within their capabilities.”

Gethin says: “I’m amazed by these driver’s attitudes. They say they only speed on motorways and dual carriageways but they’ve all done racetrack speeds and believe they’re capable of handling it. If you travel at high speed you can quickly lose control.”

Gethin admits that he has also been caught for a speeding offence: “I must admit I’ve been done for speeding myself, I was doing 58 in a 50 zone. At the time I didn’t think I was going so fast that it could be called dangerous. How risky can an extra eight miles an hour be?”

To find out the potential consequences of his speeding, Gethin takes part in an exclusive test. PC Angus Nairn has marked out a course with a hazard and the safe stopping distance for a car doing 50 miles per hour. Gethin and PC Nairn both drive a car along the track, PC Nairn at 50 miles per hour and Gethin at 58 miles per hour. Gethin is shocked when both cars break and his car smashes straight through the hazard set up earlier.

www.itv.com **UNDER EMBARGO UNTIL TUESDAY 30TH MARCH 2010** He says: “Well I braked as hard as I possibly could, but I just could not stop in time. Angus stopped three metres before the barrier. But doing just eight miles an hour faster I could only stop 12 metres further on.”

PC Nairn has further news which frightens Gethin. He says: “As you are going through this tape you’d be doing almost 30 miles an hour. Deceleration only really occurs in the last few metres because you’ve got to consider your thinking time and then your reaction time to brake.”

Gethin is horrified by the results of the test. He says: “If that barrier had been a child I’d have hit them at 30 miles an hour and could have killed them. It’s a revelation to me that just a few extra miles an hour can make such a difference. From now on I’ll really watch my speed.”

The programme also features the tragic case of the Edwards family who were involved in a high speed road crash in 2006. Nineteen year old Antonio Boporan was driving his mother’s Range Rover at over 70 miles per hour in a 30 mile per hour zone, when he crashed into the Edwards family car.

Tracey Edwards talks to Gethin about the impact the accident has had on her daughter Cerys, who was just a year old at the time. Her mother says Cerys effectively died at the scene but was resuscitated. She cannot walk or talk and can survive only with a permanent ventilator. The round-the-clock care and medical equipment she requires means the Edwards family have to rent a house across the road from their home for Cerys to live in.

Tracey describes the accident to Gethin: “His lights were coming at us and he didn’t seem to slow down. I started screaming. It was like a tank and it was a huge bang. And then we were pushed 57 feet behind, into another vehicle.”

Gethin is horrified what the Edwards family have gone through. He says: “That family’s life has changed forever in a split second. They did absolutely nothing wrong. On the contrary they made sure Cerys was strapped in her baby seat in the back. They were keeping to the speed limit, they reacted quickly. But they just couldn’t do anything about the guy coming towards them because he was going so fast.”

Gethin then meets PC Andy Salt, a police forensic expert who collects and interprets evidence from road crashes.

Despite Antonio Boporan saying that he thought it was a 40 mile an hour limit and claiming he was doing just over that, PC Salt’s painstaking work allowed him to digitally recreate the accident and prove that Boporan was driving at a minimum of 71 miles per hour. He used a ‘black box’ from within the Range Rover to calculate the minimum speed the vehicle was travelling at, in a case which was the first of its kind in the UK.

Antonio Boporan was sentenced to 21 months in prison and served six. He also got a five year driving ban. He has never spoken publicly about the crash but speaks exclusively to the programme for the first time since the accident. Gethin visits his home to ask him about the crash and how he lives with the consequences.

Gethin then introduces Tracey and Cerys Edwards to Mark, Sunny, Michelle & Naz in an emotional confrontation at the end of the progamme. The details of their story have a profound effect on the drivers.

Speaking to the drivers about Cerys, Gethin says: “She needs a nurse and a carer at night. And she needs two people in the day. It doesn’t matter how good a driver you are. You could have had Michael Schumacher in there, he wouldn’t have stopped in time.”

The four speeding drivers are horrified. Mark says: “Words fail me. I just can’t explain how I’m feeling at the moment. Your beautiful daughter. Somebody did this and it was never your fault.”

Sobbing, Michelle says: “I just feel disgusted with myself I really do. I just feel really bad, I can only apologise for speeding.”

Episode Three - DISTRACTED, DANGEROUS AND DUMB (TX 12th August, 9pm)

Speaking on a mobile phone, texting, using a sat nav, eating and applying make-up are bad habits that many drivers commit on a regular basis. But everyday actions like these, done while driving, can turn ordinary people into criminals in a split second. Distracted driving contributes to thousands of accidents a year. Police, Camera Action investigates why nearly 40 per cent of drivers still take the risk.

The programme shows adrenalin-fuelled footage, including a girl talking on a mobile phone who completely loses control at the wheel, a driver reading a newspaper while driving and a bus driver, so engrossed in reading a text, that he fails to see the traffic ahead has stopped and crashes.

Gethin Jones begins his investigation into distracted driving with a confession. He says: “A couple of years ago I took a phone-call that I thought was important as I was driving home. But the police spotted me and I got three points and a £60 fine. The thing is, I knew it was wrong but I didn’t think it was that dangerous.”

The programme follows Gethin as he explores the killer habits of ordinary drivers. He goes on patrol for two days with the Central Motorway Police Group who cover 450 miles of the country’s busiest motorways. In just one morning with the PC Steve Rounds, Gethin sees him issue 11 people with fines and points for using their mobile phones.

Gethin then meets four drivers who admit to being distracted while driving. Cameras are placed in their cars to record their everyday driving behaviour and the results are eye- opening. Twenty-six year old engineer Jamie regularly texts behind the wheel as he drives around the country for work. Jasmine, a 21 year old student, applies make up when driving and regularly lets her dog sit on her lap when she is behind the wheel. Thirty-two year old Simon is a professional singer. In-car footage shows him using his car as a mobile office while driving and swerving to miss something while texting. Finally, Gabrielle, an 18 year old student, regularly eats behind the wheel. The camera catches her both eating an apple and texting, while driving.

Despite being confronted with their dangerous driving behaviour caught on camera, some of the drivers refuse to admit they were not in complete control of their vehicles. So they are taken to a track to assess their skills behind the wheel, in a specially designed hazards test at a driving centre.

Gethin is also curious to find out how his driving is affected when he is distracted. He takes part in a unique experiment for the programme to compare the impact of texting on his driving, against the effects of alcohol. He drives round a track twice, once fully in control and once while receiving and replying to a text message. On his second attempt, Gethin’s car swerves badly as he struggles to keep his eyes on the road. He also nearly hits a cyclist.

After watching back the footage of his two attempts he is shocked: “The difference between those two laps is quite incredible. In the second lap I was quite anxious if anything. I don’t remember looking out of my windscreen that much. I was looking down at my phone either texting or receiving a text. It’s just a bit of a disaster all the way through to be honest.”

Gethin then repeats the test under the influence of alcohol. Drink driving is the second biggest killer after speeding. After five glasses of wine, a breathalyser test reports that Gethin is over the legal limit..

www.itv.com **UNDER EMBARGO UNTIL TUESDAY 30TH MARCH 2010** Gethin feels very uncomfortable whilst driving and says: “This is really, really strange. I would never get in the car if I was feeling like this. I would never get in the car if I’d drunk as much wine as I have.”

Gethin asks Sergeant Chris Smith which performance was the worst. Sergeant Smith says: “When we look at the experiments you’ve done, it proves beyond all reasonable doubt that texting whilst you’re driving is as dangerous as drink driving. We all know how bad drink driving is. However, if you’re silly enough to text whilst you’re driving then I could be going to give a message to a family that one of their loved ones is dead.”

Gethin says: “I’ve been trying to compare which one is worse, texting whilst behind the wheel or having a drink and driving. As I’m sobering up I’ve realised that they’re both awful. I never drink and drive. Never have and never will. But one thing’s for certain, I won’t be using my phone behind the wheel again.”

Gethin then spends the day with Devon and Cornwall Police who have launched a huge campaign against dangerous driving with Operation Vortex. Gethin learns that in the four weeks since the operation began, the police have pulled over nearly 1000 dangerous drivers and a quarter of these were distracted on the road.

PC Steve Morris tells Gethin about one shocking case: “One of my colleagues stopped a driver on the A30 in Cornwall and he was using dumbbells and working out whilst driving. He was training whilst driving and was reported straight to court.”

The programme also includes the heartbreaking story of Victoria McBryde who was killed in 2007 by Philippa Curtis. In a ground breaking case, Thames Valley Police claimed that receipt of a text was the distraction that caused Philippa Curtis to plough into Victoria’s stationary car which had broken down. After an extensive investigation, police discovered she had received twenty texts from five different friends as she drove.

Jennifer Ford, Victoria’s mother, speaks exclusively to the programme about the impact the accident has had on her family. “There was a policeman and a police woman standing at the door. They were holding Victoria’s bag. They said she’d been in a fatal accident and she’d been killed. I just stood here numb and then they repeated it and I just started screaming. The whole family was in total shock and I don’t think that we’ll ever, ever get over it. Since Victoria’s died our whole family has been blown apart.”

Finally, Gethin introduces Jamie, Jasmine, Simon and Gabrielle to Pauline Bradley who was walking across a pedestrian crossing when she was hit by a car four years ago. The driver admitted that because he was changing music on his CD player he didn’t see her. Pauline sustained huge injuries to her head and nearly died.

Pauline describes her injuries: “My face was smashed to pieces which meant that I had to have my head cut open. They had to pull all my face down to try and rebuild the bones that were broken. I’ve got three metal plates in my forehead. The head injury was so severe I now have problems with short term memory. I’ve lost my sense of smell, my sense of taste. It’s changed my life. My life will never be the same as it was before. I’ve suffered severe headaches. I’ve been told I can suffer severe epilepsy. I can’t work.”

Jasmine says: “I’ve never known someone to be in a serious accident so you never think it’s going to happen. And then when you meet someone it’s actually affected, you realise how stupid your actions are.”

Simon says: “To be honest, I’m angry with myself. I’m not just saying that because I’ve got a camera in my face. I am extremely angry with myself for even thinking that I could have got away with in the first place, to be honest. And it’s certainly going to change my driving habits.”

Episode Four – WHEN LORRIES BECOME LETHAL (TX 19th August, 9pm)

There are over 400,000 lorries on British roads and when they crash, their sheer size can cause devastation. ‘When Lorries Become Lethal’ looks at why HGV’s are one of the biggest killers on our roads and what can be done to address the problem.

Strict regulations on working hours govern life as a lorry driver. A driver is not allowed more than 10 hours on the road and must have two 45 minute breaks in this time. To make sure they stick to the rules, a tachograph is installed in the lorry and records every minute that a driver is on the road. Unfortunately, it is easy to tamper with the tachograph in order to drive longer hours, illegally.

Gethin joins the police on patrol in Birmingham as they try to reduce the number of serious injuries and deaths that occur on the motorways. Gethin witnesses PC Nairn stop a driver after his erratic driving raises suspicions. At first the driver is adamant he has done nothing wrong and claims his boss drove the first part of the journey. However, after extensive questioning from PC Nairn he finally admits to fiddling his tachograph and produces a second tachograph he has hidden in the cab.

Gethin is impressed with PC Nairn: “Amazing work by Angus. He was right to be sceptical. All of a sudden the lorry driver produced the missing tachograph from behind the seat. He’s now in a lot of trouble.”

Gethin then heads to a lorry stop where he meets two truckers to find out why they are willing to take risks when the consequences can be so severe. Shaun Graham was a trucker for eight years and admits he fiddled his tachograph when driving in Britain and Europe.

Shaun says: “I used to be told to leave the depot on a Sunday afternoon in Yorkshire and be in Vienna for Monday night. You’d have to drive down to Dover on your boss’s tachograph. Then put your own in and drive as far as you possibly could. You’re probably driving a good 15 to 20 hours but you know you can’t pull over and have a rest because your boss is going be on phone, wanting to know why you’ve stopped.”

Walla Longden has been driving lorries for over 30 years but now only works part-time. He claims he was often asked to drive beyond his legal hours.

Walla says: “I stopped doing it and I would not, under any circumstances whatsoever, go over my time. And so I practically became unemployable.”

Gethin is shocked to hear Walla’s story: “So you’re basically saying you’d become unemployable because you weren’t able to do the hours other people were doing because they were fiddling their tachos? That’s outrageous.”

Having taken his HGV test, Gethin is keen to find out how a sleep deprived lorry driver’s schedule will affect his own body. He visits the Transport Research Centre in Wokingham to take two driving tests in a simulator. During the first test, Gethin is fully alert and drives well, keeping to the lanes and driving smoothly.

He then spends the night sleeping in the cab of a lorry at a busy truck stop. Legally, drivers must rest for a minimum of nine hours before their next shift begins. Many start in the early hours when the traffic is lightest. Gethin plans to get up at 4am but struggles to fall asleep until midnight. After just four hours sleep, which isn’t unusual for some lorry drivers, he is back on the road to drive for two and a half hours. 13

Back at the research centre, his second driving test proves very different from the first.

Dr Mark Chattington says:”Gethin’s having a little bit of trouble at this point. He’s quite regularly crossing the white line and running onto the hard shoulder.”

Dr Chattington is looking to see if Gethin experiences a micro sleep during his test. A micro sleep is a brief period of inattention where you are not fully asleep but neither are you awake. You experience it for a couple of seconds but your body then wakes you back up again.

Soon, Gethin collides with a road user and the simulation immediately stops. During the video playback of his simulation he is amazed to see his eyes closed for brief periods when driving.

Dr Chattington then delivers the shocking news that Gethin was asleep for a total of 18 seconds when his micro sleeps are added up.

Professor Jim Horne, one of the world’s leading sleep experts, from the Loughborough Sleep Research Centre says, incredibly, Gethin’s limited four hours sleep is within the law.

Professer Horne says: “Although legally within a 24 hour period drivers must have at least nine hours continuous rest, there’s no stipulation that this rest has to be actual sleep itself. Rest is no substitute for sleep. Particularly if there’s a very noisy and cold cab environment.”

The programme covers the case of lorry driver David Walsh who caused a crash on the M61 near Manchester in 2006, during the evening rush hour. He fell asleep at the wheel and caused a devastating crash as his vehicle drifted onto the hard shoulder and then smashed into the central reservation.

Gethin meets Roger Bailey whose life has been destroyed by the accident. He was left with long term injuries and has not worked since.

Roger says: “I broke my leg in a few places. My shoulder, my elbow was broken and dislocated, my arm, my ribs were broken. Basically I was broken in two and crushed down my right-hand side.”

Also on the motorway that night was Lisa Dootson’s fiancé. Lisa remembers the events of that evening: “By half past seven he hadn’t arrived home, so I was starting to get a bit nervous wondering where he was. As I’m stood in the window waiting, a police car arrived. The police officer didn’t actually speak to me, he looked at me. I just said, ‘Do I have to expect the worst?’ And then he said, ‘Yes.’ I just fell to the floor.”

Despite an overall decline, there are still thousands of accidents involving lorries every year. Manufacturers are now addressing the issue and Gethin test drives a new truck which has an in-cab alarm to warn sleepy or inattentive drivers when they are too close to another vehicle.

He also goes on patrol with Essex Police. PC Harry Sexton and his team are on the look-out for un-roadworthy trucks and drivers with false documentation. Gethin asks PC Sexton how many issues come to light when drivers are stopped.

PC Sexton replies: “On average, about 20 percent have something wrong with them. Either mechanical, driver’s hours or document offences. We quite often get drivers come in. They know we’re here and they ask us to give them a prohibition because their boss won’t let them stop. They’ve got defective vehicles and their bosses won’t fix them.”

Finally, Gethin also finds out how lorry drivers themselves have become victims. Police Camera Action hears shocking stories of lorry drivers being gassed and threatened with knives before thieves steal their cargo.

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