A CRUSADE to drive home the importance of seat belt wearing is being hailed as a great success after 86 people were fined in a Lancaster 'hotspot' operation.

Teams of police officers took to the streets as part of Operation Bramble to get the road safety message across on Tuesday.

Officers teamed up with the DVLA on Thurnham Street and stopped scores of cars - resulting in 86 fines, one person arrested for drink driving, 34 fined for having no road tax, three dealt with for having no insurance and one car seized for using red diesel.

"It was part of an ongoing operation aimed at reducing traffic casualties by targeting the non-wearing of seat belts," says PC Bob Hodgson, of Lancaster road policing unit.

"We have made a commitment to reduce the number of casualties and so we targeted the town centre because it is a hot spot for casualties and more than half of them were due to the non-wearing of seatbelts."

PC Hodgson believes the reason some people do not wear their seat belt could be due to forgetfulness or ignorance of the law.

But he says: "We have mounted this operation before and the one thing I have noticed this time is the improvement in the number of people wearing their belt, which could be because people are becoming more aware of the dangers involved."

The operation coincided with a Department of Transports national campaign, which includes a hard-hitting cinema campaign featuring the slogan 'your car is designed to crumple on impact - your face isn't.'

It comes 20 years since the first 'clunk click' campaign was launched. Police say seat belts have saved thousands of people from death or serious injury in the intervening years.