A DANGEROUS van which was stopped along with 77 other vehicles during a major road safety crackdown had so many defects it was immediately sent to a scrapyard.

Lancashire Police joined forces with the Benefits Agency, the Department of Transport and RSPCA to carry out Operation Mermaid.

The teams targeted vans, light goods vehicles and some heavy goods vehicles as they travelled along the M65 near Whitebirk, Blackburn and the M6 near Bamber Bridge.

In one of the worst cases, a Ford Transit van was scrapped after police swooped.

Animal welfare officers were drafted in to examine a truckload of chickens which were travelling for slaughter to the Garstang area. Out of almost 80 vehicles examined, 25 had serious faults, including braking, lighting or suspension defects.

Six others must have major faults fixed before they can return to the road.

PC Ian Ashton, of Lancashire Police motorway unit, helped to organise the operation.

He said: "Road safety throughout the county is a force priority and this type of exercise will be repeated to drive home our message that we are determined to make Lancashire's roads as safe as possible.

"We carry out about five such operations each year and have a different theme each time.

"This one was a success in that we ordered 31 unfit vehicles off the road but also showed that there are still problems out there."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.