Accident reduction Isle of Man-style

“We’re unique here,” admits Detective Sergeant Allan Thomson, the man in charge of policing the roads of the Isle of Man. “You can get off the boat and go up onto the mountain course and be doing 180mph within 15 minutes, without breaking the law.”

That’s right – he’s the man in charge of enforcing the law on the island without speed limits.

The Isle of Man is best known for the no-holds barred TT motorcycle race, which takes in a route utilising most of the island’s faster roads.

But it’s also infamous as being the only place in Europe outside Germany’s Autobahn network where there is no upper speed limit on derestricted highways, with about a third of the Manx road network being unlimited.

No surprise then that it has become a Mecca for both riders and drivers wanting to explore their outer limits without risking speeding tickets. Believe the normal lines about speed killing and it sounds like a recipe for disaster, doesn’t it?

“We never forget that this is the public road, not a race track,” says Thomson, “but we want to try and engage with people and talk to them – to treat them appropriately to make them behave better.”

Thomson is a career copper who took on the responsibility for road policing three years ago. He leads a team of just five constables, responsible for all road policing on the 572 square-kilometre island, the population of which swells considerably beyond 85,000 during TT week. After taking control he ordered a dramatic change in emphasis from the sort of highway policing most of us are more familiar with.

“The old culture was to put everybody in the book, not to ask questions or even to find out their story,” he says.

"We used to site the speed traps on the exit of villages, where people are already excited and starting to go faster. I moved them back into villages so that people could see why we were doing it, and we started to engage with people more – to explain what we were doing and why we were doing it, not just writing tickets.”

The result was both a dramatic reduction in speeding convictions, and therefore also the revenue raised in fines for the autonomous Manx government, but also a huge decline in crashes and incidents of anti-social behaviour.

“It’s all about establishing the idea that if you do wrong we’re going to have a word with you,” Thomson says. "But we want you to come back next year and tell your friends how good it is, and how good the police are… My guys used to be doing 12-hour shifts, with eight hours pinging people and another four writing it all up. Now it’s all out on the road, trying to be in the right place at the right time."

This is pro-active policing; Thomson or one of his team will aim to meet up with visiting groups of bikers or supercar owners when they arrive on the island, and make a point of responding quickly to any reports of hooning or dangerous driving.

“We make sure they have a point of contact,” he explains "And then it’s about painting a picture of the hazards over here, getting across that these are public roads. If you hurt somebody you are liable for it, regardless of whether there are any speed limits or not. But we want people to come over here and enjoy themselves.”

Of course, this gentle approach doesn’t work for everyone, especially during TT week when thousands of bikers come from the UK mainland to ride the famous mountain course. On 'Mad Sunday' the fastest stretch of this is turned into a one-way road, further encouraging people to go as fast as they can.

“Basically if you’re being an idiot then we’re going to have a word with you, simple as that,” he says. “And if you carry on being an idiot then you’re going to get arrested, and if necessary charged.”

Thomson’s team makes use of covert motorcycles – high-performance sports bikes rather than the staid Hondas and BMWs that UK police normally use.

“You wouldn’t spot them, they’re really well done,” says Thomson. “If you see a big sign saying Covert Bikes Operating the first thing you do is look in the mirror. And, of course, there’s a bike behind you: is that one of them? Is it the guy in front? Deaths went down straight away when we introduced them.”

Perhaps surprisingly, the Manx constabulary own few high-performance cars. Thomson says they have nothing faster than the Focus ST wagon that he drives to meet us in.

“You need a car that you can make ground in,” he says. "But you’re never going to be as fast as some of the bikers. You can be driving at 100mph with the lights and sirens on and there will be motorbikes whistling past you like you’re standing still.”

The island experimented with speed cameras, but Thomson admits they “didn’t go down very well”.

That’s not going down as in being smashed up. Members of the community are trained to use speed guns and then pass the details of speeding drivers to the police.

“We’ll have a chat with the drivers,” says Thomson. “That almost always works. You might be surprised, but it’s really not like the Wacky Races over here.”

Common-sense speed enforcement reducing accidents; sounds like a good idea, doesn’t it?