Mounted police have chased down a driver using his phone at the wheel amid a nationwide clampdown to reduce the number of people using a device while driving.

Officers from Avon and Somerset Police are involved in a mobile phone enforcement operation led by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) over the next three weeks.

Police colleagues from across the country are working together to target drivers who are using mobile phones or other similar devices while driving as the force reported that there have been more than 4,500 fatal or injury collisions on Avon and Somerset roads since the beginning of 2021.

In a video from the ASPolice Roads Policing (RPU) Twitter account, two officers on horses can be seen chasing down and stopping a driver using his phone at the wheel.

When the driver stopped on a road in East Reach, Taunton, one of the officers told him: “You know you shouldn’t be using your phone.”

He replied with “No, no music. I have problem”, to which the officer said: “But you’re driving and you’re on the phone and I can see there’s a phone call ongoing.”

The words “drivers face 6 points [and] £200 fine if caught using a phone” were posted to accompany the video.

A spokesman for Avon and Somerset Police said the video was taken on March 7.

It is unclear what action, if any, was taken against the driver.