Almost half of UK police forces (48%) have caught motorists driving over 90mph on 30mph roads – more than three times the speed limit, new data analysed by the RAC has shown.
A Freedom of Information request to the UK’s 45 police forces also found that, of the 40 with data, almost all (90%) had clocked people driving at 60mph on these roads.
With the highest recorded speed on any road being 167mph on a 70mph stretch of the M1 by Leicestershire Police, the RAC says the study ‘paints an alarming picture of the speeds some motorists have been caught driving at’.
Looking at the largest difference between the speed recorded and the posted limit, the highest logged speed was 161mph on a 50mph eastbound stretch of the A303 in Somerset.
More than half of police forces (58%) recorded drivers travelling in excess of 140mph. While most of these contraventions were on 70mph motorway stretches, this wasn’t always the case.
South Yorkshire Police clocked a driver at 146mph on a 50mph southbound stretch of the M1, while Police Scotland detected someone driving at 148mph on a 60mph section of the A68 in the Scottish Borders.
But perhaps most disturbing, the RAC says, are the speeds some people are prepared to drive at on 20mph and 30mph roads – those that are far more likely to have high numbers of pedestrians, cyclists and other vulnerable road users using them.
South Yorkshire Police recorded a speed of 122mph on a 30mph road, while North Wales Police logged a vehicle being driven at 88mph on a 20mph road. Both speeds are more than four times faster than the speed limits.
Rod Dennis, RAC road safety spokesperson, said: “Although this data is a snapshot, it shines a light on the incredibly dangerous actions of a few, that are putting law-abiding road users at serious risk. Thankfully, the police were on hand to catch these drivers.
“There is no place for the vastly excessive speeds that some people are prepared to drive. While some speeds were recorded in the middle of the night when traffic will have been lighter, this isn’t always the case – some of the fastest drivers were clocked at other times of day when they’d have been sharing the roads with many others.
“Speed is the leading cause of deaths on UK roads. We look forward to the Government’s forthcoming road safety strategy understanding what can be done to reduce such avoidable casualties on the UK’s roads.”
Chief constable Jo Shiner, National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for roads policing, said: “We know that some incidents of going over the speed limit can be genuine mistakes or errors but the speeds cited here are clearly drivers taking deliberate decisions to travel at excessive speeds, putting everyone at risk.
“Speed limits are set based on many factors including the road layout, what’s in the surrounding area and taking into account where there might be more vulnerable road users. Choosing to drive above those limits is reckless, selfish and completely unacceptable.
“We all have a responsibility to keep each other safe and do whatever we can to reduce the number of people killed and seriously injured on our roads each day.”
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