In the year 2018-19 the number of speeding offences detected in England and Wales reached 2,386,780, a 37% increase from 1,740,217 speeding offences detected in 2011-12 and 4% higher than the 2,292,534 speeding offences recorded in 2017-18.
Furthermore,speeding accounted for 84% of the total 2,837,661 motoring offences detected across the two countries in 2018-19 and ‘exceeding the speed limit’ was recorded as a contributory factor in 13% of fatal crashes in Great Britain in 2018.
Analysis of Home Office data carried out by Dr Adam Snow of Liverpool John Moores University and Doreen Lam of the RAC Foundation showed that West Yorkshire had the highest number of people caught speeding (181,867),followed by Avon and Somerset (159,210). At the opposite end of the spectrum Wiltshire Constabulary caught only 807 people speeding, Cleveland caught 11,937 and Derbyshire 12,256.
Across all 43 constabularies in England and Wales, 97% of speeding offences were caught on speeding cameras. However the variations in the numbers of speeding offences caught can be attributed to local policing priorities, the geography of the different constabularies, the road type and the traffic volume. For example, Wiltshire turned its speed cameras off in 2010,making the country reliant on the police force to catch speeding drivers.
When asked about the rising number of speeding offences,Steve Gooding of the RAC Foundation said: “The simple rule for drivers who don’t want to risk ending up with a speeding ticket is not to break the limit in the first place. Where limits are properly signposted and clearly feel right for the road in question then motorists have no excuse for going faster, but that means highway authorities also have a responsibility to make sure the limits they set are appropriate and to avoid instances where the limit repeatedly ‘bounces’ up and down along a single stretch.”
Of the 2,386,780 speeding offences detected in 2018-19, 44% resulted in the offender being sent on a speed awareness course, 34% attracted fixed penalty notices(FPNs), 12% were later cancelled and 10% resulted in court action. Since its inception in 2010, approximately 9 million people have attended at least one national speed awareness course, suggesting that as the pace of life picks up,so does the speed of drivers.
