On average every day in the UK 6,000 people are caught speeding. A recent table that has been released shows the monitoring of speeding in the UK and where the offenses take place.
Police Areas with most speeding offences:
- Avon & Somerset – 199,337
- West Yorkshire- 174,796
- Metropolitan Police (including City of London) – 139,318
- Thames Valley – 131,401
- Greater Manchester – 101,421
Coming top of the table with most speeding offenses caught is Avon & Somerset with 199,337 offenses a year which averages about 548 offenses per day. Looking at the bottom of the table with least speeding offenses is Avon & Somerset’s neighbouring county Wiltshire coming in averaging just over 3 drivers caught speeding per day which works out at around 1,191 per year.
Police areas with least speeding offences:
- Kent – 18,878
- Cleveland – (Latest figures not available)
- Derbyshire – 10,480
- Durham – (Latest figures not available)
- Wiltshire – 1,191
Some might say there are many different reasons for this; people think it could be the up rise in people wanting a getaway in South-West England that could be problem. Or could it be people just want to start driving a bit faster when they reach Avon & Somerset? The finger seems to be pointed in the direction of no figures being released for counties like Durham and Cleveland. If what is known is to be believed by road safety campaigners these counties could easily be hotspots for speeding and accidents.
It seems Avon & Somerset Police are adhering to NPCC (formally ACPO) Guidelines of 10% + 2mph. This means that driving in a 30mph zone; it would take the driver to be going 35mph to be classed as ‘speeding’. When looking at the stats in Avon & Somerset we see that 100% of the drivers were caught speeding by a safety camera. On the opposite end of the spectrum out of the yearly 1,191 that are caught speeding in Wiltshire, 0% of drivers were caught by a safety camera.
RAC
Dr Adam Snow from Liverpool John Moores University did a study on behalf of the RAC Foundation is which he found Avon & Somerset recorded a 416% increase in speeding throughout 2011-2018 with no information on how the situation was dealt with. Whilst In Derbyshire 1% of the offenders were sent on a speed awareness course (SAC) and in Durham 60% being offered a SAC.
Steve Gooding, RAC Foundation Director
Steve Gooding, RAC Foundation Director says,” A lot of it will come down to local policing priorities; it’s the job of the police, crime commissioners and chief constables to target resources appropriately, recognising the issues of local concern”.
So the question is with the standards of driving dropping and technology in society becoming more prominent. Are we relying to much on the machines to do the work for us or is this going to be the norm going forward?
