Excessive Speed

There was much furore recently on news that a driver in his 20’s had been convicted of driving at speeds up to 149 mph on the M25 near Swanley in Kent. The man appeared at West Kent Magistrates court in March and was banned for 6 months,

The man appeared at West Kent Magistrates court in March and was banned for 6 months, fined £600 and required to pay costs and a victim surcharge amounting to £150.

The story was released by the Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM) following a freedom of information request. Which also revealed other drivers guilty of driving significantly over the speed limit. Other cases included:

• a driver in Gateshead recorded doing 96 mph in a 30 mph zone.
• a motorist near Wendover caught doing 127 mph in a 60 mph area.
• a driver recorded doing 119 mph on the A414 Stanstead Abbotts which has a 50 mph limit,
• a motorist  caught doing 113 mph in a 40 mph zone speed limit enforcemenin Lincolnshire.

Obviously driving at these sorts of speeds is not to be condoned,. It puts other road users and the drivers themselves in danger. Fortunately stories of such excessive speed are rare.

One less publicised statistic that accompanied the report came via a freedom of information request from Radio Kent. Apparently the number of drivers issued with speeding notices in 2013 was 66,357 up from 34,438 in 2010. That’s almost twice as many motorists being caught speeding in three years.

Are the drivers of Kent driving faster or are Kent Police enforcing speed limits more aggressively?

What do you think?