Speeding drivers face a postcode lottery depending on how much local police prioritise fines, with motorists in West Yorkshire most likely to be penalised
- There was a 4% increase on last year and 37% rise compared with 2011/12
- The vast majority of speeding incidents involved road cameras not police
- Of those caught speeding in 44 per cent opted to attend a speed awareness day
Where you live in the country can affect how likely it is you are to be caught speeding, analysis of official figures has found.
The analysis of Home Office data by Adam Snow of Liverpool John Moores University and Doreen Lam of the RAC Foundation found that the number of drivers caught speeding was 225 times higher in some parts of England and Wales than others.
The police force that detected the most speeding offences in 2018/19 was West Yorkshire with 182,000.
This was followed by Avon and Somerset with 159,000 and Metropolitan Police and City of London combined – 157,000.
At the other end of the scale, Wiltshire Police caught fewer than 1,000 people speeding, with Cleveland and Derbyshire each identifying 12,000.
A total of 2.84million motoring offences were recorded in 2018/19 in England and Wales, meaning speeding accounted for 84 per cent of offences and 2.39million drivers. File image used
Researchers suggested variations across forces are partly due to geographical area, road type, traffic volume and local policing priorities. In Wiltshire, all speed cameras were turned off in 2010.
Nearly 2.4million drivers have been caught speeding over the past year – a rise of more than a third in only seven years, the study revealed.
It was a 4 per cent increase on the previous 12 months and a 37 per cent rise compared with 2011/12.
A total of 2.84million motoring offences were recorded in 2018/19 in England and Wales, meaning speeding accounted for 84 per cent of offences and 2.39million drivers. The vast majority, 97 per cent, of speeding incidents involved cameras.
Department for Transport figures show 186 people were killed and 1,505 seriously injured in crashes on Britain’s roads in 2018 in which a vehicle exceeding the speed limit was a contributory factor.
RAC Foundation director Steve Gooding 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, 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 goes up and down along a single stretch.’