Brits racked up an incredible 2.3 million speeding offences across the areas covered by 36 police forces in 2016 – leading to a heavy cost in terms of both fines and the safety of our roads.
We submitted Freedom of Information Act requests to police forces around the country to try to build a picture of which areas have the most prolific, and the most dangerous speeders.
The results were nothing short of shocking – for instance, while only ten forces were able to provide details on the cost of fines they'd handed out, those ten alone totalled more than £17 million. And the 36 forces that put a figure on the number of speeding offences totalled a frankly worrying 2,293,228 altogether.
The worst offenders were found in areas covered by West Mercia and Suffolk constabularies, where police recorded speeders going at 154mph. Speeds of 151mph also recorded in Nottinghamshire; 148mph in Avon and Somerset and 145mph in Lincolnshire. In fact, the lowest top speed recorded was 100mph in Derbyshire – still a full 30mph clear of any legal speed limit.
Avon and Somerset constabulary also had the highest number of offences overall at 219,550 – a staggering ten per cent of the total. Thames Valley was second-highest at 173,654, while Greater Manchester came in third at 120,315. Overall, local constabularies recorded an average of 65,521 speeding offences each during the course of 2016.
According to road charity Think!, around 3,000 people are killed or seriously injured on the roads each year. Speeding is one of the main contributing factors to road accidents, particularly fatal ones.
While the number of deaths and injuries are actually steadily improving, largely thanks to cars' safety features getting better all the time, it's still an unacceptable cost. There's no need to speed when you're on the roads – and we'd like to suggest people save their racing instincts for the track instead.
We all enjoy the adrenaline kick of racing, and would recommend visiting a purpose built environment where it's safe and overseen by friendly professionals. TeamSport's got 22 amazing go-karting tracks around the UK, so wherever you are, you're never far from somewhere you can blow off some steam and get a fix for your need for speed.
Sitting behind the wheel low to the ground gives an enhanced feeling of speed and whilst our karts’ top speed of 40pmh might not be quite as high as the speeds the police recorded across the country, you’ll be able to race safe in the knowledge you’ll never get a speeding ticket at our tracks!