The UK’s speeding hotspots revealed: do you live near a danger zone?

Drivers in the UK have racked up a staggering 19 million speeding tickets over the last decade, according to police data. An investigation into driving offences over the last 10 years has shown the scale of the speeding problem around the country as well as identifying the areas where most offences were recorded. The research by Tempcover used data from police forces around the country stretching back to 2011 and identified a rising trend in speeding offences, with the number of fixed penalty notices (FPN) issued for exceeding the speed limit growing 48 per cent from 1.74 million in 2011 to 2.58m in 2019. It also revealed that nine of the 10 worst spots for speeding were in England, with the south-east accounting for 17 per cent of all penalties issued. Between 2011 and 2019, police in the region issued 3,356,187 FPN, almost half a million more than forces in north-west England, who handed out 2,898,250 - 15 per cent of the national total. Forces in the east of England (2,752,770) and Yorkshire and the Humber (2,425,908) were close behind, with the West Midlands (2,025,486) rounding out the top five regions. In contrast, just 70,538 FPN were handed out in Northern Ireland - less than one per cent of the UK total, and Scotland, which was split into four regions in the analysis, accounted for around three per cent in total with 565,931 tickets issued. Thames Valley was the single busiest force, handing out 438,621 FPNs, followed by Avon and Somerset, West Yorkshire, Metropolitan Police and South Wales. The data showed that in more than three quarters of cases, offenders were sent on a speed awareness course, with the West Midlands the most likely area to offer speeders this option. It was also the region which saw most tickets overturned on appeal, with 31 per cent of FPN dropped. It also revealed the worst speeding offences around the country in 2019 which included a BMW M3 clocked at 162 mph on the M1 in South Yorkshire; a Seat Leon caught at 158 mph on the M3 in Surrey; a Ford Fiesta doing 153mph on the M4 in Avon and Somerset; a Ford Focus RS spotted doing 153mph on the A956 in Aberdeenshire and a Audi clocked at the same speed onthe M62 in Greater Manchester. Rebecca Needham, Road Safety Officer (England) for RoSPA said: “Driving or riding at inappropriate speeds remains one of the leading causes of serious and fatal collisions on our roads. In 2019, 215 people in Great Britain were killed in accidents where at least one of the motorists involved was exceeding the speed limit. “Remember that the speed limits are not targets to reach, but rather suggest the maximum speed you should travel at."