RAC warns of ‘speeding epidemic’
More than half of British motorists regularly break the speed limit, according to a new survey from the RAC.
Fifty-five per cent of respondents to its poll admitted to regular speeding, a jump of ten per cent on last year’s poll.
Of the 1,074 questioned, two thirds of drivers admitted speeding in 30mph zones and 57 per cent said they regularly exceeded motorway speed limits.
RAC spokesman Philip Hale, said: “We have something of a speeding epidemic on our hands.
“Enough people to fill 10 commercial holiday jets die every year on Britain’s roads. Individual motorists know these risks, yet choose to ignore them – drivers are speeding undeterred on all types of road, at all times of day, every day of the week and would only respond to the harshest penalties. While extreme actions may not be practical, more effective deterrents do need serious and urgent consideration.”
Motorists told the RAC that the greatest deterrents to speeding would be a highly visible police presence and more ‘draconian’ penalties, including instant 12-month bans.
Shadow Transport Secretary Tim Yeo, said the report showed that Labour’s policies on road safety had failed.
Mr Yeo said: “This shows that Labour’s reliance on speed cameras, too many of which are positioned to be cash raisers not life savers, is neither reducing speeding nor cutting road deaths.
“The best deterrent is more traffic police on our roads to catch the most dangerous drivers. By recruiting forty thousand more police, Conservatives will make it possible for chief constables to restore the number of traffic police to the level we left behind in 1997.”
The Association of British Drivers said the number of drivers speeding is a result of ‘inappropriate’ speed limits.
Chairman Brian Gregory said the drive to ratchet down speed limits meant that “more and more drivers who are setting their speeds quite safely for the traffic conditions are finding themselves outside the law.
“The danger of this is not in drivers exceeding improperly set limits but in the destruction of a very useful road safety tool. Drivers used to see a limit and know there was a high probability it was there for a reason. Nowadays limits are so often put in without good reason that drivers will simply ignore them”.
