One out of Every Three people Caught Speeding

11th July 2011

During the last Labour Government  (1997 to 2009) an amazing 17,112,976 drivers were caught and fined for speeding on British roads. That works out to one in three of the current population being caught.

And according to latest figures, this raised around £1billion in fixed penalty fines for speeding. Which in 2009 worked out to the Treasury receiving £10,000 every hour from speeding fines alone.

The revenue derived from speed cameras and Police speed traps has more than doubled between 1997 and 2009 from £28.5million to just over £68million. The two main contributing factors in this rise is the increase in fixed penalty fines from £40 to £60 in 2000 and there has also been an increase in the number of fixed speed cameras, in 2000 there was around 4500 cameras but in 2010 this had risen to approximately 6000.

According to the RAC 74% of drivers believe that speed cameras are more about raising money rather then improving safety on the roads. And urge the Government to consider raising the speed limit to 80mph where it is considered safe to do so.

Road safety campaigners insist that speed cameras help save lives by slowing drivers through accident hot spots. But according to a survey carried out by ICM, 80% of drivers said that they are more likely to look at their speedometers (to check their speed) rather then the car in front, as they approach speed cameras. And it is believed that this may have been a contributing factor in around 28000 incidents since 2001.

The current Govemental coalition pledged to scrap public funding for speed cameras in may this year. Mike Penning has been quoted as saying that “councils had relied on safety cameras for far too long and that he was pleased that some Town Halls were now focusing on other road safety measures”