Speeding is a contributor to an estimated 6% of all injury collisions that are reported to the police across the UK, making it among the country’s most common driving offences. The figures released by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) also reveal that 15% of these injury collisions cause a serious injury and 26% result in a death.
Are some of the nation’s regions putting up with a more serious speeding problem than others? Ford Fiesta vans retailer Van Monster has carried out the following research to attempt to find out…
Where are the UK’s speeding hotspots?
After UK Carline submitted a Freedom of Information request, police forces across the UK revealed the severity of speeding among drivers within their constituencies in 2017. West Yorkshire proved to be the region facing the most severe speeding issue across the UK. Throughout 2017, police forces issued 142,610 speeding tickets to drivers exceeding the legal speed limit, more than double the tickets issued than the regions in second and third place. The fastest speed recorded in the region was 160mph in a 70mph zone – 90mph above the legal speed limit! Further worrying figures for West Yorkshire reveals that the highest speed recorded in a 30mph zone was 102mph – more than three times the legal speed limit!
Surrey was ranked second for the highest number of speeding tickets issued — 62,623 tickets were recorded — and West Mercia was in third spot, with 62,503 tickets issued. Whilst Kent is ranked as number six, it still takes joint second place with Surrey for the fastest speeds clocked in a 70mph zone, with speeds reaching 150mph — more than double the legal speed limit.
The regions making up the entire top ten are as follows:
| Rank | Region | No. of speeding tickets issues (2017) |
| 1 | West Yorkshire | 142,610 |
| 2 | Surrey | 62,623 |
| 3 | West Mercia | 62,503 |
| 4 | Dundee | 60,465 |
| 5 | North Wales | 57,224 |
| 6 | Kent | 53,590 |
| 7 | Lancashire | 51,455 |
| 8 | Humberside | 49,982 |
| 9 | Norfolk | 49,730 |
| 10 | Dorset | 45,344 |
“Our research has certainly produced some eye-opening insight into the UK’s driving habits, with some worryingly fast speeds being clocked by speed cameras up and down the country over the last few years,” stated UK Carline’s general manager Jonathan Nolan. “We hope the stats will make people think twice next time they consider speeding, particularly in more residential areas. Drivers should always stay safe on the roads by never exceeding the speed limits.”
Can ties be found between speeding hotspots and dangerous roads?
We now know the hotspots for speeding throughout the UK. So, what are the chances of the same regions appearing when ranking the parts of the country with the most dangerous roads based on routes with the highest levels of road traffic accidents?
The UK’s road traffic accident hotspots section of the government’s annual Road Safety 2016 report should help us to answer that question. When analysing the figures, the West Midlands appears to be the most dangerous region with a total of 37,153 casualties throughout the five-year period leading up to 2016. West Yorkshire, the region which was highlighted to be the UK’s speeding hotspot, ranked number three in terms of danger levels, with 36,597 casualties in the same time period. The Department of Transport reported a 6% increase in the number of casualties on our roads.
The south of the UK accounts for many of the accidents recorded in this study. Despite this, West Yorkshire, Greater Manchester and Lancashire were the top three most dangerous places to drive in the north of England. In fact, five of the top ten most dangerous counties were located in the north of the UK. Kinross-shire in Scotland was branded home to the most dangerous drivers in the UK, however, on the other hand Scotland was also named the safest area to drive in, with Dumfries and Galloway having the fewest casualties in the whole of the UK.
Without a doubt then, the UK has problems both with the rate of road traffic accidents and the frequency of dangerous driving cases. At the same time though, it must also be stressed that the country is also now one of the safest places to drive throughout all of Europe. When comparing the number of road deaths across countries in Europe, only Sweden had a lower rate than the UK. And when it comes to the global scale, the UK is ranked number 10 for the safest place to drive in the world. This could have something to do with the 92% of drivers that class themselves as a ‘good driver’. Maybe it’s time that we worked to improve the driving habits of the remaining 8% to make our roads safer once and for all.
