M25 Driver Clocked Doing 149MPH

THE IAM has, with the aid of the Freedom of Information Act, done some digging to find out the scale of speeding in the UK.

During the course of its research, it found that the top offender was a motorist clocked at 149mph on the M25. The offence, near Swanley in Kent, was captured by a speed camera and was the highest recorded speed during the period April 2013 to May 2014.

This offence, and others, were revealed in data received from police under a Freedom of Information Act. Other findings showed:

:: The highest speed recorded on a 30mph road was 96mph in Leam Lane in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear.

:: The highest on a 50mph road was on the A414 Stanstead Abbotts, Hertfordshire, where a motorist clocked 119mph.

:: The highest on a 60mph road was 127mph on the A413 Wendover bypass in Buckinghamshire.

Commenting on the research, IAM chief executive Simon Best said: "A speed of 149mph equates to nearly two and a half miles in a minute. If anything goes wrong at that speed, you're unlikely to walk away and you are a grave danger to the innocent road users around you."

He went on: "Speed limits are a limit. They are not a target to beat. Unfortunately this message has not got through to many motorists and it's clear that efforts to make speeding as socially unacceptable as drink-driving continue to fail.

"The current guidelines on sentencing for excessive speeding offences are out of sync with modern roads, modern vehicles and society's view of the value of lives lost in crashes."

By Press Association reporters