Revealed: The 30mph roads where police are catching drivers going up to FOUR

‘Incredibly dangerous’ drivers are being caught by police going up to four times the speed limit on 30mph roads, an investigation found today.

Some 48 per cent of UK forces captured drivers exceeding 90mph on such roads in the 20 months to the end of August last year, according to the RAC.

The highest recorded speed on 30mph roads in the analysis was 122mph in South Yorkshire. For 20mph roads, a top speed of 88mph was logged in North Wales.

Roads with 20mph and 30mph limits are more likely to have a higher number of pedestrians, cyclists and other vulnerable groups, motoring experts said.

The fastest speed detected on any road was 167mph on a 70mph stretch of the M1 motorway by Leicestershire Police.

And the biggest difference between the speed recorded and the posted limit was 161mph on a 50mph eastbound stretch of the A303 in Somerset.

The RAC called on the Government to use its forthcoming road safety strategy to tackle ‘avoidable casualties’ in crashes involving speeding drivers.

The figures were obtained through Freedom of Information requests to 45 forces relating to the period from the start of January 2023 to the end of August 2024.

Some 40 forces provided data, with 90 per cent of these having clocked people on 30mph roads driving at 60mph.

Drivers were also recorded travelling in excess of 140mph by 23 of the forces.

While most of these contraventions were on 70mph motorway stretches, South Yorkshire Police clocked a driver at 146mph on a 50mph southbound stretch of the M1.

And Police Scotland detected someone driving at 148mph on a 60mph section of the A68 in the Scottish Borders.

Some 24 forces caught motorists driving over twice the speed limit on 20mph roads, with seven recording speeds of more than 60mph.

RAC road safety spokesman Rod Dennis said: ‘Although this data is a snapshot, it shines a light on the incredibly dangerous actions of a few, that are putting law-abiding road users at serious risk.

‘Thankfully, the police were on hand to catch these drivers. There is no place for the vastly excessive speeds that some people are prepared to drive.

‘While some speeds were recorded in the middle of the night when traffic will have been lighter, this isn’t always the case – some of the fastest drivers were clocked at other times of day when they’d have been sharing the roads with many others.

‘Speed is the leading cause of deaths on UK roads. We look forward to the Government’s forthcoming road safety strategy understanding what can be done to reduce such avoidable casualties on the UK’s roads.’

The RAC pointed to Government data showing speed is the biggest factor reported in fatal road collisions – in 58 per cent of fatalities, and in 43 per cent of road collisions of all severities.

It added that in 2023, speed contributed to 888 fatalities and 39,882 collisions of all severities.

Chief Constable Jo Shiner, the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for roads policing, said: ‘We know that some incidents of going over the speed limit can be genuine mistakes or errors, but the speeds cited here are clearly drivers…