by Tommy Lumby

Speeding accounted for two-thirds of driving offences in Kent in a year, figures reveal.

Analysis of Home Office data shows motorists were caught going too fast 20,366 times by police in 2018-19.

KMTV report on the statistics

It means 68% of the 30,024 motoring offences recorded over the period were for speeding.

This was a much lower proportion than across England and Wales as a whole - 84% of the 2.8 million motoring offences logged across the two nations were for speeding.

The number of speeding offences detected in Kent in 2018-19 was 8% higher than during the previous year, but 15% less than in 2011-12.

Across England and Wales, the 2.4 million offences recorded in 2018-19 represented a 4% annual increase, and a 37% rise compared with seven years previously.

In Kent, 78% of speeding offences in 2018-19 were dealt with by handing the driver a fine.

The next most common outcome was court action (11%), while 9% of offences were cancelled, and 1% resulted in a speed awareness course.

The analysis, which was carried out with Liverpool John Moores University, found that the number of drivers caught speeding varied widely across England and Wales.

The police force that detected the most speeding offences in 2018-19 was West Yorkshire with 182,000.

But in Wiltshire, where all speed cameras were turned off in 2010, the police caught fewer than 1,000 people speeding.

Researchers suggested the disparity is partly due to road type, traffic volume, and local policing priorities.

Department for Transport figures show 186 people were killed and 1,505 seriously injured in crashes on Britain's roads in 2018 in which a vehicle exceeding the speed limit was a contributory factor.

Steve Gooding, of transport research charity the RAC Foundation, said: "The simple rule for drivers who don't want to risk ending up with a speeding ticket is not to break the limit in the first place.

"Where limits are properly signposted, and clearly feel right for the road in question, then motorists have no excuse for going faster.

"But that means highway authorities also have a responsibility to make sure the limits they set are appropriate and to avoid instances where the limit repeatedly bounces up and down along a single stretch."

Police in Kent earlier defended their record on speeding motorists after figures suggested its detection rates were among the lowest in the country.

The force disputes data published by the RAC Foundation that it recorded only 18,878 offences in 2017-18, down from 23,080 in 2011-12 - a drop of 22%.

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