Police reveal speeding offences have doubled in Thames Valley

Speeding offences in the Thames Valley have almost doubled in the past six months compared to last year.

Officers from the Thames Valley Police Roads Policing and response teams attended 3228 road traffic collisions from 1 April 2023 to 30 September 2023.

1,007 arrests were made relating to drink driving, 1,220 for driving whilst distracted by a mobile phone and 1,862 people were arrested for not wearing a seatbelt.

The detection of distraction offences such as driving while using a mobile phone, have increased by 78%.

Seatbelt offences are up by 72% when compared with the same six month period of last year.

48,794 offences were detected as speeding by officers, while 38,821 were detected speeding by cameras.

Detection of speeding offences has increased by 91% from the same period last year, while fatal collisions are down slightly on this time last year and down even further on the previous year.

Detective Chief Inspector Mike Bettington, of the Joint Roads Policing Unit said: "These numbers highlight the vast amount of work our roads policing officers carry out across the Thames Valley every day.

"We will continue to work together with partners across a range of agencies to find ways to reduce and prevent offending. Everyone should be able to use our roads in a safe and healthy way. We will educate where appropriate to prevent re-offending and explain where there is an opportunity to encourage safer use of our roads.

"We are dedicated to keeping road users safe and will be persistent in dealing with those that commit offences on the road network."

The figures were released as part of Road Safety Week, which runs from 19-25 November and focuses on the increased risk of a crash when drivers go over the speed limit.

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