Motorist Drove At 104mph On M1

28 May 2014, 09:09 | Updated: 30 March 2016, 13:50

Efforts to make speeding as unacceptable as drink driving are failing, as new figures revealed some motorists are driving at double the limit.

The highest speed clocked on Britain's roads last year was 149mph on the M25 in Kent.

Other police data released under a Freedom of Information Act request by the Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM), showed the highest speed recorded on a 30mph road was 96mph, three times the limit, in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear.

In the East Midlands, a driver was caught doing 104 in a 50 zone in Lowdham in Nottinghamshire and someone did 104 in a 50 zone on the M1 in Derbyshire.

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 added:

'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.'