Countywide: Almost 300 speeding drivers stopped during Road Safety Week

Last week, Enforcement Officers issued a total of 289 speeding tickets to drivers across the county, during national Road Safety Week.

Each year, Essex Police supports Brake, a road safety charity, in a week-long national Road Safety Week as part of their role to make roads in Essex safe for everyone. This year’s campaign, “Let’s talk about speed,” aimed to get people talking about speeding, why there are some who disregard restrictions and what happens when we speed.

Unfortunately, during this high-profile week of policing activities focussing on tackling speeding, our Speed Enforcement Officers identified 229 speeding motorists across the county and issued each driver with a fixed penalty notice.

Our Safer Essex Roads Enforcement Officer colleagues issued a further 60 tickets in policing activities to target offenders.

Samantha Wright, Road Crime and Partnership Co-ordinator, explains:

"Sadly, each year people die on our roads.
"Speeding kills and it’s our priority to address the issue to ensure that all road users are safe. In the last year in Essex, speeding was the contributory factor for three fatalities, and 53 serious injuries.
"During this week of action, our very own speed Enforcement Officers were out targeting Essex motorways and trunk roads, focussing on reducing speed, improving road safety, and reducing casualty numbers in support of the wider Brake Road Safety Week of action.
"And we continue to work with the Safer Essex Roads Partnership to make all our roads safe for everyone.
"This week’s enforcement activities formed part of the national Vision Zero road safety campaign, and our ambition is to have no road deaths by 2040 or sooner."

Our officers were performing targeted enforcement on the A130, A13, M11 and the A120, stopping speeding motorists and issuing speeding tickets, with the highest recorded speed being 104mph on a 70mph road.

An Essex Police Enforcement Officer added:

"This blatant disregard for the law and other road users is totally unacceptable.
"We will continue to raise awareness of the dangers of excess or inappropriate speed through robust and high visibility enforcement to reassure members of the public that Essex Police are committed to ensuring safe speeds for safe journeys."

Earlier this year we welcomed new Roads Policing Speed Enforcement Officers, a new role to support the Safer Essex Roads Partnership’s (SERP) Vision Zero and the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner’s plan to improve safety on our roads.

Alongside our Roads Police Officers, they are dedicated to tackling road-related crime and provide reassurance to the public in areas where speeding has been raised as a concern.