Speeding accounts for vast majority of driving offences in Wigan

Motorists were caught speeding more than 106,000 times in a year

The transport research charity RAC Foundation says the simple rule for drivers who want to avoid a speeding ticket is to stay within the limit.

Other news: Family quits smoking together after being hit by cancer twiceAnalysis of Home Office data by the group shows that motorists were caught driving too fast 106,839 times by GMP in 2018-19.

It means 87 per cent of the 122,411 motoring offences recorded over the period were for speeding. This was a higher proportion than across England and Wales as a whole – 84 per cent of the 2.8 million motoring infractions logged across the two nations were for speeding.

Steve Gooding of 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.”

The number of speeding offences detected in Greater Manchester in 2018-19 was five per cent higher than in the previous year, but seven per cent less than in 2011-12.

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

In Greater Manchester, 42 per cent of speeding offences in 2018-19 were dealt with by sending the driver on a speed awareness course. The next most common outcome was a fine (25 per cent), while 18 per cent of offences were cancelled and 15 per cent wound up in court.

The analysis, carried out with Liverpool John Moores University, found the number of drivers caught speeding varied widely across the country. 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 speeders.

Researchers suggest 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 British roads in 2018 in which a vehicle breaking the speed limit was a contributory factor.