Hundreds of speeders caught as Road Crime Team continue to respond to community concerns

Since the start of the Covid19 pandemic, speeding has increased on Essex roads, causing concern from Essex residents as well as the Safer Essex Roads Partnership.

For the last eight weeks, the Road Crime Team has been listening to these concerns and travelling all over the county in a bid to detect and prevent speed offences.

Last weekend, 11-12 July, the team focused on the Chelmsford and Maldon districts, covering nearly 1,300 miles. Here 743 speeders were caught, two drivers were found to have no insurance, two people were arrested on suspicion of drug driving and one person was arrested in connection with a domestic incident on behalf of Cambridgeshire police.

On 4-5 July, the team travelled across Tendring and detected nearly 400 offences including a motorcyclist who was caught riding at 91mph in a 30mph road.

Matt Hine, Road Crime Team Manager, said: “We know that reduced congestion, (amongst other factors) due to the pandemic has caused an increase in speeding and we know that communities are understandably worried about the impact of this.

“Speed is the number one contributory factor in serious and fatal collisions which makes it an extremely important issue for us to tackle as a team.

“We want to reassure the public that we are listening, and we are responding. We will continue with these operations and will visit the Chelmsford and Maldon districts again this weekend.

“I am hopeful that visible operations such as these will make speeders think and remember to drive safely.”

13 July 2020