With a national speed enforcement campaign starting next week, West Mercia Police is urging all motorists to stay safe and keep speeds down. Speeding still proves to be a problem on all roads; country roads, town streets and motorways.

The campaign is being run across the UK and co-ordinated by NPCC, the National Police Chiefs’ Council, to improve road safety and law enforcement.

The campaign is being run from January 14th to January 27th, to encourage motorists to think about their speed and to remind drivers to always travel within the speed limit.

It is estimated that across Europe speeding contributes to as many as one third of all collisions that result in fatality and is the most important contributory factor to road deaths.

Speeding, as well as inappropriate speed can have a devastating impact on the safety of road users, increasing the risk of a collision and the severity of the consequences.

Over the past three years in West Mercia 123 people have been killed and 929 seriously injured in collisions where speeding or use of inappropriate speed has been recorded as a contributory factor.

Throughout the campaign, the Safer Roads Partnership, police officers, PCSO’s, special constables and community speed watch volunteers will be out and about in local communities taking part in a mixture of enforcement and educational initiatives.

Roads Policing Inspector Adrian Davis for West Mercia Police said: “Supporting this national campaign with local activities and increased enforcement is an important way of raising the issue and highlighting the dangers of speeding.

“There are many local residents in our region whose quality of life is affected by people speeding through their community and families across West Mercia that unfortunately know far too well the devastating consequences that speeding and collisions can lead to.

“We’d like to take the opportunity during this campaign to remind people of the consequences of speeding.

“Apart from the obvious consequences if you are involved in a collision, if prosecuted for speeding, the minimum penalty is a £100 fine and three penalty points.

“You could be disqualified from driving if you build up 12 or more penalty points within a period of three years”.