Britain's Top Speeder: Motorist On M25 Caught Driving At 149mph

Motorist On M25 Collared After Becoming Britain's Top Speeder
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A motorist has been caught speeding at 149mph – more than twice the legal motorway limit.

The record-breaking driver was spotted by a speed camera on the M25 in Swanley, Kent, it has been revealed.

It was the highest recorded speed during the period April 2013 to May 2014.

This offence, and others, were revealed in data received from police under a Freedom of Information Act request from the Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM).

The highest speed on a 50mph (80km/h) road was a driver recorded doing 119mph (192km/h) on the A414 Stanstead Abbotts, Hertfordshire Constabulary said.

Lincolnshire Police revealed a driver was caught doing 113mph (182km/h) in a 40mph (64km/h) zone on the A17 Station Road, Swineshead Bridge.

Another motorist was caught on camera doing 117mph (188km/h) on the A580 East Lancashire Road, although Merseyside Police did not say whether this was in a 40mph or 50mph zone.

IAM chief executive Simon Best said doing 149mph equated to travelling nearly two-and-a-half miles in a minute.

He said: "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."

Mr Best 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."