Speeding figures show Yorkshire motorists seem to think they are a law unto themselves - Jayne Dowle

Our region also reports an unenviable record; the fastest speed of all in a so-called 30 mph zone. One driver in South Yorkshire was clocked doing 122 mph, more than four times the speed they should have been driving at.

Through Freedom of Information, the RAC asked 45 police forces - 40 responded - to provide information on speeding offences relating to a 20-month period from the start of January 2023 to the end of August 2024.

In the full breakdown of the highest speeds on 30mph roads, three other Yorkshire constabularies’ figures made the list.

West Yorkshire Police clocked an idiot going at 112mph, North Yorkshire Police spotted another reaching 77mph and Cleveland Police found yet another doing 64mph.

“There is no place for the vastly excessive speeds that some people are prepared to drive,” says RAC road safety spokesman Rod Dennis.

I know this only too well. I live on a 30mph road, where over the last eight years, three people have lost their lives in accidents. There have also been numerous incidents involving speeding drivers, including one only the other week, when a car with two young men in the front mounted the pavement, almost crushing a father taking his children to school.

On our road, less than a mile in length, there’s a couple of sharp bends, then a fairly long stretch towards a busy crossroads, also the scene of myriad accidents, often because drivers don’t slow down quickly enough to take a controlled decision.

Residents have long complained to local councillors about these dangerous drivers who treat our road as a racetrack; we really do need a speed camera. So yet again, we’re under speed monitoring, a tracker sign which flashes bright orange to show each driver’s speed as they pass. Presumably, the authorities will collect data and then make a decision.

I could save them the bother. All they need to do is stand in my bedroom window for 10 minutes or so. I watch that speed tracker and almost every single driver clocks up at least 31 mph, often way higher.

Roads with 20mph and 30mph limits are more likely to have a higher number of pedestrians, cyclists and other vulnerable groups, the RAC says. Do these selfish individuals think the sign doesn’t apply to them? Don’t they see the children walking along, going to the primary school around the corner? Are they totally oblivious to the elderly people making their way gingerly out of their bungalows? The dog walkers? And heaven help anyone trying to pull off their own drive.

As Chief Constable Jo Shiner, the National Police Chiefs' Council lead for roads policing, says: “Speed limits are set based on many factors, including the road layout, what's in the surrounding area and taking into account where there might be more vulnerable road users.

“Choosing to drive above those limits is reckless, selfish and completely unacceptable.” Indeed.

My fear however, is that excessive speed has become so ingrained, it’s literally impossible to stop.

The Labour government is reported to be putting together a new road safety strategy, the first in more than a decade. In November, former Transport Secretary, Sheffield Heeley MP Louise Haigh, told MPs on the Transport Committee that the number of deaths on UK roads has become “normalised” and something must be done to turn the tide.

In 2023, the latest figures available, 1,624 people lost their lives in motoring accidents, with 29,711 in total killed or seriously injured.

This was actually a slight fall on the previous year, but separate Department for Transport (DfT) statistics show that in 331 of the cases in which people died on the roads, a driver exceeding the speed limit was a contributory factor. This was at least a 10-year high and represented 21 per cent of all road fatalities.

If you think I’m ranting, you should speak to a couple of my friends who are driving instructors. They are both in despair at the lack of respect drivers show on the roads these days.

It’s not just excessive speed, they say, but lack of patience (often with anyone actually sticking to the proscribed speed limit), and downright aggression and a sense of entitlement that comes from absolutely nowhere.