More than 120 drivers caught speeding in day
Most motoring offences clocked on just two roads
More than 120 speeding offences were recorded in a day of action in Maidstone - with the majority taking place on just two roads. Teams from Kent Police and Maidstone Borough Council joined forces for the clampdown on unlawful motoring, with both drivers and vehicles facing on-the-spot inspections. Of the 122 speeding offences dealt with by the force’s Safety Camera Team on March 10, most were on Warmlake Road, where the speed limit is 30mph, and the A229, which has a varying limit between 30 to 70 mph.
Officers from the Road Safety Unit also used a mixture of marked and unmarked vehicles to patrol Maidstone to ensure drivers were adhering to the law. More than 40 vehicles were stopped and drivers were reported for various traffic offences including no insurance, tax, or MOT, using a mobile phone at the wheel and not wearing a seatbelt.
The first stop of the day was
a vehicle carrying an insecure load. The driver, 27, from Aylesford, was pulled over in St Peter’s Street, where he failed a roadside drugs test for cocaine and was arrested.
He has since been released pending further investigation. An unmarked police bike pulled over a vehicle on the A20
London Road. The driver, Alekseja Basjuks, 38, of Gorse Crescent in Aylesford, was charged with drink driving.
Another motorist, 23, from Maidstone, was arrested on suspicion of drug driving in Phillips Avenue. Police seized cannabis from the vehicle.
One driver was fined £300 for
carrying too heavy a load while officers seized one van as the driver did not have a waste carrier’s licence. Taxis were also inspected.
Ch Insp Craig West of the county’s Roads Policing Unit said: “We will always be committed to road safety because it saves lives.”