The speed traps that caught the most drivers
The top 10 ticket spots
TWO sets of speed cameras on busy South Wales roads are in the top 10 for tickets issued in Britain, new figures have revealed.
The two spots just 30 miles apart captured tens of thousands of speeders in just over a year.
More than 35,000 drivers were caught out by the two traps within the South Wales Police force area during 2018.
That would be the equivalent of around £3.5m in fines if each motorist received a £100 ticket. However, not all offences are dealt with through fines, with motorists given the opportunity to sit speed awareness courses instead in most cases.
One camera on North Road, Cardiff, came third in the whole of the UK for catching motorists out and captured more than 22,000 drivers.
The trap sits at the foot of a flyover on the A470 where two lanes merge on the approach into the Welsh capital shortly after a change in limit from 40mph to 30mph.
A second set of Welsh cameras – on the M4 towards Port Talbot, which measures average speed along a two-and-a-half mile stretch of the motorway – caught drivers out as they change from 70mph down to 50mph.
More than 12,000 drivers received
■■1. A104 Lea Bridge Road, London: 38,234 tickets
■■2. A12 Stratford St Mary, Suffolk: 27,705 tickets
■■3. North Road, Cardiff: 22,267 tickets
■■4. M1 south between J26 and 25: 20,549, tickets
■■5. A616 Stocksbridge bypass, South Yorkshire: 19,607 tickets
speeding tickets at the Port Talbot site.
The RAC’s head of policy, Nicholas Lyes, said: “Decisions on where to deploy speed cameras must always be led by a genuine desire to improve road safety.
“Cameras have played a vital role in keeping our roads safe over the years, but the police must be able to show their deployment is about saving lives and nothing more.”
South Wales Police said fixed speed cameras were the responsibility of the Wales-wide GoSafe roads policing initiative.
A spokesperson for GoSafe said it was not the case that each motorist caught would pay a £100 fine.
They added: “All fines (fixed penalties) issued are dealt with by Her Majesty’s Court and Tribunal Service
■■6. A1067 at Taverham, Norfolk: 19,398 tickets
■■7. A338 Wessex Way, Bournemouth: 15,669 tickets ■■8. A66 west at Kirkby Thore, Cumbria: 12,880 tickets
■■9. M4 west at Port Talbot, South Wales:12,799 tickets ■■10. A3 Esher bypass, Surrey: 12,726 tickets
with all revenue passed to the Treasury.
“GoSafe publish figures about the diversion of offences into driver education and this shows that 55% of all offences detected are resolved by provision of driver education.
“In terms of the number of offences detected at these two locations in Wales, it is important too to note that these are two roads with a high volume of traffic.
The majority of people drive safely and comply with the speed limit: a small proportion choose to break the law.
“GoSafe does not use offence figures as a performance measure: we are focused on compliance with the speed limit and our best sites are those which have zero offences, and zero collisions”