Campaigner clocks speeders in Ossett
SHOCKING numbers of speeding motorists have been clocked by an Ossett road safety campaigner with his own speed gun.
Brian Coe, chairman of Ossett and Horbury Road Road Safety Group, recorded 236 drivers travelling over the 30mph limit in just five hours on Towngate.
A total of 14,000 would have been recouped in speeding fines had the drivers been prosecuted, Mr Coe has calculated.
And he has worked out that speeding would generate millions of pounds in fines every year if permanent detection cameras were installed on the road.
Mr Coe said: "These figures are absolutely out of this world. It is incredible and I am sorry to say that some drivers were doing 60mph and 70mph."
He said it was worrying that 76 taxis were among the vehicles he recorded speeding in his evening checks over the past two weeks.
Mr Coe has long been calling for measures to halt speeding in Ossett, which is a police priority and sparked a petition calling for traffic calming measures earlier this year.
He said figures he obtained from the Northwest neighbourhood police team showed only a small number of prosecutions for speeding on Towngate.
But after acquiring the speed gun, Mr Coe believes many irresponsible motorists are getting away with excessive speeds.
He said: "I believe these figures because I recorded them personally. I am going to give them to the local police.
"I am also going to show the figures to our MP, Ed Balls. If the government is short of money they should put speed cameras up on every road."
Mr Coe raised the figures at a Police and Communities Together meeting at Ossett Town Hall on Wednesday night.
Sgt Bob Prince, from the Northwest NPT, said local officers could be trained in using radar guns to tackle the problem.
He told the meeting: "We have identified that there is a problem and we are looking at what the solution is."
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Saturday 19 May 2012
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