Armagh Road speed detections increase

In total, there were 629 detections of speeding on the road - an increase on the 506 detections in the previous year.

The figures were released in a report published by the Northern Ireland Road Safety Partnership this week.

The report, which details statistics from January to December 2015, was released as part of the Partnership’s aim to reduce speeding as part of Northern Ireland’s Road Safety Strategy to 2020.

One of the report’s key findings was that 46,500 people were detected as either speeding or running a red light in 2015 - a figure which, they noted, was an increase of 9.6 per cent on 2014.

This latest report has been released just as the number of fatalities on NI roads so far this year reaches 39.

The Partnership was established in 2003, setting up targeted enforcement using safety cameras at sites with a history of collisions, in the hope that the number of casualties on Northern Ireland’s roads could be reduced.

The highest number of detections of speeding occurred in May, with a total of 4,904, while December saw the lowest number, with 2,644.

In the course of 2015, four drivers were detected as having driven at the highest recorded speed of 99mph.

There were also 3,639 deployments of the Road Safety Partnership vans, a 12.1 per cent increase on the number of deployments in 2014.

In addition, a total of 23,970 people completed a speed awareness course after being caught speeding - up from 23,534 people in the previous year.

The number of detections in 2015 is more than four times that recorded in 2004 (eleven years ago) - the main reason being that the NIRSP had reduced the threshold at which a driver can be detected as speeding.

The statistics can be read in full in the 2015 Report online at www.nidirect.gov.uk