The No Excuse roads policing team, working with the Peninsula Road Safety Partnership (PRSP), recently carried out four days of concentrated detection of speeding in areas where casualty rates have been identified as issues by local authorities.

The activity took place on 22, 23 and 29 May and 1 June, and coincided with a national week of action by police to encourage more awareness for two-wheeled road users, and for safe and responsible riding by motorcyclists.

MPC Ralph Delbridge, who led the operation for the No Excuse team, noted: "Excessive or inappropriate speed is one of the five main causes of death and serious injury on our roads. The No Excuse team is dedicated to enforcing against these Fatal Five behaviours.

"It is disappointing to find that during the operation, motorcyclists who are undoubtedly some of the most vulnerable road users were caught exceeding speed limits which are there for a reason."

Particularly excessive examples were 116mph, 99mph and 96mph where the limit was 70mph on the A30 and A38.

MPC Delbridge added: "Riders, and drivers, must understand that these limits are there for everyone's protection. Excessive speed is dangerous to everyone especially motorcycle riders. In 2017, they accounted for 19% of all road deaths in Great Britain."

The speed detection vans of the PRSP found in excess of 500 speeding offences by all types of vehicles. All will be receiving a letter in the post informing them of a penalty or summons to court.

Marcus Laine, Operations Manager for the PRSP, said: "It is extremely disappointing that despite widespread coverage of the risks involved to motorcyclists, we seem to have a continuing number of riders who do not believe it will happen to them. Unfortunately, the latest statistics show that speed is listed as a contributory factor in collisions with Devon and Cornwall at 50% higher than the national average rate.

"Motorcyclists in the 16-24-year-old age group are disproportionately represented at a 30% higher rate than the national average. We will be concentrating on having an impact on the most vulnerable of our road user group and on the roads we have identified as the greatest risk locations.

"Traditionally we have not been able to deploy to these locations due to the physical layout of the road and fitting our vans in. We now have a number of motorbikes within the unit which can enforce from non-traditional locations."

MPC Delbridge concluded: "We urge all trainee motorcycle riders to progress from their CBT certificate to a full test and consider training with Bikesafe to help achieve this, and also to wear the right protective clothing and observe all speed limits.

"By the same token, we ask all road users to be aware of just how vulnerable two-wheeled road users are, and to give them courtesy and space."

You can follow the daily enforcement activities of the Devon and Cornwall Police No Excuse team, and all the other parts of Alliance Roads Policing, on Twitter.

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