POLICE have put their foot down on speeding drivers in Bury.

A total of 726 drivers were stopped by Bury traffic officers during last month's Greater Manchester Police Kill Your Speed Campaign.

Some 699 local motorists are now facing hefty fines, points on their licence or, for some, disqualification after being caught on camera or laser breaking the speed limits in the borough.

Force wide, the recent campaign detected more than 14,000 drivers travelling at excessive or inappropriate speeds with almost 11,000 people facing prosecution either through the courts or through fixed penalty tickets. Speed is probably the largest single contributory factor in road accidents with the cost to the Greater Manchester community from all fatal and injury road accidents in 1997 in excess of £340 million.

Hailing the recent campaign a success, Inspector Brian Ritson, the Force Road Safety Officer, said that regrettably speeding was not regarded as an important issue by many people. He said: "The police are often criticised for what action they take against speeding motorists and yet the death and injury toll on our roads is unnecessarily and tragically high.

"If the same casualty rate were attributed to almost any other cause there would almost certainly be a public outcry and calls for action." Although the current publicised initiative has ended, police in Bury will continue to use all available means of detection to help reduce the incidence of speeding.

Insp Ritson added: "It is regrettable that self-discipline is so lacking in motorists that such campaigns are deemed necessary in order to attempt to safeguard other road users from what is a real and often fatal danger."

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