Posters to drive home speeding message

MOTORISTS who breach the speech limit on some of Torbay's busiest roads are being targeted in a special safety campaign.

The focus will be on known speeding hotspots during the initiative, which is part of National Road Safety Week between November 23 and 27.

Torbay Council is teaming up with the police and the Devon and Cornwall Camera Safety Partnership to promote speed awareness which will be backed with enforcement.

The Think! campaign is aimed at making drivers who regularly use the resort's 30mph roads aware of how fast they are driving.

Posters designed to look like road signs will be displayed one after another for maximum impact.

Roads targeted include Torquay's Browns Bridge Road, Newton Road to Shiphay Lane, and Teignmouth Road at Maidencombe, as well as Paignton's Penwill Way, Preston Down Road, Southfield Avenue and Dartmouth Road and North Boundary Road in Brixham.

The posters will stay up for four weeks.

PC Chris Lancaster, road safety officer, said: "We receive complaints from residents about drivers speeding through their neighbourhood.

"Yet often we find those residents, when they are driving, are found to be exceeding the speed limit in someone else's road.

"We would ask all drivers respect neighbourhoods and travel at a speed they would want drivers to travel at in their street."

He added: "Enforcement is always a last resort. We hope that by introducing these signs drivers will start to recognise what the limit is and why it is there."

Road safety councillor Chris Lewis, said: "It is vital that we continue to drive home the message that speeding is often the main or a contributory factor in road collisions, and that all speed limits are put in place for a very good reason."

The campaign will also include advertising on buses and bus stops.