DRIVERS who persistently break the speed limit should be forced to fit electronic tracking devices to their cars that would detect speeding, the RAC says in a report published today.

More than 15 million drivers, 55 per cent of all those with licences, break the limit on most days, according to a survey by the motoring group. The RAC has broken ranks with other motoring organisations by calling for tough action to tackle what it calls a “speeding epidemic”.

It says that speed cameras are an insufficient deterrent because too many drivers simply slow down for 100 yards and then accelerate again beyond the limit.

In its annual Report on Motoring, the RAC proposes that “repeat or serious offenders” should be compelled to fit black boxes to their cars. The boxes could be used as an alternative to a driving ban for motorists who had accumulated four speeding penalties.

Several companies have developed black boxes that contain satellite tracking systems that can check a car’s speed constantly against the local limit and record the information. Data would be downloaded by police at regular intervals to check the driver’s behaviour.

Similar boxes are due to be installed on more than 400,000 lorries by 2008 under the Government’s plan to introduce a satellite-based charging system for each mile driven.

Norwich Union has also begun to fit black boxes to policyholders’ cars in return for cheaper premiums.

The RAC report, which involved in-depth interviews with more than 1,000 drivers, concludes: “Few motorists consider that the current regime will make them stick to the speed limit as a matter of course; our more fervent speeders would respond to more traffic police or a ‘big brother’ system where their movements are monitored by an in-car electronic device.” More than 60 per cent of habitual speeders questioned in the survey said they would obey the limit if they had a black box fitted.

An RAC spokeswoman said: “More than 30,000 drivers lose their licences each year after getting a fourth three-point speeding penalty. A black box could be an alternative to a ban, which can cost people their livelihoods.”

The report also suggests that habitual speeders should have to display their penalty points on their windscreen.

Road safety officials at the Department for Transport believe that black boxes could significantly reduce the number of fatal crashes, a third of which are partly caused speeding. Ministers have been reluctant to order trials for fear of alienating the motoring vote, but the RAC’s support may encourage the Government to consider adding them to the penalties available to the courts.

Nine out of ten drivers in the RAC survey said that they would find it difficult to adjust their lifestyles to being carless, but almost half agreed that “all the fun has gone out of motoring” because of congestion and overzealous traffic wardens.

More mobile camera sites

The number of mobile speed camera sites on Britain’s roads has soared by more than a third in a year. The mobile units, which have less stringent rules on where they can be placed, are often favoured over fixed cameras, Cyclops, the supplier, said.

Sites for mobile cameras must have seen at least two fatal or serious injury crashes per kilometre within a 36-month period. Fixed camera sites must record at least four such accidents.

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