Needing the toilet and being late to parents evening were just some of the excuses drivers gave for speeding.

KMTV reporter Sofia Akin joined enforcement officers from Kent Police in an operation after figures revealed 70,000 drivers were caught speeding last year.

They pulled over three drivers in just an hour and a half.

Dave Crompton, Inspector for Roads Policing in Kent, says not everyone realises the real risks that can come from speeding.

He explained: “Speed kills, and it not only can cause that collision but the serious injury that comes from it.

“I would like to see the number of offences reduced and I’d like to see the number of collisions we have to deal with reduced. That’s the ultimate aim.

“It’s something we do keep on top of and we have different ways of enforcing speed. It will be something we continue to enforce to improve road safety.

“We use overhead cameras which you see on the motorway and we have gatso speed cameras at the roadside which are activated when speed is in excess of the limit.”

They also have mobile vans at “vulnerable” hotspots and officers in marked and unmarked cars who use equipment to catch those speeding.

Dave said: “We continue to look at new investments we can make to improve road safety.

“The technology we use on a day-to-day basis is what we have available to us and we will continue to use that.

“Unfortunately, people do continue to speed and to go beyond the speed limit and unfortunately that does also have consequences.

“We do, too often, see serious injury and fatal collisions as a result.

“Some people don’t have any regard for outcomes of things and other people will take it on board and reduce their speed.”

In 2023, 76,531 speeding offences were issued in Kent, and a significant amount were handed to drivers travelling along the M25.

“The M25 has 130,000 vehicles approximately going across the Dartford Crossing every day so it’s relative to the volume of traffic on that road,” he explained.

“I think a lot of people don’t realise the consequences, or people do think our speed enforcement is just to make revenue which isn’t the case, it is about safety.

“Sometimes the attitude of it is ‘Well no one’s been killed tonight’.

“And this is what we find ourselves dealing with, people don’t see speeding as one of these things that’s going to end up with someone dying.”