Motorway maniac clocked at 152mph on the M1 in Northamptonshire during campaign to stop speeding

A motorway maniac was clocked doing 152mph on the M1 in Northamptonshire during a two-week campaign to stop speeding.

The reckless driver was one of more than 1,400 ticketed during the Slow Down, Save Lives effort aimed at making the county's roads safer.

Enforcement cameras snapped one biker racing at 65mph — more than double the 30mph limit.

Northamptonshire's Safer Roads Operations Manager, Matt O’Connell, said: “It is really disappointing, despite all the warnings that this operation was taking place that so many drivers still chose to drive over the limit.

“Speeding kills – it is as simple as that.

"It is one of the four biggest dangers while driving and the difference of even just a few miles per hour can be the difference between life and death.

“It is hard to understand why so many people continue to put their own life and the lives of others at risk by speeding when the consequences of getting it wrong are so extreme, and can leave families devastated by the loss of loved ones.”

Officers from Northamptonshire Police’s Safer Roads, Neighbourhood Policing and Special Constabulary teams carried out speed checks across the county between May 25 and June 7.

Checks were carried out as part of the National Police Chiefs’ Council Slow Down, Save Lives campaign launched following the easing of Covid-19 travel restrictions.

A total of 1,450 offences were recorded in the county — 1,355 cars, 63 vans, 22 HGVs and ten and motorbikes. Of those, 293 were caught in just ONE DAY on May 29.

More than half of these offences were committed on roads with 30mph speed limits, including the biker clocking more than double the limit.

Another 316 drivers were recorded exceeding on roads with 40mph speed limits, including one at 80mph, and 75 in 60mph.

The motorway maniac doing an eye-watering 152mph was among and 277 clocked breaking 70mph limits in the county.

Checks on the A45 in Northampton also spotted 11 drivers not wearing seatbelts in morning rush hour.

Last year, 42 people were killed on the county’s road network — the most for eight years — and a further 347 were seriously injured. Excessive speed was a contributing factor in 14 per cent of collisions.