A NORTH-EAST police force has revealed it identifies the equivalent of three speeding drivers each hour on roads across Teesside and County Durham.

Last year, the Cleveland and Durham Specialist Operations Unit said more than 400 crashes resulted in death or serious injuries, as it claimed "speeding" continued to be a major factor.

Between January 2018 and December 2019, police figures revealed 60,358 speed detections occured across Cleveland Police and Durham Police force areas.

Revealing the figures on Monday, Inspector Darren Breslin of the unit said motorists needed to "stick to speeds" as "lives were being put on the line" every day.

The Northern Echo:

He said: “Speeding is one of the four main causes of fatal and serious collisions, and we have seen a high number of collisions recently where people have been tragically killed or seriously injured.

“Time and time again we issue warnings about the dangers of speeding, however, as our figures show there are still thousands of speeding offences being detected across Cleveland and Durham."

The unit said there were a total of 416 crashes which had resulted in a death or occupant sustaining serious and sometimes 'life-changing' injuries.

The Northern Echo:

Insp Breslin said: "I’m sure that if these collisions involved a loved one of a speeding driver, they would think twice about their speed.

“Lives are being put on the line every single day and we need people to take more care and stick to speeds within the limit which are suitable for the driving conditions.

"Higher speeds mean that drivers have less time to react to what is happening around them, and it takes longer for the vehicle to stop."