Northamptonshire had the UK's second highest rate of seat belt offences in 2020, new research finds

Northampton came up in the top ten of several common offences, although left the more serious ones to others
By Max Pearson
Published 11th Mar 2022, 15:23 GMT
Updated 11th Mar 2022, 15:24 GMT
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Northamptonshire had the UK's second highest rate of seat belt offences in 2020, new research has found.

The research, conducted by short-term car insurance company GoShorty, analysed data from a series of Freedom of Information requests and government sources to reveal the most common car crimes and the areas with the highest number of offences.

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Coming in just behind Essex, which recorded 286.57 offences per 100,000 people, Northampton recorded 251.06 from a total of 1,756 offences.

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A Northamptonshire Police spokeswoman, said: “Seatbelts really do save lives and that’s why our Safer Roads Team do so much work in this area, both in raising awareness of the importance of this vital piece of equipment as well as enforcing against those who choose not to use them.

“Wearing a seat belt in a car is such a basic piece of road safety advice that it’s incredible some people still choose not to wear one. They really could be the difference between life and death in a road collision.

“Having attended a number of fatal road traffic collisions where people have been ejected from the car, our police officers know better than anyone that the consequences of not wearing a seat belt just aren’t worth contemplating.

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“By not wearing one, you’re 30 times more likely to be ejected from a vehicle and twice as likely to die from injuries as a result of a collision. So please take responsibility for your personal safety on the roads and belt up!”

Amongst other offences listed, Northampton ranked 4th for speed limit offences with 53,460 (7,060.22 per 100,000), fourth in careless driving, excluding mobiles, with 631 (83.33) and third in vehicle registration and excise licence offences with 570 offences counted (75.28 per 100,000).

The research also found that speeding offences made up for 1.8million of the total motoring offences in the UK, with Lincolnshire seeing the highest number of speeding offences (13,420.07 per 100,000 people). Meanwhile London saw the most thefts from a vehicle with 687.51 per 100,000.

Anyone who is interested in learning more about the report, and seeing where other areas ranked, can visit the GoShorty website.