Driving at 85mph is dangerous and we support bans for people driving at excessive speeds

Roger Vincent Rospa

The consultation paper suggests the government could ease motorists into a harsher regime by introducing automatic disqualification for a year on those who drive at more than 95mph before lowering the threshold.

Motorists could lose their licences for a year for exceeding 85mph and be made to retake their driving test to get their licence back.

Police discretion

Currently, motoring groups say most motorists are not regularly stopped for speeds less than 80mph.

Motorists travelling at more than 96mph can be taken to court, where they are often disqualified, but police can exercise discretion and issue a fixed penalty and points instead of starting proceedings.

Bans are entirely at the discretion of magistrates but those driving over 100mph usually have to provide exceptional circumstances - such as taking a seriously ill passenger to hospital.

The Home Office paper will be in consultation until 9 March before any bill is prepared.

The paper suggests creating a two-tier speeding penalty system which could result in "two strikes" before a ban in the upper tier which would be set between 75mph and 85mph after a year.

Most police forces acknowledge that many people drive around 80mph and motorists only tend to obey those speeding regulations they can understand as reasonable

Michael Johnson AA

For drivers exceeding 85mph, the paper says: "It would be possible to build into the scheme a minimum sentence of a year disqualification for those speeding beyond the second-tier level."

Motorists would be punished after fewer offences at all speeds as "three modest speeding offences would result in totting up disqualification, instead of four".

New penalties would also bring potential bans for speed over 27mph in a 20mph zone and more than 45mph in a 30mph area.

Kevin Delaney, traffic and road safety manager for the RAC Foundation, told BBC News Online there was support in principle for a two-tier penalty system but not on the proposed thresholds.

Draconian penalties

Mr Delaney, a former police officer, said: "The proposed thresholds could see drivers penalised for exceeding speed limits by one mile an hour and getting a �90 ticket and three quarters of their penalty points for going seven miles above the speed limit.

"What we are seeing will by seen motorists as draconian."

He said drivers would spend so much time checking speedometers the proposals would create a danger.

"Take your eyes off the road for a second at 70mph and you have covered 105ft."

He said "inappropriate" speed in dangerous or difficult circumstances was often a more important factor than whether the speed limit was exceeded.

Reasonable regulations

AA spokesman Michael Johnson said: "If you actually keep to the speed limit you will be overtaken by everything on the road.

"Most police forces acknowledge that many people drive around 80mph and motorists only tend to obey those speeding regulations they can understand as reasonable."

But Roger Vincent of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (Rospa) said: "Driving at 85mph is dangerous and we support bans for people driving at excessive speeds."

"The courts should be able to make wider use of compulsory retraining and retesting."