NEARLY 2,000 people were caught speeding across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight in a one-week campaign to crack down on driving offences.

The week of speed enforcement was part of Hampshire Police's and the European Traffic Police Network's speed enforcement campaign.

The results from Hampshire and the Isle of Wight saw 1,938 vehicles exceeding the speed limit.

Of those 403 were detected by Roads Policing Officers and the remaining 1,535, were caught by mobile or static safety cameras.

A breakdown of the results revealed 74 per cent of the motorists caught speeding were men, while 80 per cent of offences occurred on roads with a speed limit of 30mph.

Most of the offenders were car drivers (80 per cent) while 17 per cent were van drivers and nearly half of the people caught speeding were offered a speed awareness course (48 per cent), and 47 per cent were given a Fixed Penalty Notice, and only one per cent were reported for summons.

Hampshire Constabulary's Roads Policing Unit Sergeant Rob Heard, said: "Excessive or inappropriate speed has an appalling impact when you're involved in a collision. The forces experienced by the human body in a collision increase exponentially as the speed increases.

"If you collide with a pedestrian at 30mph they have a 80 per cent chance of survival, however if you collide at 40mph then the pedestrian only has a 20 per cent chance of survival.

"Our focus on those who endanger lives on our roads is relentless through both enforcement and education.

“Nearly half of all those caught have will be offered a National Speed Awareness course as an alternative to prosecution. This approach is aimed at improving knowledge and attitudes to influence better behaviour on the roads."

The week of action happened between August 17 and 23.