French police are struggling to control the number of British speeders before and after channel crossings, it has been reported. The problem has become so bad the French authorities have now called in English police to help them control UK drivers.
The French claim that the number of British road casualties in their hospitals is on the rise and recent crackdowns are not working. In a four-hour period last weekend, on the A26 motorway near Saint-Omer, a joint British-French patrol stopped 30 cars for breaking the 80mph limit. All but two of the drivers were said to be British and UK motorists are responsible for half the serious (over 125mph) speeding offences in the region this year.
'Often British drivers pretend they do not understand and they think that the French police have it in for them,' said Lietenant Patrick Vanderstaerten, of the Pas-de-Calais Police. 'It's an old cliche from the old Anglo-French quarrel.'
The British are now said to have overtaken the Germans as the main foreign speeders in France. The French police now complain that while their countrymen obey the limits British drivers do not.