Motorists are using North Shore Road "like a racetrack" according to Police, who ticketed 120 speeders in one evening at the weekend.

All those stopped by officers on Saturday night were doing at least 75 kph, with two offenders reaching 115 kph and 105 kph. Police could not provide a breakdown of the type of vehicles involved.

Chief Inspector Nicholas Pedro told The Royal Gazette yesterday that road deaths — of which there have been 11 this year — far outweighed murders and Police were deliberately targeting problem areas.

"Obviously right now, in the current climate, we have to juggle our resources quite judiciously but it is incumbent on us to ensure that we are enforcing all the laws," said the head of Policing Support.

"We encounter members of the public who feel 'why me?' but personal responsibility starts with the individual. Clearly, we have a problem with driving behaviours on our roads. We have to make sure that the public is safe, not only from firearms, but on our roads."

He added: "We are taking it seriously but we do have officers out there all hours of the day enforcing all the laws, not just the traffic laws."

Police reported that four arrests were made for speeding on Saturday night, with the motorist caught doing 115 kph due in court this week. Chief Insp. Pedro said such a high speed was "extremely dangerous".

"An officer that has to go out and catch up to that vehicle in order to ticket it has to go considerably faster than that," he said. "The officers put themselves at considerable risk in trying to stop these people from causing bloodshed or even death."

He added: "We are experiencing some challenges with North Shore Road in particular, which is where these particular speeds were detected, with people using that pretty much like a racetrack."

All those caught on Saturday will have to go before the courts as Police can only give on-the-spot fines for motorists speeding up to 54 kph.

"The majority of these have court dates in December and January," said Chief Insp. Pedro. "The courts don't have the capacity to deal with our ability to issue tickets."

He said the deliberate targeting of speeders was part of Operation Safer Streets — a wider Police strategy aimed at tackling crime at all levels.

The same initiative prompted the Road Policing Unit to carry out a two-hour crackdown on motorists last Wednesday, when 53 tickets were issued for failure to wear a seat belt.

Six motorists were stopped for disobeying a traffic sign, three for having no licence and two for carrying a load in an unlawful manner. Ten motorcyclists were ticketed for having an unfastened helmet.

Police conducted a series of "high visibility patrols" around the Island last week, including on Sunday when information was received regarding the possibility of violence at the Charity Cup football matches.

Officers used existing and new powers of stop and search — under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act — to check vehicles on Mullet Bay Road, St. George's. They searched 63 people, arresting 14 for outstanding warrants and drugs offences.

Chief Insp. Pedro said: "There were no incidents of violence on Sunday and that's the whole purpose of this legislation. We are doing something that's preventing them from carrying out these attacks."

Police also made several seizures of quantities of controlled drugs in various locations last week but said there "were no suspects".