Startling figures released on Monday reveal that Reading drivers were slapped with 3,080 speeding tickets and 23 careless driving fines last year — the equivalent of eight-and-a-half tickets a day.

With the minimum penalty for speeding £100 and three points on their licence, Reading drivers racked up at least £308,000 of fines and clocked up 9,240 points during 2013.

But Richard Cuerden, technical director of vehicle safety at Transport Research Laboratory (TRL), warned that the figures — released by the road-safety charity Brake — could be just the tip of the iceberg. He said: “Whatever figures presented are an underestimate.

“Once a collision has happened it is very hard to know if they were going above the speed limit or driving carelessly.” The borough’s worst offenders were motorists in Caversham and Emmer Green who clocked up 802 speeding tickets totalling £80,200 and 2,406 points — with the majority being issued on 30mph roads (737).

Motorists in Woodley racked up 432 speeding tickets and two fines for careless driving while drivers in Earley were issued four careless driving penalties and 580 speeding tickets.

Careless driving became a fixed penalty notice offence in August 2013 so the figures from the charity only show careless drivers caught during the last five months of last year.

Mr Cuerden stressed that although driving at 35mph in a 30mph zone seems like a small offence, it can be the difference between life and death for pedestrians.

He said: “I don’t have to double my speed to double my risk of injury and it is exactly the same for pedestrians.

“If I am driving quickly I am more likely to hit them and because I am going quicker I am more likely to seriously injure or kill them.

“That extra 5mph from 30mph to 35mph really is the difference between life and death for a pedestrian.” A pedestrian struck by a car driving at 30mph has a seven per cent chance of being killed, but they are five-times more likely to die if the car is travelling at 40mph.

Reading’s Green Party leader Cllr Rob White was shocked that so many drivers take the risk of driving above the speed limit and renewed his call for a borough-wide 20mph speed limit.

He said: “It’s frightening people would take their lives and those of other people into their own hands so carelessly.

“Reading is such a built-up area, no one should be making it more dangerous.

“We are definitely going to keep up the campaign for a Reading-wide 20mph zone.” Brake is urging the Government to up the maximum penalty for speeding to £1,000 in line with littering and smoking fines.