Image copyright Getty Images Image caption All five drivers detected at the highest speeds were men

More than 100 drivers were caught driving at 100mph or more in Northern Ireland last year.

The police figures show that 109 Northern Ireland drivers were caught driving at 100mph (160 kmh) or faster in 2018, compared to 86 in 2017.

All five drivers detected at the highest speeds were men.

The top speed detected was by a 35-year-old man who drove at 140mph - twice the speed limit - on the M2 in Belfast.

The next four highest speeds included a 40-year-old who drove at 128 mph on the Frosses Road outside Ballymena, a notorious accident blackspot.

Getty Worst offenders Top speeds in NI in 2018 (mph) 140 M2, Belfast

132 M2, Rathbeg

128 Frossess Road

127 M2, Antrim

127M1, Dungannon Source: PSNI

The PSNI figures were revealed by the road safety charity Brake.

PSNI Insp Rosemary Leech said that "removing excess speed from the road safety equation" should be the easiest thing that every road user can do.

"Excessive speed for the conditions is consistently one of the principal causes of the most serious road traffic collisions in which people are killed or seriously injured on roads across Northern Ireland," she said.

"Drivers have to take responsibility for their own actions and by speeding they are causing a danger to fellow road users.

Brake's Joshua Harris said those driving at such speeds put themselves and others in "grave danger".

"The government must invest in national roads policing as a priority to provide the police with the resources they need to get out on the roads and act as a true deterrent to dangerous driving," he said.

"The law must also be used to its fullest extent in penalising such dangerous behaviour, making it clear that speeding will not be tolerated."