The Finnish police will launch a extensive speed control campaign on the main roads of the country next week.
The speed controls coincide with the changes caused in traffic by the arrival of good weather, which brings with it the change of tires, new speed limits and the return of motorcycles and other vehicles that are hardly used in winter.
The campaign will also start the same day that many restaurants are scheduled to reopen and resume selling alcohol.
According to the National Police Board, from 19 to 25 April, police officers will be deployed along the roads in order to "control excessive speeding on a national scale, especially on the arterial highways."
The controls will be active every day 24/7, using all available control means and resources. They will be accompanied by intensive communications.
Also in population centers
During a similar campaign in 2020, the Police caught about 6,000 motor vehicle drivers suspected of aggravated endangering of traffic safety. The number was about 40%, or 1,700 cases up from the year 2019.
"In springtime, controls are particularly necessary after the car drivers change to summer tyres and motorcycles are back in traffic," Chief Superintendent Heikki Ihalainen of the National Police Board points out."
According to Ihalainen, most of Finland already has summer speed limits, and driving at speeds higher than that is no way necessary and certainly not legal.
"Even if the controls focus on the main arteries, the population centres will also be supervised," he adds.
Pedestrian crossing controls
The speed control campaign will not be the first major traffic operation carried out by the police this spring.
Police officers conducted an intensified control focus day on 14 April 2021 at pedestrian crossings, looking at how the relevant traffic rules were followed.
During this operation, 85 sanctions were issued to car drivers for failing to give unhindered passage to pedestrians. Police imposed other 44 penalty fees and fines for other violations of the pedestrian crossing rules.
Cyclists and drivers of light electric vehicles got 57 cautions and were written 6 traffic penalty fees for failures to observe the pedestrian crossing rules.
Seven pedestrians failing to respect the red light were imposed the traffic penalty fee while 16 pedestrians got a caution.
