Police to conduct 24-hour speed control marathon on Thursday 26

Finnish police will carry out 24-hour automatic speed control, especially by making effective use of camera surveillance vehicles, on Thursday 26 August.

Control will particularly focus on commuter traffic and traffic near schools and child daycare centres, explained Chief Superintendent Heikki Kallio of the National Police Board.

"Commuter traffic speeds increase since people are used to rushing to get to work and not much surveillance is necessarily seen at the time. The themed control now taking place is an attempt to influence this traffic in particular," says Kallio.

Another important theme is to maintain adherence to speed limits where there are schoolchildren, the police said in a press release.

Police patrols will also control speeds during the day.

509 fines for speeding

Last week and the week before when schools re-opened after the summer break, the police carried out traffic controls in the vicinity of schools, particularly at the start and end of the school day. Police says a lot of speeding, driving without wearing a seatbelt and using hand-held communication devices while driving motorised vehicles was detected.

The Police again caught many people speeding, some of them near schools. During the two-week control period, the Police issued a total of 1,345 traffic penalty fees and 509 fines for speeding, and 90 drivers were temporarily disqualified from driving, the majority for driving well over the speed limit.

A total of 44 traffic penalty fees were issued to vulnerable road users, 6 to pedestrians, 20 for cycling on the pavement and 18 for operating a light e-vehicle on the pavement.