1950 motorists held for over-speeding

Nearly 1950 motorists were caught for over-speeding while the police conducted surveillance across the country during the control week from 21 to 27 March, said police in a press release on Tuesday.

Members of the law enforcing agency also arrested 47 wanted people and registered 24 drug-related offences, three fire-arms crimes and eight property offences during the special drive.

The automated speed controls registered 788 further cases of speeding during the control week.

The Police is concerned about the trend persisting over the past few years, with heavy speeding increasingly frequent. Among the speeding cases recorded last week, 86 met the criteria of suspected endangerment of road traffic.

“Another objective of the control week was to increase the risk of being caught. We actively informed the public about the higher risk, especially in the social media,” Chief Superintendent Heikki Kallio of the National Police Board said.

According to him, the controls are particularly necessary in the spring as the road conditions improve and seem to entice some drivers to excess behaviour in the traffic.

During the past week, the Police patrols used about 5,070 working hours on speed controls, with the 24 hour control marathon accounting for about 1,500 hours of the whole. Civilian cars were also involved in the control operations.