The 24-hour traffic enforcement sting revealed dozens of cases in which motorists exceeded the limit of serious negligence or even reached the level of serious traffic endangerment, police said.
During a 24-hour operation that enlisted 143 speed cameras and officers performing traffic monitoring around the country, police detained more than 5,100 motorists for speeding, including 17 individuals who had outstanding warrants.
“In that sense it is a disastrously large number, given that this campaign was highly publicized in advance. We tried to ensure that everyone knew in advance that the chance of getting caught was very high,” police inspector Timo Ajaste said Thursday.
According to Ajaste the number of motorists observed to be speeding was about the same as in a similar exercise last year.
He noted that among the lawbreakers, there were dozens of cases that exceeded the limit for serious negligence or even aggravated traffic endangerment.
Spring inspires the need for speed
However the police inspector said one comforting outcome was that the majority of drivers who were caught had only slightly exceeded the stipulated speed limit.
Police said they had not yet received the results of the exercises conducted in other countries who participated in the European speeding stings.
Ajaste said that the spring weather was partly to blame for the incidents of speeding.
“When winter weather ends, we put on our summer tyres and summer speed limits come into force, so the desire to speed always arises,” he noted.
However he pointed out that spring weather does not give motorists the right to speed. Drivers should always monitor their speed and remember its significance to the safety of other passengers in their car as well as to others in traffic, he said.