Finnish police carried out a 24-hour crackdown on speeding motorists between Wednesday and Thursday morning that ended with law enforcement issuing some 5,500 penalties to hurried motorists around the country.
This year's number of offenders was an increase compared to 2017, but police said they devoted more resources to the sting this year. Several more mobile units were deployed this year, along with 120 automated roadside speedtrap cameras, according to Traffic Safety Centre head Dennis Pasterstein.
"The occurrence of speeding motorists increased last year from slightly more than 4,000 incidents to about 5,500 in a 24-hour period," Pasterstein said in a release issued Thursday.
The highest number speeding incidents were recorded in the Helsinki district of Malmi, where automatic cameras snapped nearly 800 photos of vehicles driving above posted speed limits.
The enhanced monitoring also focused on areas that tend to have a large number of traffic accidents and reports of speeding.
This year police said they used feedback from the public when they were planning the daylong drill, and took into consideration requests for speed monitoring in particular areas.