A new system for automatic speeding fine distribution has been problematic since it was introduced in June, but now police say some 6,000 tickets have been stuck at the post office for up to a month, with the speeding drivers only getting their tickets a long time after the fact.
"We have been informed a little late that there have been problems in the Posti system," said Heikki Ihalainen of the National Police Board.
"Some 6,000 traffic penalty fees have been stuck, as they were sent by the police system in June and July and they were only sent on from Posti at the end of July. Some of them are surely about a month late."
Finland changed its system in June to replace standard fines with traffic penalty fees for minor speeding offences (between 7-20km/h over the limit). At the same time, a fault in the system led to big delays which are only now being worked through the system.
As a result, only a fraction of the normal amount of speeding offences was recorded this summer. In June 3,815 offences were recorded, compared to some 25,971 in 2019.
In July this year, the figure was 7,438 — that's down from 20,673 last year.
As a result of the technical problems, many cameras were turned off during the summer leaving speed-lovers free to put the pedal to the metal.
According to Ihalainen, there has been an increase in more dangerous driving situations and many of the speeding offences that were recorded have involved very high speeds.
Cameras should be mostly turned on as normal during September.