Brussels police write first tickets for "non-essential" trips
Local police in Brussels-Elsene have fined motorists that were making non-essential trips yesterday. Road checks were held in a number of places, and people had to explain where they were going and why, in times of corona, spokeswoman Ilse Van de keere.
We are only allowed to go out to buy food, medicines or to go to the doctor (or to do sports, but in that case we shouldn't take the car to drive somewhere first). This should be done locally, close to your home. When people take the car to go somewhere, police are more suspicious. Several points in Brussels were the scene of road checks, with police asking people where they lived and where they were going.
13 fines were issued for non-essential trips on the small Orbital Road, another 6 on the Schaarbeeklei in Haren and 13 on the Franklin Rooseveltlaan.
In other places, speed checks were held between 19 and 27 March. Over 25,000 vehicles were checked, with 1,128 motorists found speeding (about 4.5 percent). "There are fewer cars on our streets and some abused this situation to drive too fast", Van de keere explains.
In Vilvoorde, a motorbike was caught doing 152 km/h (95 miles per hour) where a maximum speed of 70 km/h applies. Near Laken park, a motorist was found driving 138 km/h where only 50 was allowed.
We noticed that some were abusing the situation to go speeding