More than 33,000 motorists caught driving too fast during police blitz on speeding
Police across Belgium drafted no fewer than 33,188 crime report for excess speed during a nationwide operation against speeding earlier this week. The number of motorists caught driving above the speed limit was significant up on the number caught speeding during a similar police operation last year.
On Wednesday 23 March the Federal Highways Police and the 130 local police services checked the speed of a total of 900,000 vehicles. Of these 3.82% were travelling above the speed limit. During last year’s coordinated national anti-speeding operation 2.78% of vehicles were being driven too fast.
The police say that more drivers are now being caught as SPECS speed control systems are now more strictly calibrated than was previously the case and that this time around, they enforced a system of zero tolerance towards motorists that were speeding.
Although a greater proportion of drivers were found to be driving in excess of the speed limit, the number of drivers that were found to be flouting the speed limit to such an extent that their driving licences were confiscated was well down on what it was during last year’s blitz on speeding. While last year 176 motorists were forced to surrender their driving licences, this year 75 had their licences confiscated.
The police stress that excess speed remains one of the biggest causes of fatal accidents. "Last Sunday’s tragedy in Strépy-Bracquegnies and other recent disasters only too clearly highlight this”, a police spokesperson told VRT News.