The Finnish Police will perform a 24-hour speed enforcement marathon from 22 August at 06.00 to 23 August at 6.00, particularly by using movable automatic speed surveillance units.
Simultaneously, police patrols will perform ordinary speed control and supervise motorists’ driving behaviour, in accordance with the monitoring plans of each police unit.
“Control will be targeted particularly at areas where accidents have taken place and speeding is a frequent problem. We will also target supervision on the basis of feedback and speed surveillance requests received from members of the public. At the beginning of the school term, supervision locations will include the surroundings of schools and day care centres,” says Chief Superintendent Kari Onninen of the National Police Board.
The purpose of speed limits in road traffic is to lower the number of road accidents and if accidents happen, to mitigate the consequences.
“Speed limits even out the speeds drivers use and reduce the need to overtake, while improving the traffic capacity of roads. Studies show that a one per cent change in the average speed changes the number of those injured by two per cent, and fatalities by four per cent,” says Onninen.
All surveillance cameras will be activated
The Police Traffic Safety Centre will activate all available automated surveillance cameras, and all 24 surveillance vehicles will be on the move.
“We will monitor with approximately 120 cameras at the same time,” says Chief Inspector Dennis Pasterstein, head of the Police Traffic Safety Centre.
Pasterstein will publish the locations of 40 cameras on his Twitter account @DPasterstein..
During similar speed enforcement marathons in previous years, some 5,000 flashes of the camera have been observed during the 24-hour surveillance period (in 2016, a total of 5,290 and in 2017, 4,303).
“The police is hoping that not even last year’s number is exceeded this year and that driving speeds remain moderate,” comments Onninen.
