The police are concerned about the fall in traffic safety.
Cases of drivers driving at high speeds that fell within the classification of a serious traffic hazard in the January-March period have risen by approximately 60 per cent nationally in comparison to the same period last year. There was an increase of approximately 11 per cent in cases of driving while intoxicated.
“There has been an evident fall in traffic safety throughout the first months of the year, not only after the current emergency conditions were put into place,” says National Police Board Chief Superintendent Heikki Kallio.
The risk of being caught is greater than previously
Kallio reminds people that the police continue to perform traffic surveillance even in emergency conditions.
“As a matter of fact, the police have been able to increase traffic surveillance because of the decrease in crime and the number of tasks received from the Emergency Response Centre, which has left patrols with more time to monitor traffic. Under the current emergency conditions, the risk of being caught has only increased,” Kallio says.
According to Kallio, the police are focusing their surveillance on key areas that are most likely to endanger traffic safety.
“The key focuses of surveillance are detecting intoxicated drivers and drivers who are causing serious traffic hazards,” he says.
Heikki Kallio appeals to the reason and sense of responsibility of everyone travelling on the roads.
“To ensure the safety of everyone on the road, speed limits and other regulations have to be followed in emergency conditions just as they are in normal conditions,” Kallio emphasises.
Serious speeding offences have increased
According to Heikki Kallio, automatic traffic surveillance has caught almost twice as many drivers exceeding the speed limit by more than 50km/h than it did during the same period of the previous year.
Statistics reveal that patrols have detected the largest number of serious speeding offences in North Karelia, Central Finland and Pirkanmaa.
The number of people driving under the influence of drugs has grown
In the January-March period, the police learned of approximately 5,000 cases of driving while intoxicated, which was roughly 11 per cent more than in the same period of the previous year.
“For the first time in history, there were fewer alcohol-related cases than drug-related cases,” Kallio says.
The number of intoxicated driving cases has risen the most in comparison to the previous year in North Karelia, Kymenlaakso and Lapland, where police recorded more than 40 per cent more cases in the January-March period than in the same period last year.
Approximately half of intoxicated driving cases involving young people between the ages of 18 and 24 were drug related. Regionally, there were a large number of drug-related cases in Kanta-Häme, Kymenlaakso and Uusimaa, among others.
The greatest increase from last year occurred in Central Finland.
Approximately one fourth of intoxicated driving cases involving young people have been serious. The most notable region in this category has been South Savo, where as many as half of all intoxicated driving cases involving young people have been serious during the early part of the year.
There has been an increase of more than 50 per cent in the number of people who have been injured or killed in cases involving alcohol and other intoxicants in comparison to the same period last year.
People are actively reporting offences
Heikki Kallio ponders the possible reasons for the increase in speeding cases.
“The large number of detected speeding offences can be explained by a number of factors, such as the warm winter and accompanying good driving conditions in the southern and central parts of the country, the reduced amount of traffic during the emergency conditions and the active traffic surveillance of police,” Heikki Kallio estimates.
According to Kallio, the police have realised that, with less traffic, people are more likely to notice drivers who are exhibiting suspicious traffic behaviour and report these incidents to the Emergency Response Centre.
“The police are also more likely to recognise high-risk drivers among the lighter traffic,” Kallio says.
