Police Traffic Safety Centre

Along with the traffic penalty fee, you were sent instructions on how to request an administrative review. If the traffic offence in question does not affect your right to drive, you do not have to request an administrative review but can assign the traffic penalty fee directly to the actual driver for payment.

You must submit the request for an administrative review within 30 days after you received the traffic penalty fee decision. You can submit the request through the police’s online services. You can also fill out the form on the reverse side of the traffic penalty fee decision and return it to the Police Traffic Safety Centre by post or e-mail.

Link to online services

No, you cannot, because traffic penalty fees and inquiry letters are always first sent to the vehicle owner or holder entered in the register. Contact the vehicle owner/holder and together fill out the reply letter or possible appeal when you receive the letter. If the question is of an offence that does not affect your right to drive, the appeal need not be made but you can pay the traffic penalty fee directly.

We process all new cases as quickly as possible. If you have taken Suomi.fi messages into use, you will receive information on possible sanction directly through online services. Otherwise you will receive the letter at home by post. According to law, the traffic penalty fee decision must be sent within 30 days from the date of the offence at the latest.

We do not give any prior information about the cases so just wait for mail to arrive. If some weeks have already passed from the camera flash and you think the letter may have been lost on its way, you can contact our customer service.

Information on Suomi.fi messages on the Suomi.fi website

The easiest way to report the driver’s information is through the police’s online services. If you wish, you can also enter the driver’s details on the response form and return the form to the Police Traffic Safety Centre by post or email. If you do not report the driver’s details, you may be asked to visit the police station for interrogation.

You are not required to comment on the violation. The police station of your choice can take care of any further proceedings, if necessary.

Link to online services 

Cases involving a day-fine are handled at police departments, as they need to be notified personally. Electronic notification is also possible through the Suomi.fi service. If you wish to have the fine electronically in Suomi.fi messages, please contact the Traffic Safety Centre, tel. +358 295 541 7917 (Mon–Fri 9 a.m. – 3 p.m.)

Yes, if you contact the inviter by telephone and agree on a new time.

Yes, we can. You can email us at automaattivalvonta.helsinki@poliisi.fi or call us on weekdays between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m., tel. +358 29 541 7917.

Yes, you can. If you wish to pay the traffic penalty fee in instalments, use the same reference number for all payments. After the due date, you have approximately 2 months to pay the traffic penalty fee before the Legal Register Centre sends you a payment reminder. If you have received a payment reminder and still need more payment time, please contact the Legal Register Centre by phone at +358 29 566 5662 (Mon-Fri at 10 a.m. - 1 p.m.) or by email oikeusrekisterikeskus@om.fi.

The photo is part of pre-trial investigation material and confidential until the pre-trial investigation has been concluded. After the end of the prescribed time, you can order the image by email from the address automaattivalvonta@poliisi.fi. When ordering the image, specify the case with a case number, for example.

You will see the driver’s facial photo connected with the traffic penalty fee in digital form by logging into the police’s online services. During pre-trial investigation of a traffic offence, the driver’s facial photograph can be sent in an encrypted email to the owner, holder or suspected driver of the vehicle.

Before the investigation is closed, you can view the whole photo at the police service desk of any police department in Finland. Once there, please ask the clerk to call the Police Traffic Safety Centre (tel. +358 29 541 7917) that will send the photo to the clerk’s email account.

A traffic penalty fee is issued in all speed limit areas for speeds 7-20 km/h over the speed limit.

In practice, the police reduce the measured speed based on a possible measurement error of 3 km/h, which means that the speed recorded on the traffic penalty fee decision or fine is lower than the measured speed. It the speed is over 100 km/h, the police reduce the measured speed by approximately 3%.

For example, if you drive at a speed of 70 km/h in an area where the speed limit is 60 km/h, you will be imposed a traffic penalty fee on which your speed will be recorded as 67 km/h. If you drive at 71 km/h in the area, your excess speed after the reduction by the margin of error would be 8 km/h.

Day fines are imposed if the excess speed is more than 20 km/h after the reduction. 

You have been photographed on the bus lane after driving across the crossing without turning. In a densely populated area, you can get on the correct lane one block before you turn, i.e. after the previous crossing. If the distance between the crossings is over 150 metres, you should take the correct lane no more than 150 metres before the crossing.

If the speed limit sign speed is not visible, the driver must deduce maximum permitted speed from the traffic environment. The general speed limit in built-up areas is 50 km/h and outside of them 80 km/h. You can clean a snow-covered speed limit sign if you can do it without endangering traffic safety. You can also take a picture of a snow-covered traffic sign as evidence in case you later get fined.

The road user’s duty to exercise care includes the obligation to find out the prohibitions, orders, provisions and restrictions set for the road using traffic control equipment. As a rule, this duty has been considered demanding. The scope of the duty to exercise care that can be required from a road user encountering a snow-covered traffic sign is always assessed case-by-case and taking the prevailing conditions into consideration.

If you receive a traffic penalty fee for not having noticed the change of speed limit owing to a snow-covered traffic sign, you can fill in the appeal that you receive together with the traffic penalty fee decision. The polices handle appeals case-by-case and submits unclear cases to court for final decision. Different types of decisions have been awarded by courts of higher instances in which it has been considered whether the driver should have been able to deduct the change of speed limit from the traffic environment.

If you get a traffic penalty fee or fine for traffic offences three times in one year or four times in two years and it affects your driving right, you can lose your driving licence for a fixed period. If you have held a driving licence less than two years, the limit for assessing your right to drive is two offences in one year or three offences in two years. The decision will be made by your local police department.

The highest speeding (causing a traffic hazard in a manner showing gross negligence or causing a serious traffic hazard) can also lead to a driving ban without previous offences. 

As traffic penalty fees are not counted as repeated traffic offences, they will not affect your right to drive or lead to any other consequences.

For more information on driving bans, see section Driving bans on the police website.

Companies that own one or more vehicles that have no natural person registered as the holder must appoint someone to be in charge of their vehicles. The person in charge of use should know who drives the company’s vehicles. The person in charge of use must live in Finland and have at least a category B right to drive. A person in charge of use may be registered on the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency’s (www.traficom.fi/en/) website.

Vehicle-specific traffic penalty fees are sent to the person in charge of use if there is no natural person registered as the holder of the vehicle. Unless the person in charge of use is the main driver of the company’s vehicles, it is worth introducing a driver’s log to keep track of the use of the vehicles.