Finnish fines hike brings reduction in offences

Doubling summary penal fees has improved traffic behaviour, according to police in Finland. A recent legal amendment has reduced the number of penal orders and fees issued in September and October.
November 24, 2015 Read time: 1 min

Doubling summary penal fees has improved traffic behaviour, according to police in Finland. A recent legal amendment has reduced the number of penal orders and fees issued in September and October.

“These results suggest that doubling the penalties has improved drivers' behaviour on the road,” says Chief Superintendent Heikki Ihalainen of the National Police Board.

Summary penal fees were increased by a government decree from 1 September 2015 onwards. The summary penal fees were doubled, with the exception of the highest fee of US$122 which was raised to US$213.

According to Ihalainen, the number of summary penal orders issued by the police dropped by about a thousand and the number of summary penal fees by about 3,000 in September and October compared to the same period last year.

Enforcement

Related Content

  • A9 Safety Group wins prestigious road safety award
    June 12, 2015
    The A9 Safety Group in the UK has won the CIHT John Smart Road Safety Award, for a range of interventions along more than 200km of carriageway, including the implementation of 50 SPECS3 average speed cameras, supplied by Vysionics. The A9 SPECS3 installation has been in operation since October 2014, and is already delivering impressive changes to driver behaviour. Whilst it is still too early to report on casualty analysis, key performance indicators are already demonstrating that drivers have improved the
    Read More
  • EU urged to green-light revised cross-border enforcement proposal
    October 9, 2014
    Road safety campaigners and European traffic police have welcomed the agreement by EU transport ministers to back a change to rules on cross-border enforcement of traffic offences such as speeding. This comes on the heels of an Institute of Advanced Motorists report that 23,295 overseas drivers have escaped UK speeding penalties since January 2014. The European Commission published a revised cross-border enforcement law in July in response to a European Court of Justice ruling in May that said the exi
    Read More
  • Independent analysis finds speed cameras do not reduce accidents
    June 10, 2014
    An independent analysis carried out by engineer Dave Finney of Thames Valley, UK speed camera data has found an increase in injuries after the devices were installed. The analysis, to evaluate the effect of fixed speed cameras on the number and severity of collisions at the sites where they are installed, was carried out on two groups of sites. One group includes all fixed speed camera sites in the Thames Valley area (covering Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Berkshire) that were active at the start of 2
    Read More
  • Tolling is still stuck on the sidelines says ASECAP speaker
    August 19, 2015
    Geoff Hadwick attended ASECAP’s 2015 Study Days meeting in Lisbon and found a frustrated European tolling sector undertaking some soul searching. The international road tolling industry its failing to make it case and the sector is losing out to a range of other socio-political lobby groups according to International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association (IBTTA) chief executive Pat Jones. Speaking at the recent 2015 ASECAP Study Days conference in Lisbon, Jones issued a stark warning: “Tolling is still o
    Read More

Highlighted Content