Skip to main content

Pan-European speed checks start today

Police officers across Europe commence a week-long speed enforcement operation starting today, 18 August. During the operation, co-ordinated by the European Traffic Police Network (TISPOL), officers will use a number of speed detection methods across all types of road. The purpose of the operation is to raise awareness of the dangers of speeding, and to remind drivers of the benefits for all road users of driving at speeds that are both legal and appropriate. "We urge all drivers to challenge their own
August 18, 2014 Read time: 2 mins

Police officers across Europe commence a week-long speed enforcement operation starting today, 18 August. During the operation, co-ordinated by the European Traffic Police Network (650 TISPOL), officers will use a number of speed detection methods across all types of road. The purpose of the operation is to raise awareness of the dangers of speeding, and to remind drivers of the benefits for all road users of driving at speeds that are both legal and appropriate.
 
"We urge all drivers to challenge their own attitude to speeding," says TISPOL president Koen Ricour. "Anyone who still believes that speeding is a trivial offence needs to think again. That's because excessive or inappropriate speed has a singularly devastating impact on the safety of road users, increasing both the risk of a crash and the severity of the consequences.
 
"It is estimated that speeding contributes to as many as one third of all crashes resulting in death, and is the most important contributory factor to road deaths and serious injuries (ETSC 2008)
 
"All across Europe this week, police officers will be ensuring that drivers respect the different speed limits. In cases where drivers choose to ignore these limits, officers will take appropriate steps to enforce the law."
 
A similar TISPOL operation in August 2013 saw a total of more than 720,000 detections in 28 countries across Europe.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Europe’s road safety record suffers as austerity bites hard, say traffic police chiefs
    March 7, 2018
    Europe’s leading traffic police chiefs are struggling with the challenge of how best to manage the region’s road network in an era of austerity. Things are changing fast, and not for the better, reports Geoff Hadwick. Europe’s road safety record is under threat. Police budgets are being slashed, staff numbers are falling and a long-term trend towards ever-fewer road deaths has ground to a halt. The line on the graph has flat-lined. Does Europe’s road network face a far more dangerous future? Lower and
  • RedSpeed offers schools automated no-cost stop arm enforcement
    March 28, 2014
    School authorities in the US are turning to automated school bus stop arm enforcement to curb an astonishing number of violations. It is estimated that every year nearly 17,000 American children are sent to emergency rooms as a result of school bus related crashes. And when surveyed, 99% of school bus drivers reported that the most dangerous behaviour they encounter is drivers passing a school bus with its stop sign arm extended. Every day these drivers who violate the extended stop arm signs put at risk
  • ETSC welcomes EU plans for safer cars, vans and lorries
    December 20, 2016
    The European Commission has published a list of 19 lifesaving safety technologies that could be made mandatory on new vehicles in the next update of EU vehicle safety rules expected next year. The European Transport Safety Council (ETCS) welcomes the announcement but says several critical areas for action are missing, and the proposed timescale is far too long considering that most of the technologies are already available. ETSC says 26,000 people die on European Union roads annually, with at least
  • Europe’s car safety framework needs ‘overhaul’
    March 22, 2016
    Vehicle safety innovations are still benefitting too few road users in Europe due to an over-reliance on a voluntary testing programme rather than regulatory standards, according to a new report by the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC). For almost twenty years, increases in levels of car safety in Europe have been driven mainly by the voluntary Euro NCAP programme which awards the safest cars with a 5-star rating. But according to new data, only around half of new vehicles sold in 2013 had been aw