The speed marathon on Friday, 21 April, will take place as part of the operation of the same name, which runs from 17 to 23 April with a higher number of checks throughout Luxembourg and Europe.
During the operation, member states will enforce the speed limits set in their own country. Police officers involved in this campaign will travel all over Europe, looking for speeding drivers.
In 2023, the Speed Marathon will be held for the tenth time. 19 countries participated in the 2022 campaign. During the operation, more than 14,900 police officers checked the speed of more than 3,100,000 drivers at no fewer than 10,500 checkpoints. They found 104,315 violations and arrested and fined 27,963 drivers on the spot. 76,352 drivers were fined by mail, while many offenders had their driving licences revoked.
Some of the most egregious examples of speeding were recorded in Germany. For example, a motorist was stopped while driving at 90 km/h in a city centre area where the speed limit was 50 km/h. Another offender was caught at 189 km/h, while the speed limit was 50 km/h. A third driver was pulled over while driving at 189 km/h in a 100 km/h zone. The “record holder” in Germany is a person who was caught driving at 190 km/h on a provincial road in Bavaria where the speed limit is 80 km/h.
“Speed in itself is not dangerous, but speeding is, especially when combined with other risk factors, such as mixed traffic of cars, lorries, motorcycles, and buses on motorways or cars, bikes and pedestrians in urban areas. Speeding is the leading cause of about 25,000 fatal road traffic collisions in Europe,” according to the secretary of the ROADPOL operational task force, Henk Jansen of the Dutch national police. “Fines are not the goal, but only the means. The aim is to make drivers aware of their dangerous behaviour,” Jansen added.
