2023 ROADPOL Speed Marathon

To Be Conducted On April 21st

 

Instagram Visual4 APR- The 2023 ROADPOL Speed Marathon is to be carried out on April 21st.

The annual flagship enforcement event of the European Roads Policing Network which is the world's largest anti-speeding law enforcement campaign, will be performed by Road Police forces across Europe for a period of complete 24 hours. The ROADPOL Speed Marathon takes place within the 7-day Speed Operation (17-23 April).

Tactics

During the operation member countries will be enforcing speed limits as set in their own country. This will be applied by officer intervention which includes the physical presence of a police officer checking the speed of a vehicle using an approved method and device and then stopping and reporting the driver. Additionally, automatic devices such as fixed cameras will be used.

History

2023 will mark the tenth time the Speed Marathon will be performed across the continent. In 2022 19 countries took part in the Speed Marathon. During the operation more than 14.900 police officers checked over 3.100.000 drivers for their speed at no less than 10.500 checkpoints. They found 104.315 violations with 27.963 drivers pulled over to be fined. Other 76.352 drivers received a fine by mail. The driving license of numerous offenders were confiscated.

Excess

Among the most brutal examples of excessive speed were the instances in Germany where a driver was stopped doing 90 km/h in an inner city area with a 50 km/h speed limit. Another offender was caught at 189 km/h in a 100 km/h limited stretch. The “record holder” in Germany was a driver spurring at 190 km/h on a provincial road in Bavaria with an 80 km/h speed limit.

Henk JansenObjective

“Speed itself is not dangerous, but speeding is – especially in combination with other risk factors, such as mixed traffic with cars, trucks, motorcycles and buses on the motorway or automobiles, bicycles and pedestrians in the urban areas. Speeding is the main cause of about 25.000 fatal road collisions in Europe”, ROADPOL's Operational Working Group Secretary Henk Jansen of the National Police of the Netherlands commented. “And the fines are not the goal, but just the means. The goal is to make drivers aware of their dangerous behaviour”, Jansen added.

For Speed Marathon social media promotional materials, please, follow link.