Hungary fines half a million motorists for driving without vignette

Budapest, June 20 (MTI) – NUSZ, the company that operates Hungary’s motorway toll system, fined 516,000 motorists a total 4.5 billion forints (EUR 14.4m) for driving without a vignette last year, business daily Világgazdaság said on Monday.

About two-thirds of the drivers were Hungarian and the rest were foreigners, NUSZ spokesman Lajos Kibédi-Varga told the paper. Around 3 percent of Hungarians on the motorway fail to purchase a vignette, while the ratio stands at 4 percent for foreigners, he added.

NUSZ is able to collect from 75-80 percent of the Hungarian motorists it fines. About half of the foreigners also pay their fines thanks to partnerships NUSZ has with collection agencies in abroad.

NUSZ has 110 fixed gates with cameras that check number plates against purchasers of vignettes, which are all electronic in Hungary. It also has 45 mobile units which check plates at some 500 locations along the country’s motorways.

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters