No need for speed? Authorities to catch speedsters easier in Hungary

Almost half of the Hungarian drivers are speedsters according to their account – based on a report. Meanwhile, in 2019 September, 60 people died on the roads in accidents. Thus, it is crucial to reduce the number of speedsters, and it seems that Hungary would like to do that by measuring average instead of spot speed.

Zsolt Sándor, a traffic engineer, said that the legal background for that is already at hand – infostart.hu reported. He added that, in Hungary, spot speed measuring is the traditional way of detection; however, many criticise this way of control.

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Mr Sándor highlighted that the Hungarian society thinks that the current spot speed measuring system does not sanction the speedsters fairly since it only monitors their speed at a given spot and moment. In contrast, the average speed measuring system calculates a vehicle’s speed by measuring how long it takes for it to get from one place to another.

Many think that it is a more fair system

because it sanctions a continuous rule-breaking attitude and proves that the driver travelled faster during a longer segment of the road than only at a given spot. Furthermore, nobody can hack the system. It does not help if somebody slows down around the checkpoints since the only data relevant is the period he drove through a given distance.

According to infostart.hu, in 2018, shocking data came from the M5 and M6 motorways showing that, for example, in the former only 60 pc of the drivers kept the speed limits.

As we reported HERE,

Hungary saw a spike in speeding during the quarantine.

A record amount of speeding was recorded in the first six months of 2020: 312,000, with 10.9 billion forints (approx. €31,614,786) in tickets. Speeders seemed to have taken advantage of the empty streets during the nine weeks when the majority of people stayed home.

This is a 7.5 per cent increase since last year’s first six months when 290,203 instances of speeding were recorded. Last year, out of 290,000 cases of speeding, only 42,000 received a check costing HUF 45,000 or more. This year, despite less traffic, these instances increased considerably, to 67,000.

Going 78 km/h in a 50 km/h zone, 124 km/h in a 90 km/h zone, and 170 km/h in a 130 km/h zone will get you a ticket of 45,000 forints (€130)

in Hungary, which is quite low compared to other places. 

Source: infostart.hu