Belgium takes action on speeding

New technology and legal changes are the latest weapons in the fight against speeding in Belgium, with new safety cameras being trialled in the Northern region of Flanders and a change to the legal status of speeding fines in French-speaking Wallonia.

Four police zones in Flanders have installed safety cameras with an invisible infra-red flash system, reports DHnet.be.

The system is designed to reduce the numbers contesting fines and help prevent dangerous braking near the cameras. At one site, the system was reported to have increased the number of drivers caught speeding by 50%.

Meanwhile lawmakers in Wallonia in the South of Belgium have announced plans to change the legal status of speeding fines to civil penalties in order to avoid the huge backlog of legal cases that have built-up under the current system. In some areas, up to half of fines are ‘forgotten’.  The regional transport minister aims to reduce the number of deaths to 200 annually by 2020, compared to 326 in 2015.

According to a recent pan-European survey, more than half of Belgians support an increase in the number of speeding checks.