By summer, speed checks on motorways by means of section radars should be permanently active, without any further margin of tolerance, Federal Minister of Justice Vincent Van Quickenborne announced in a press release on Sunday ( Open Vld), following a successful pilot project carried out on seven motorways.
Due to limited processing capacity, tolerance margins are applied in Wallonia and Brussels, while quotas are in place in Flanders for speed checks. The margin of tolerance introduces an additional speed threshold for the establishment of a report. This threshold is therefore higher than the legally authorized speed. As for the speed cameras, they are currently only active at certain times.
In October, a pilot project was launched on seven motorways in which these margins and quotas were completely abolished, while maintaining the technical correction. For a speed of less than 100 km/h, the tolerance has been set at 6 km/h. If it exceeds 100 km/h, the tolerance corresponds to 6% of the speed at which the motorist is driving. In other words, if a driver is going 121 km/h on the highway, he will not be flashed.
On five motorways in the Walloon Region, drivers were flashed at a real speed of 129 km/h instead of 141 km/h. On two Flemish motorways, the section radars were permanently active and no longer just two weeks a month.
120
If we observe the increase in the number of offenses recorded, we notice, logically, that the abolition of the quota doubles the chances of being caught. On the Walloon motorways, the removal of tolerance margins results in five times more fines for speeding. In total, almost 30,000 additional fines were issued during the pilot project.
This increase is temporary, punctuates Minister Van Quickenborne. “We know from experience in other places that in less than a year, the number of offenses observed falls back to the previous level, because people adapt their driving behavior and moderate their speed”.
Where tolerance margins have been removed, the corrected average speed has increased from 130 to 120 km/h. Which, as evidenced by several studies conducted by the Vias Institute, is a big step forward for road safety. The risk of fatal accidents would in fact be reduced by more than 30%.
The police and the prosecutor’s office will receive additional resources in order to be able to deal with all offences. In the regional processing centers (CRT) of the federal police, which are responsible for writing the minutes, 58 additional people have been made available this year, according to the minister. The public prosecutor’s offices and the police courts will also receive reinforcements.
Last year, 484 people lost their lives on Belgian roads and some 40,000 people were injured. In 2019, before the health crisis had an impact on traffic, there were 644 people killed on the road, which is much higher than in many other European countries.
