Bayern will take action against speeders in the coming week with a so-called lightning marathon. From March 24th to 25th there will be increased speed controls in Bavaria for 24 hours, the Ministry of the Interior announced on Friday in Munich. A total of around 1800 police officers and around 50 officials from the municipalities and special-purpose associations of municipal traffic monitoring are on duty and check the speed at around 2100 possible measuring points. The country roads are the main focus.
“Driving too fast is the main cause of serious traffic accidents,” said Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann (CSU). Around a quarter of the traffic deaths on Bavaria’s roads go back to it. In 2021, a total of 109 people were killed in speed accidents in Bavaria (a total of 443 road deaths in 2021). The Blitzmarathon is part of the Europe-wide “Speedmarathon” which is coordinated by the European traffic police network “Roadpol”. Bavaria is taking part in the campaign against speeders with its road safety program 2030 “Bayern mobil – safely to your destination”. Other states are also taking part.
“Our lightning marathon should wake up all road users to stick to the speed limits,” said Herrmann. It’s not about issuing as many warnings as possible or sending out fine notices. How necessary speed controls are was shown once again at the Blitzmarathon last year: 7036 speed offenders drove into the police camera traps despite published measuring points. A motorcyclist reached the sad maximum value, which was measured on the 2020 state road near Bubesheim (Günzburg district) with 231 kilometers per hour instead of the permitted 100.