Belgium: Public rally behind marathon speeding crackdown

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Speed cameraImage source, Thinkstock
ByNews from Elsewhere...
...media reports from around the world, found by BBC Monitoring

Thousands of people have responded to a call for ideas about where to put speed cameras on Belgian roads, ahead of a marathon speeding crackdown, it seems.

In 11 days, more than 50,000 people sent in suggestions for check-point locations for Thursday's 24-hour anti-speeding operation, the newspaper La Libre Belgique reports, external, and their ideas were submitted to the online I Flash Too, external campaign. But police get the final say on where to carry out checks on Thursday, after considering all the options.

The most proposals came from the Dutch-speaking region, Flanders, where more than 500 check-points will reportedly be set up. But, amidst all the publicity, not many drivers are expected to be caught. "Whoever still allows themselves to be flashed is a fool," the newspaper De Standaard quotes a police officer as saying, external.

Campaigners say 300 people die in Belgium every year because of speeding, external. Meanwhile, road accidents in the EU claim nearly 30,000 lives every year, external, although recently the number of fatalities has gone down in most countries.

Thousands of suggestions for speed camera locations came in from the publicImage source, JeFlasheAussi.be

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