Reckless driving: 244 km/h clocked on Serbian motorway
Serbia's Interior Ministry says three drivers were sanctioned for reckless driving in under 24 hours, with 11 more fined. The driver stopped in Zemun had 1.19 per mille of alcohol.
Reckless driving produced three fresh radar readings in less than 24 hours, on three separate stretches of road. Serbia’s Interior Ministry (MUP) said all three drivers were sanctioned, and that 11 more drivers were fined in the same period for other serious traffic offences. The highest speed recorded was 244 kilometres per hour.
Three stretches, three readings
The first driver was stopped near Sremska Mitrovica at around 1 p.m. A 27 year old Turkish national was driving a BMW at 239 kilometres per hour on a section where the limit is 130.
Three hours later, near Sid, an interceptor pulled over a Mercedes. Behind the wheel was a 46 year old Serbian national, and the reading was 244 kilometres per hour. The limit there is also 130.
The third case was neither on a motorway nor in daylight. In Zemun, at around 3 a.m., a 35 year old Serbian national drove a BMW at 207 kilometres per hour on an expressway capped at 100. A follow up check put 1.19 per mille of alcohol in his system.
The checks were carried out by the Traffic Police Directorate using interceptor vehicles. The stops span both day and night: 3 a.m., 1 p.m. and around 4 p.m. The interceptors were tied to no single hour and no single road.
Why does the police focus on speed?
Because in its own statistics, speed sits behind the worst outcomes. In its statement the ministry says that “improper and unadapted speed remains the most frequent cause of road accidents with the gravest consequences”.
What sets this statement apart from earlier ones is the level of detail. Enhanced checks have usually been announced in aggregate, through the number of drivers stopped and the number of penalties issued, with no recorded speed and no named stretch of road. This time both are there, so it is clear where and when the driving went out of hand.
How it follows on from the last round of checks
This was not an isolated day. In an earlier round of enhanced checks, which we covered, traffic police detained 32 drivers for driving under the influence of alcohol. Those figures were aggregate, and alcohol was a separate ground.
Now the two grounds converge in one person. The driver stopped in Zemun was doing more than twice the limit and had alcohol in his system, at the hour when traffic is thinnest and a collision tends to end worst.
Three cases in one day are three cases, not a trend. But two of the readings came on the motorway through Srem and the third inside Belgrade, and all three speeds exceeded the limit by more than 100 kilometres per hour.
The ministry says the enhanced speed checks will continue.
