According to Taavi Kirss, head of traffic enforcement at the Police and Border Guard Board (PPA), the threshold at which police issue fines for speeding will change.

"We decided to raise the enforcement threshold for mobile speed cameras to reduce the share of tickets issued for violations that may result from momentary lapses in attention. Every driver is responsible for following traffic laws, driving safely and showing consideration for other road users. Most drivers behave responsibly and we expect this change to significantly reduce the number of tickets issued," Kirss said.

Kirss added that nearly half of all violations currently recorded by the cameras fall into the lowest speeding category and are more indicative of driver error than intentional misconduct.

"Speeding is one of the leading causes of traffic accidents. Vehicle speed also directly affects the severity of injuries sustained in a crash. Looking at the causes of serious traffic accidents, the main problems are excessive speed, impaired driving and distracted driving. These are also the primary focus of police enforcement. For less serious violations, we want to rely more on non-punitive interventions and encourage positive driving behavior through other measures," Kirss said.

The change applies only to the PPA's mobile speed cameras, of which there are eight nationwide. Until now, these cameras recorded speeding violations beginning at 3 km/h over the speed limit, but starting in July, that threshold will increase to 6 km/h. The cameras' technical margin of error is added to that threshold.

Police issue an average of 300,000 speeding tickets each year based on violations detected through automated enforcement. About two-thirds of those speeding violations are recorded by mobile speed cameras.

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