There were nearly 1.5 million more speedings offences recorded in 2022 than the previous year – the highest number on record.
Exactly 6,158,323 drivers (most of whom were in Flanders) were caught speeding in Belgium last year, according to Mediahuis newspapers. The figure amounts to nearly 17,000 per day and speeding offences now account for 80% of all traffic offences, the Federal police revealed.
Flanders accounts for just over 70% of these speeding offences (specifically 4.4 million). Wallonia recorded 1.4 million fines (about 20%) whilst the Brussels-Capital Region recorded around 400,000.
Walloon politicians under fire
Belgians have long been ranked as the 'champions of Europe' for speeding in construction areas, Sudinfo reports, with 64% of Belgians forgetting to slow down near construction sites.
However this latest increase in speeding offences is due to Walloon politicians not taking the necessary steps to ensure road safety in their region, outlines N-VA MP Wouter Raskin. The politicians in Wallonia "pretend that they want road safety" but stop short of implementing measures that would lead to more fines as they are "afraid of people's reactions", he said.
Likewise, Joris Vandenbroucke of Vooruit stated that the figures prove that "Walloon politicians are simply not interested in better road safety," as the mortality rate is "almost twice as high there as in Flanders."
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"[Walloon politicians] are opposed to handing out driving licence points and to stricter regulations on driving with a mobile phone, which has deadly consequences," Vandenbroucke continued. "There are very few speed controls, however effective they may be. Flanders now has ten times as many."
The cabinet of Walloon Minister for road safety Valérie De Bue, however, maintained that Wallonia is working on "drastically improving road safety by installing additional speed cameras and checks."
