Danish police catch over 1600 speeders within hours

Danish police set up an automatic traffic control (ATK) vehicle on Wednesday on a motorway, recording over 1,600 speeders within five hours that will lead to a combined fine of millions of Danish kroner, local media reported Thursday.

The ATK vehicle was put on a stretch of the highway connecting capital city Copenhagen to Helsingor, where speed limit was lowered to 50 km/h due to ongoing roadwork, according to the English newspaper The Copenhagen Post.

The paper cited local police as saying that 402 speeders were caught in the first hour, and their speeds were 59 km/h or more.

"It is completely insane," Kim Soerensen from North Zealand Police was cited as saying. "I have been a policeman for many years, and I've never seen anything like it."

Danish drivers drive rather lawfully, yet slight overspeeding are not unusual. The country has a very low traffic accident record.

The overspeeding cases might incur a fine of about 4 million kroner (about 586,000 U.S. dollars) in total, according to the newspaper.

Sorensen said the police were not there for the money. "We will continue to monitor the motorway," he added. Enditem