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Beginning Thursday, German police will set up 300 speed traps throughout Rhineland-Pfalz in a 24-hour blitz to crack down on speeding.

Beginning Thursday, German police will set up 300 speed traps throughout Rhineland-Pfalz in a 24-hour blitz to crack down on speeding. (Sam Amrhein/Stars and Stripes)

Speed checkpoints will go up around Germany Thursday morning in a 24-hour blitz to crack down on speeding across the country.

In Rhineland-Pfalz, where there is a large U.S. troop presence, police have announced plans to set up nearly 300 speed traps Thursday morning in places where locals say speeding is a problem. The speed-trap marathon begins at 6 a.m. and runs through 6 a.m. Friday.

More than 13,000 police across all 16 German states will be out, Spiegel online reported. During last year’s blitz, more than 83,000 drivers were caught speeding, Spiegel reported.

Speeding in built-up areas of Germany can net penalties of up to 680 euros, a three-month license suspension and two points on your license. Penalties outside towns and on autobahns are almost as stiff. Drivers who accumulate eight or more points can lose their driver’s license.

In announcing the speed blitz, police in Rineland-Pfalz said 174 people died in car accidents on the state’s roads in 2013, and more than 60 percent of those deaths were due to speeding.

“For us, it’s not about ripping anybody off,” Rhineland-Pfalz Interior Minister Roger Lewentz said in a news release announcing the 24-hour speed-trap blitz. “Speeding will not be tolerated, and not just during the blitz marathon.”

A list of sites where the speed traps will be set up in Rhineland Pfalz can be found here: http://www.blitzmarathon.rlp.de/

news@stripes.com

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