A proposal has been made in Kazakhstan to reduce the maximum speed limit on rural highways.

"The first proposal we made to the government was to proportionately reduce the speed limit on rural roads. For instance, on the bridge between Kostanay and Tobol, there were three traffic accidents in 2023, one of which was fatal. The speed limit was decreased from 90 km/h to 60 km/h. As a result, there were no accidents at that location last year," stated Ruslan Alkenyev, the deputy head of the committee for legal statistics and special records of the Prosecutor General's Office.

The speaker added that half of the traffic accidents are committed by individuals who have previously violated traffic rules.

"The weak driving discipline is influenced by inadequate driver training. In fact, driver training has remained unchecked by the authorized bodies. The level of driver preparation has decreased; they obtain licenses without proper education in schools and are unaware of the rules," said a representative of the Prosecutor General's Office.

It is worth noting that in the autumn, there were reports about the introduction of average speed monitoring on the highways of Kazakhstan - it will be calculated automatically on straight sections of roads and outside urban areas where bypass routes are absent, using certified control and measuring devices.

In October, it became known that average speed monitoring would not be implemented everywhere, but only on certain highways. As reported by the Transport Committee of the Ministry of Transport of the Republic of Kazakhstan, by mid-October, there were 62 monitoring points on 13 paid road sections in the country.

It was also reported that a law was signed in Kazakhstan that doubles the fine for exceeding the speed limit by 60 kilometers per hour or more. Specifically, according to the new amendments, car owners who exceed the speed limit by 60 kilometers per hour or more will face a fine of 40 monthly calculation indicators, which in 2024 amounts to 147,680 tenge.

In November of last year, it was revealed when Kazakhstani citizens would start receiving fines for exceeding the speed limit on rural roads.

And on which specific road sections Kazakhstani citizens are fined for exceeding the average speed - we wrote about this here.