Eighty people were fined for speeding by the police in four hours on Sunday.

The police said in a statement they kept surveillance at Triq Louis Wettinger (Mellieħa Bypass) and at two spots on the Coast Road (in Salini and Baħar iċ-Ċagħaq).

A total of 33 tickets were issued in Triq Louis Wettinger where the speed limit is 60 kilometres per hour. The highest speed registered was of 132 kilometres per hour by a Subaru. Here, the police also registered two cars being driven at 103 and 94 kilometres per hour.

In the Coast Road at Salini, near the Għallis Tower, where the speed limit is 70 kilometres per hour, 15 speeding tickets where issued. Two bikes were registered doing 94 kilometres an hour while another vehicle registered 90 kilometres an hour.

In the Baħar iċ-Ċagħaq area of the Coast Road, where the speed limit is also 70 kilometres per hour, 32 tickets were issued including one for a Toyota Glanza doing 143 kilometres per hour. Another two cars were registered doing 137 and 123 kilometres per hour.

Traffic Inspector Nicholas Vella said the police were carrying out these checks to control abuse. Speed guns were being used from several metres away.

During Sunday’s operations, another 10 tickets were issued for other traffic breaches including driving without a seat belt, cars with tinted glass, cars without a registration plate, cars with the registration place not fixed well, and polluting cars.

This was the fifth such operation in the past month which saw a total of 341 drivers being fined.

The operations were carried out by the Traffic Police assisted by the Rapid Intervention Unit and the Special Intervention Unit (SIU), together with Transport Malta’s enforcement section.