Smart Cameras Cut Speeding

Speeding offences on Bahrain’s roads have plunged by 67.1 pc in four years, falling to roughly a third of their 2021 level as smart cameras, tougher laws and greater driver awareness are credited with changing habits behind the wheel.

Police recorded 72,468 speeding offences in 2025, down from 220,041 in 2021. That works out at about 199 offences a day last year, against 603 four years earlier.

The fall amounts to 147,573 fewer offences.

The drop came in stages. The tally fell 10.8 pc to 196,207 in 2022, then by 17.6 pc to 161,660 in 2023.

The biggest change came in 2024. Speeding offences almost halved to 87,562, a fall of 74,098, or 45.8 pc, in a single year. That one-year drop made up over half of the fall recorded across the five-year span.

Another 17.2 pc fall followed in 2025, taking the tally to its lowest point in five years.

The change is starker when the past three years are compared. There were 89,192 fewer speeding offences in 2025 than in 2023, a fall of 55.2 pc.

Yet speeding has far from vanished. Last year’s figure still amounts to almost 200 offences every day.

Across the five years, 737,938 speeding offences were recorded, an average of close to 148,000 a year.

The figures alone cannot show why the fall has been so steep. They count recorded offences but do not show how much stems from drivers slowing down, changes in police checks or the spread of camera systems. Nor do they show on their own that crashes, deaths and injuries have fallen at the same rate.

Shura Council member Ejlal Bubshait said the 67.1 pc drop was an important sign of greater road awareness and the work of the Interior Ministry and General Directorate of Traffic.

She said the growing use of smart monitoring systems had made drivers keener to obey speed limits and helped change habits on the road.

‘Drivers’ awareness that modern monitoring systems are in place has become a preventive factor before an offence is committed,’ she said.

Knowing that cameras are watching, she added, can make motorists slow down before they break the law, protecting themselves and other road users.

Bubshait said cameras alone were not enough. Traffic laws, public awareness and technology had to work side by side, while their effect on driving habits should be kept under review.

She also pointed to changes made to the Traffic Law in 2025, including tougher penalties for serious offences, and said their effect on drivers should be assessed as roads and driving habits change.

SPEEDING OFFENCES IN BAHRAIN

72,468 — Offences recorded in 2025

220,041 — Offences recorded in 2021

67.1pc — Overall decline from 2021 to 2025

147,573 — Fewer offences over four years

199 — Approximate offences recorded per day in 2025

603 — Approximate offences per day in 2021

45.8pc — Drop recorded in 2024, the biggest annual decline

737,938 — Total speeding offences recorded from 2021 to 2025

148,000 — Approximate annual average over the five-year period