A road monitoring effort by the Finnish Road Safety Council revealed that only around one-fifth of motorists followed the speed limit at pedestrian crossings near schools.
The road safety organisation monitored more than 5,300 drivers at zebra crossings near schools in Helsinki, Jyväskylä, Oulu, Rovaniemi, Turku, Vaasa, Tampere and Lahti.
The council said it found nearly one-fifth of drivers exceeding the posted 30 kilometres-per-hour (km/h) limit by more than 10 km/h.
According to the organisation, the results underscore the indifference drivers in urban areas seem to have about posted speed limits.
"When it concerns a 30 km/h zone and a pedestrian crossing near a school, it's frightening that only one out of five drivers follows the speed limit," Tomi Niemi, a planner at the council said in a press release issued on Thursday.
The group pointed to results of an international survey that found 76 percent of drivers in Finland revealing that they have driven above posted speed limits in urban areas. It said those results put Finland at the top of 39 countries that were part of the survey in that regard.
The average proportion of drivers in other European countries who drive too fast in urban areas is 47 percent, it noted.
The road safety council emphasised the importance of following speed limits as the school year begins in August.
"Driving slower doesn't really affect time spent on the road, but does give drivers a chance to notice and react to changing traffic situations, like a child walking over a pedestrian crossing," Niemi said.
