A new Road Code is being prepared, and this could criminalise excess speed from 180 km/h or 200 km/h. The measure aims to make the roads safer.
© Shutterstock
13/08/2026
by
ANDthis Wednesday (12 August), the Minister of Internal Administration, Luís Neves, admitted that the future Road Code may determine that circular on the road at 180 km/h or 200 km/h is considered a crime – and not just a counter-order.
The goal is clear: improving the safety of portuguese roads, one of the great struggles of the ruler since the beginning of the year reached ministerial office. In April, a new Road Code and other measures were announced, including a more muscular radar inspection, surprise STOP operations and the return of the Traffic Brigade.
And the National Road Safety Strategy Zero Vision 2030 is based on the five pillars of the Safe System – one of them being the “safe speeds”.
Why is speeding a problem?
The European Road Safety Observatory estimates that between 10 and 15 percent of all road accidents are caused by excessive speed, whereas 30 percent of fatal accidents result from excessive “or inappropriate” speed.
And the same document underlines: “The faster someone is driving, the greater the risk of an accident, but also the severity of the accident and the likelihood of the accident being fatal.”.
It's easy to understand why. The driver must react more in advance to a situation to avoid an accident, as the braking distance is longer and the field of vision itself can be affected depending on the speed.
On the other hand, is more likely to lose control of the car. And the faster a car is when it hits, the greater the force of impact – which poses increased risks to the integrity of those driving, of other occupants of the vehicle, of any third parties involved (including pedestrians and cyclists) and of objects or infrastructures for example.
Emphasizes the Automobile Club de Portugal (ACP), which in Portugal, speeding is the main cause of road accidents.
Do Portuguese recognize that they exceed speed limits?
Data from 2023 ESRA survey show that Portugal is one of the countries where drivers have most admitted to speeding on motorways at least once in the previous 30 days (65.3 percent, above the average of the 22 countries analyzed that stands at 49.7 percent.
In other non-urbanised areas, the portuguese percentage is 68.7 percent (the average of all countries is 52.8 percent). Already more than 47 percent of respondents in all countries studied admitted to exceeding speed in urbanised areas over the previous 30 days. Portugal was above average (65.2 percent).
It should also be noted that 36.4 percent of people responded to having walked too fast in the face of conditions traffic and/or weather – also above the european average (30.5 percent).
Speed violations exceed half a million
O Annual Internal Security Report (RASI) 2025 indicates that the National Speed Control System registered 460,672 excess speed infringements last year – is a ten percent reduction that, according to the document, may be due to the “change of behavior of drivers on the roads where radars are installed”. Already in supervisory operations, GNR and PSP detected 137,511 speeding infringements.
What road crimes are there?
Currently, there are several road crimes in Portugal, perhaps the best known driving under the influence of alcohol (rate equal to or greater than 1.2 grams per liter of blood). The same is true for cases of being “under the influence of drugs, psychotropic substances” or others that may condition “physical, mental or psychological fitness”.
But there are also other situations that give prison – such as gross violation of rules creating “danger” for the life or safety of other road users or driving with “physical or psychic deficiency or excessive fatigue” to the point of not being able to do so.
Other examples of crimes are negligent homicide and offense to physical integrity in an accident, omission of assistance, as well as driving without legal qualifications (up to two years in prison). Whoever commits a road crime, loses six points in the card.
Last year, more than 38,000 road accidents occurred in Portugal, in the highest rise of the last decade (more 24 percent than in 2024). Most of them (59 percent) are associated with alcohol driving, practiced mainly by men and on national streets or roads.