Nicaragua’s National 50 km/h Speed Limit Yields No Benefits
The unilateral decree from the presidency has brought only problems with no benefit to the population, affirm drivers and truckers.
HAVANA TIMES – Far from reducing accidents and deaths on Nicaraguan highways, the new 50 km/h [31 mph] speed limit decreed by the Ortega-Murillo government in June has led to higher fuel consumption, more bribes to police officers, and up to four hours extra time needed to cross the country, according to drivers and transporters.
The new speed limit applies to private cars and trucks, and all transport vehicles carrying cargo or passengers. Motorcycle drivers must drive at a maximum speed of 40 kilometers per hour [25 mph] and are now prohibited from carrying children as passengers.
Sofía [assumed name], who drives a motorcycle and commutes from Diriamba to Managua for work, says that for the past month she’s been spending more time than usual on the road and has seen an increase in fuel costs. During the first week of the new speed limit, she noted “a strong police presence” on the roads connecting the two cities. Officers with speedometers in hand were “everywhere,” she recalls. She “had to leave home an hour earlier” to get to work on time and avoid a traffic ticket. However, in the following weeks, the police presence diminished.
The 40-kilometer speed limit for motorcycles has also affected Sofia’s finances. In the last month, she registered a “35% increase in her fuel usage,” due to “the difficulty of keeping a constant speed and moving from second to third gear to avoid damaging the motorcycle. That increases the fuel usage,” she explained.
“There comes a moment when the motorcycle’s motor asks for more (speed),” Sofia commented. She’s convinced that her motorcycle is designed to operate at greater speeds. She also admits that in sections of the highway where there’s no police surveillance, she’s accelerated up to 60 kph, a speed that allows her more maneuverability for emergencies.
Truck drivers now take four hours more to cross Nicaragua
Costa Rican trucker Sidex Pays reports that since the country imposed the new speed limit, drivers are experiencing delays of up to four hours when crossing Nicaragua. The journey that used to take six hours now takes ten. “The only thing that has been achieved is to slow down traffic, because accidents keep occurring,” he noted.
The driver remarked that the new speed limit was originally supposed to be a pilot test, but the regulation continues to be enforced as it was on the first day. This situation also generates higher fuel costs. “If a truck spends more time starting up, it will consume more fuel. And the same work is being done, but in more time,” he emphasized.
Pays believes that the speed limit in Nicaragua “has no benefit” and that it’s a ‘rule’ that’s not “backed up” by any study or traffic report from Nicaraguan roads.
Co-president Rosario Murillo stated that the new speed limit was the idea of her husband, Daniel Ortega, who personally coordinated with National Police Chief Francisco Diaz – a relative by marriage of Ortega and Murillo – to implement the 50 km/h limit on the highways.
Bribes and inconveniences for long-distance truckers
Pays said that police officers have taken advantage of the new speed limit to demand bribes from drivers. “It’s something they’ve always done, but they’re taking more advantage of it now,” he said.
Central American freight trucks have a 24-hour deadline to cross the country from border to border, including time waiting to go through custom’s, which can sometimes take half a day. With that speed limit, according to Sidex Pays, he’ll no longer be able to rest, because he’ll have to go slower and there will be more traffic.
The president of the Salvadoran Association of International Freight Carriers, Raul Alfaro, acknowledged that during the first days of implementation of the speed limit, “there were quite a few complaints” from Central American carriers.
Some transporters “said that (traveling) at 50 km/h meant they were wasting time in traffic,” Alfaro stated. However, “I told them that 24 hours is enough time (to cross the country) and that if the speed limit was intended to prevent accidents, then I saw no reason to continue protesting.”
Over time, he added, the transporters “have become accustomed,” and have not reported any major problems crossing Nicaraguan territory.
Accidents continue with no reduction
There have been 5,639 documented traffic accidents in the country since Ortega ordered the new speed limit. The totals are essentially unchanged from the previous weekly average of 1,122. Similarly, the number of fatal accidents has continued unabated – according to National Police data, 52 people were killed in traffic accidents in Nicaragua in the last 5 weeks, an average of 1.5 a day,
However, the measure did greatly increase the number of arrests of drunk drivers, or for driving without a license. These, plus the increase in the number of suspended licenses (3,335 in this period) meant an increase in the fines charged.
There were a total of 1,013 arrests, with 405 drivers taken in for driving drunk, up from 345 the month previous to the new transit measures.
The dictatorship has been trying for years to reduce the number of traffic accidents in Nicaragua, without results. Looking at the accident totals for the months of June across different years, they’ve gone from 2,461 in 2020, to 3,841 in 2022 and in June of 2025, the police documented 4,529 accidents, an increase of 18% from three years earlier.
First published in Spanish by Confidencial and translated and posted in English by Havana Times.