The Council of Ministers adopted a five-point plan against extreme frenzy on Wednesday. For example, high-speed drivers will be punished higher in the future, and the duration of driving license revocation will be doubled. In particularly dangerous cases, the vehicle is to be confiscated in the future, said Transport Minister Leonore Gewessler (Greens) and Salzburg Provincial Councilor Stefan Schnöll (ÖVP) in a press conference. However, not all of the measures announced in the previous year will be implemented.
Image: APA
Last year, 338 people died in traffic accidents on Austria's roads. That was – due to the corona lockdowns – the lowest number since records began. In around a third, the main cause of the accident was an unsuitable speed. Almost 8,000 drivers had their driving license withdrawn in the previous year due to excessive speeding.
In the past weeks and months, “reckless speeders who consciously endanger themselves and others” have caused numerous accidents, said Gewessler. The previous penalties would often not work, unteachable repeat offenders would not be deterred by them, stated the transport minister. “People who die in a traffic accident are not just a number in the statistics, but family members, friends, work colleagues, relatives. Every single death is one too many,” said Gewessler.
The majority of the measures that have now been decided should come into force before the summer – with the exception of the vehicle seizure. However, the lowering of the limit values for driving license withdrawals by ten km / h, as announced in the previous year, as well as lawns as a reservation offense, do not come.
However, Gewessler announced a tightening of the pace, especially in illegal street races. It is planned that participation in illegal road races will be included in the road traffic regulations as a new offense, said Gewessler. Illegal street races are to be explicitly declared as “particularly dangerous conditions” or particular recklessness in terms of traffic reliability. This should be punished with the withdrawal of the driving license for six months and at the latest in the case of repetition lead to a traffic psychological examination.
“We know that the car becomes a weapon at excessive speed,” said Schnöll. This was last made clear in an accident two weeks ago in Salzburg, in which a 17-year-old passenger died in a race at more than 100 km / h in the local area. Numerous “dramatic accidents” have accelerated the discussion about the tightening of sentences. The federal states, as the executive authorities, are now very happy about the package of measures.
The further details of the package: The penalty for speeders will be increased from 2,180 to 5,000 euros. If the speed limit is exceeded repeatedly, the observation period is doubled to four years. In addition, the minimum withdrawal period in the event of speeding is doubled. In the local area at more than 40 km / h and outdoors at more than 50 km / h, the withdrawal period will be one month in future. In the event of repetition, the license will be gone for three months if the speed limit is exceeded. And if you exceed 80 km / h in the local area and 90 km / h on open-air roads, this is considered an offense under particularly dangerous conditions, which means a driver's license is withdrawn for six months and retraining. These measures should come into force in the summer.
In particularly dangerous cases of extreme frenzy, the vehicle is to be confiscated from the end of the year. There were no details on Wednesday, these must first be worked out, said Gewessler. Because this point raises numerous legal questions, for example how to proceed if the vehicle belongs to a third person. This should be clarified together with the constitutional service, “so that the measure is legally valid”. Schnöll added that the design could range from temporary retention to the decay of the car. He hopes that this will have an effect, because people in the racing scene “identify very strongly with their own car”.
As the evaluation of the driver's license register shows, in the previous year 7,960 people were deprived of their driving license due to a speeding violation (more than 40 km / h in the local area and more than 50 km / h in the open air) as the main offense. Mixed offenses – i.e. multiple offenses, for example in combination with drunk driving – were not taken into account here. According to the Ministry of Transport, this corresponds to a total of around 1.6 per mille of those punished by the federal police for violating the speed limit by means of an administrative order and a complaint. In total, this was around 4.98 million penalties in the previous year. Since 2015, the Ministry of the Interior has recorded an increase in both the withdrawal of driver's license and the number of speeding violations punished.
The Verkehrsclub Österreich (VCÖ) and the Kuratorium für Verkehrssicherheit (KFV) welcomed the tightening of penalties for speeders, they announced in broadcasts. For the KFV, however, the measures do not go far enough. KFV director Othmar Thann demanded in a broadcast that further measures that are essential for road safety are important. He stated that the changes that have now been made are a “minimum program in road safety” that costs human lives. In addition, in view of the number of accidents, the KFV demands that the Ministry of Road Safety give more weight.
From the VCÖ's point of view, the package is a first step that must be followed by others. The driver's license will continue to be removed only when the speed limit is exceeded by 40 km / h – contrary to the previous year's announcement. The VCÖ criticized that the planned entry into the reservation system is also missing.
The ÖAMTC also advocates tightening sanctions for serious traffic violations. However, minimal violations should not be lumped together with 'lawn'. Clear demarcations are needed here, “said chief lawyer Martin Hoffer. ARBÖ also sees this in a similar way. Many parts of the measures are welcomed. ARBÖ General Secretary, on a broadcast.
At the press conference, Gewessler also announced extensive further road safety measures without going into detail. The ministry is currently developing the road safety strategy for 2021 to 2030. In addition, an “Austria-wide standardization of penalties” is being worked on. The Court of Auditors recently criticized the fact that the penalties are not harmonized in July 2019. Twenty months ago, he complained that there was no nationwide register of administrative penalties and that there were different penalties and tolerance limits depending on the federal state. Schnöll said in this context that with the increase in the range of punishments for speeders, the federal states will have to adjust their penalties anyway.
