Austria again tightens penalties for extreme speeders
Published: Thursday, Feb 29th 2024, 06:00
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Extreme speeders risk losing their vehicle on Austria's roads from March 1. The Road Traffic Act stipulates that cars can be confiscated if they exceed 80 km/h in urban areas and 90 km/h outside urban areas.
Subsequently, the car can also be auctioned off. If there is already a relevant previous conviction, for example due to participation in illegal car races, confiscation and final removal are possible if the speed limit is exceeded by more than 60 km/h in urban areas and 70 km/h outside urban areas.
"There is a speed at which the car becomes a weapon. We are now putting an end to this and ensuring that offenders can have their weapons taken out of their hands immediately and permanently in future," said Austrian Transport Minister Leonore Gewessler (Greens). Austria is following countries such as Italy and Switzerland with this measure. In 2021, the Alpine republic had already drastically increased fines and the duration of driving license suspensions in its first anti-racer package.
100 kilometers per hour too fast
Just last week, two speeding drivers were caught by the police in the Austrian province of Tyrol. On the Brenner highway (A13), a plainclothes patrol caught an 18-year-old German driving 164 km/h in a 60 km/h zone. In Kössen (Kitzbühel district), a 27-year-old Dutchman was traveling at 105 km/h instead of the permitted 50 km/h.
However, the ÖAMTC traffic club doubts the effectiveness of the measure and has legal concerns: "On the one hand, there are no studies that show that harsher penalties are a greater deterrent than lower ones. In addition, such drastic interventions in property should be decided by criminal courts and not by administrative authorities," explains ÖAMTC lawyer Matthias Wolf. Lawyers would see gross shortcomings. "It would be a shame for road safety if the law were to be overturned at the first relevant application by appealing to the highest courts or the European Court of Human Rights," says the ÖAMTC expert.
The ministry pointed out that the measures had been examined under constitutional law. However, in a question-and-answer list from the ministry, it states: "Certain loopholes can never be completely ruled out, but that is in the nature of a new legal instrument and we must not shy away from this if we want to create improvements for the future."
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