Mobility club doubts effectiveness and advocates targeted controls to increase road safety
Vienna (OTS) – With the 34th amendment to the Road Traffic Act (StVO), from March 1, 2024, if you exceed the speed of more than 80 km/h in local areas and 90 km/h outside of town, the car can be confiscated and subsequently auctioned. If the driver has a relevant criminal record, for example through participation in illegal car racing, confiscation and forfeiture are possible if the speed exceeds more than 60 km/h in urban areas and 70 km/h outside of urban areas.
If the car does not belong to the speeder, executive bodies will in future have the option of temporarily confiscating vehicles on the spot for a maximum of 14 days. However, these cannot be declared forfeit and auctioned. This also applies to leasing or rental cars. In such cases, a lifelong driving ban for the vehicle with which the drastic offense was committed will be recorded in the driving license or driving license register.
The ÖAMTC doubts the effectiveness of the measure and also has legal concerns: “On the one hand, there are no studies that say that harsher penalties are more of a deterrent than lower ones. Furthermore, such drastic interventions in property should be decided by criminal courts and not by administrative authorities,” explains ÖAMTC lawyer Matthias Wolf. According to Wolf, numerous statements from renowned law professors also state that the law has major deficiencies and is even unconstitutional. “It would be a shame for road safety if the law was overturned in the first relevant application case by appealing to the highest courts or the European Court of Human Rights,” said the ÖAMTC expert. The mobility club instead advocates targeted controls to increase the likelihood of being caught.
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