Attention speeding offenders, from Friday your car may be gone: 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 the area and 90 km/h outside the city the vehicle may be seized and in other areas the result will also be auctioned.
If there is already a relevant criminal record, for example through participation in illegal car races, seizure and confiscation are possible if the speed exceeds 60 km/h in urban areas and 70 km/h outside urban areas, the ÖAMTC reminded.
If the speeding offender drives a vehicle that does not belong to him, enforcement bodies will in the future have the option to temporarily confiscate vehicles on the spot for a maximum of 14 days. In this case, the vehicles may not be confiscated and auctioned. This also applies to leasing or rental cars. In such cases, an annotation for a lifelong driving ban is made on the driver’s license.
Doubts about effectiveness and concerns about constitutionality
The ÖAMTC doubted the effectiveness of the measure and also has legal concerns: “On the one hand, there are no studies that say that heavier penalties are a greater deterrent than lower ones. Moreover, 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 by law professors also state that the law has major shortcomings and is even unconstitutional.
“It would be a shame for road safety if the law were overturned in the first relevant application case by appealing to the highest court or the European Court of Human Rights,” the expert said. The ÖAMTC instead advocates targeted checks to increase the chance of being caught.
Source: Krone
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