"Tyre Extinguishers" let air out of SUV tires worldwide as a climate action - several cases in Germany
Created: 11/30/2022, 6:36 p.m
By: Ines Baur
An off-road vehicle should not pollute the air in urban areas.
To stop him, activists simply let air out of his tires.
© Jaguar Land Rover/dpa-mag
You leave the house, want to get in the car and drive off.
But the SUV has a flat tire.
Environmental activists, so-called Tire Extinguishers, let the air out of SUV tires in big cities.
Munich - "You will be angry, but do not take it personally.
It's not you, it's your car." These are the first sentences in the letter of confession from the activists of the climate group Tire Extinguishers.
They clip the letters to the windshields of SUVs.
Among other things in Hanover, one of the cities where they let air out of tires on Tuesday night.
Activists are increasingly trying to draw attention to environmental destruction with various campaigns.
Quite a few end up in police custody for their actions.
Flat tires on SUVs - from New York to Innsbruck
The action in Hanover was one of 26 in 19 cities.
At least that's what the group writes on their website.
"From New York to Innsbruck." In eight countries, participants opened valves and let the air out of tires.
"Out of nearly 900 polluting SUVs." Apparently the largest global action in history against "high-carbon vehicles."
Many more actions are to follow.
According to the group, there were flat SUV tires in German cities
Berlin - District Dahlem-Dorf, Germany (50)
Bonn, Germany (9)
Essen - District Heisingen, Germany (26)
Hannover - Zoo area, Oststadt and List, Germany (25)
Car owners in Zurich apparently found the most flat tires with 102 vehicles in the morning.
In Würzburg there was recently another campaign against polluting SUVs.
Traffic tickets from the environmental sinner monitoring.
Letting air out of the tires - what are the reasons given by the activists
"SUVs and SUVs are a catastrophe for our health, our public safety and our climate," write the activists.
Ever larger cars would be driving around in cities.
Since governments and politicians have failed to protect against this threat, activists say, they would protect themselves.
The Tire Extinguishers see themselves as a group without a leader.
Citizens could become active themselves in their local environment.
On the website, they explain how to deflate the tires and provide the flyer.
In 14 languages.
This should be left on the SUV so the owner knows what happened.
Is it illegal to let air out of car tires?
According to the Hanover police, there is always the initial suspicion of damage to property ,
writes
rtl.de.
If the tires are totally flat, one could speak of an offence.
If, on the other hand, there is only a little air in the tires, the action is not punishable.
One cannot speak of a dangerous intervention in road traffic, because the activists referred to the act in the letter of confession.
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How many new SUV registrations were there in Germany in 2022?
Auto-Motor-Sport.de
published figures regarding new registrations of SUVs in Germany.
According to this, a total of 92,049 off-road vehicles and SUVs were registered in Germany for the first time in June 2022.
The proportion of off-roaders in the total registrations is 41 percent.
An increase from the previous month, when the share was 39 percent.
In total, around 484,000 new SUVs and off-road vehicles hit the streets in the first half of 2022.
This corresponds to a market share of 39 percent.
This means that more than every third car newly registered in Germany is an SUV or off-road vehicle.
How many of them are actually on the road and how many in the urban jungle is open.