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Using your cell phone while driving is actually forbidden.
According to the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Justice, however, this regulation could be null and void
Photo: Monika Skolimowska / picture alliance / dpa
The chaos surrounding the failed amendment to the Road Traffic Act (StVO) is apparently much greater than previously assumed.
According to the legal opinion of the Ministry of Justice in Baden-Württemberg, all new versions of the regulation since 2009 could be "ineffective" due to a citation error.
That would mean that only the StVO version from 1970 is valid and the corresponding newer regulations, for example on telephoning at the wheel, "go nowhere".
At least that is in a controversial letter from the Ministry in Stuttgart to the transport ministries of the federal states and the federal government, which SPIEGEL has and which the "Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung" reports on.
"After a number of regulations have been affected by the change in the meantime, there is a not inconsiderable degree of legal uncertainty," writes an official for Justice Minister Guido Wolf (CDU).
This creates even more confusion for drivers.
Because the amendment to the road traffic regulations from this year is already invalid due to a citation error.
Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer (CSU) therefore had to arrange for driving licenses that had already been withdrawn to be returned due to speeding violations.
Increased penalties for violations of the law by motorists on cycle paths are also affected.
Numerous motorists could sue for points
If older amendments such as the one from March 2013 and all other and minor changes from the years before and after are no longer applicable, then telephoning while driving would be permitted from now on.
Anyone who does not buckle up their children with the child seat would go unpunished.
Electric scooters are no longer allowed to drive because the relevant ordinance is affected by the citation error.
The German courts could also face a wave of lawsuits: "It is to be expected that motorists will try to redeem points in Flensburg through the courts," says Heilbronn traffic lawyer Stephan Lay.
In response to a request from SPIEGEL, the Federal Ministry of Transport declared that "the regulation on the revision of the Road Traffic Act of March 6, 2013" does not "suffer from a citation error".
In its letter, the Ministry of Justice of Baden-Württemberg does not spare its criticism of the Scheuer officials: They should present "a timely and, above all, carefully drafted new road traffic regulations with a full quotation of the authorization basis".
There is currently a dispute between the Federal Ministry of Transport and countries that are co-governed by the Green Party about such a new version, which at least heals the sloppiness of the current amendment.
They want to bring down a compromise proposal for the correct amendment to the StVO on September 18 in the Federal Council.
The dispute arose over the question of which speeding violations should have the driver's license withdrawn for a month.
In the amendment, which came into force at the end of April, a driving ban should be imposed in urban areas at more than 21 kilometers per hour and outside urban areas at 26 kilometers an hour.
After a campaign by the ADAC, the hapless Federal Minister of Transport wanted to overturn this regulation.
Then the wrong quotation was discovered in the law.
Scheuer took this as an opportunity to make a new proposal.
Accordingly, the driver's license should only be gone the first time you violate the speed limit, if you are too fast in front of a school or kindergarten or on the motorway in a construction site at 21 or 26 kilometers per hour.
Several thousand drivers got their driving licenses, which they had given back after the StVO amendment came into force.
That still causes an increased workload in the traffic authorities.
This could increase again in the next few months, at least if the point of view of the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Justice prevails.
The FDP transport politician Oliver Luksic told SPIEGEL that Federal Transport Minister Scheuer might face anarchy in traffic law.
"If Baden-Württemberg's assessment should be confirmed, then the federal and state governments have turned a blind eye to it for years," said Luksic.
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