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E-scooters are considered motor vehicles
Photo: Alexandr Spatari/Getty Images
If you are sober enough to ride a bike, you should also be able to ride an e-scooter without being punished: Experts and associations have called for the alcohol limit for e-scooter drivers to be adjusted – upwards.
So far, the value has been based on that for cars.
Some experts would find it more appropriate to follow the less strict limit for bicycles.
From Wednesday on, the topic will be discussed at the traffic court day in Goslar.
The arguments for a lower limit:
E-scooters would drive
a maximum of 20 kilometers per hour
.
The General German Automobile Club (ADAC) announced that they were closer to the bicycle than to a car.
Legally, too
, e-scooters are closer to two-wheelers
: "There is neither a helmet requirement nor a driver's license requirement." The question therefore arises as to why a distinction is made with the blood alcohol limit.
Driving license could decide on border
So far, driving a
bicycle or e-bike
under the influence of alcohol up to 1.6 per mille is not punishable as long as the driver does not have any symptoms and there are no accidents, explained accident researcher Siegfried Brockmann from the General Association of the German Insurance Industry (GDV).
However, e-scooters are considered motor vehicles
and are
treated like cars.
This means:
If you drive with 0.5 per mille
or more, the driver commits an administrative offence.
A
fine of 500 euros and a month's driving ban
are then possible.
Higher fines and the withdrawal of the driver's license
are possible
from 1.1 per mille
- even without failure symptoms .
Drivers are then only allowed to get behind the wheel again after a medical-psychological examination.
Number of e-scooter accidents increased by 156 percent
"From the point of view of the ADAC, participation in road traffic and alcohol consumption should always be strictly separated," emphasized the automobile club.
However, it must be taken into account if people give up the car after drinking alcohol and instead use the "far less dangerous e-scooter".
Accident researcher Brockmann sees it that way too.
He suggests conducting a study to investigate the blood alcohol level at which e-scooter drivers can be assumed to be absolutely unfit to drive.
The topic will also be discussed at the Traffic Court Day in Goslar from January 25th to 27th.
It is one of the most important meetings of traffic safety and traffic law experts in Germany.
A particular focus of this year's traffic court day is the liability of AI-controlled cars and a possible obligation for doctors to report patients who are unfit to drive.
The Congress traditionally ends with recommendations to the legislature.
App could control ability to drive
Nationwide, the number of e-scooter accidents with injuries in 2021 increased by 156.8 percent compared to the previous year.
In almost 90 percent of the accidents in which it was determined that the e-scooter driver was unfit to drive, he was under the influence of alcohol.
Measured against all accidents, however, e-scooters have so far only made up a small proportion.
Accordingly, 1.7 percent of almost 326,000 accident victims were e-scooter drivers.
Data from the Norwegian capital Oslo recently showed that accidents with e-scooters mostly occur at night or in the evening due to drunk drivers.
The Automobile Club Verkehr (ACV) would like the suppliers of electric scooters to make more efforts to check the driver's fitness to drive.
"E.g. in the form of reaction tests using an app," said the ACV.
koe/dpa