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Police in Lyon carry out speed checks: Anyone caught here should also be prosecuted at home in the future
Photo: Nicolas Liponne / Hans Lucas / IMAGO
Anyone who breaks traffic rules in other EU countries should no longer be able to hope to get away with it without being punished.
The EU Commission has proposed a package of traffic measures designed to increase safety on Europe's roads.
Among other things, traffic offenses committed by EU citizens abroad should be punished more often across borders.
Because more than 40 percent of cross-border traffic offenses in the EU are stopped without punishment, said EU Transport Commissioner Adina Vălean, either because the offender has not been identified or the payment has not yet been enforced.
Current EU rules on cross-border enforcement of traffic rules already cover speeding or drunk driving.
In order for the authorities of the Member States to work together even better, the Commission wants to extend the Europe-wide investigation to the following traffic offences:
too little distance to the vehicle in front
dangerous overtaking
dangerous parking
Crossing one or more solid white lines
Driving in the wrong direction
Non-compliance with the rules at rescue corridors
overloading of vehicles
Anyone who commits particularly serious crimes - such as exceeding a speed limit of more than 50 kilometers per hour or causing accidents with deaths and injuries - should not only lose their driving license in one country, but in the entire EU.
According to the ADAC, tracking traffic violations in foreign-speaking countries in particular has been problematic up to now: notices of fines, for example in Italian or French, which are often only sent months or years after the violation or do not give any information on payment modalities, have often left those affected at a loss - and led to this that they ignore the notices.
On the other hand, a quick, transparent and understandable confrontation with the traffic violation leads to traffic offenders seriously dealing with the allegation and being made aware of it, according to the ADAC.
The Commission's proposal is therefore "a step in the right direction".
Furthermore, the EU Commission wants to introduce a digital driving license for smartphones, adapt driving lessons and driving tests to make beginners behind the wheel more aware of vulnerable road users on scooters and e-bikes, and establish driving licenses across Europe from the age of 17.
Accompanied driving up to the age of majority is already possible in Germany and Austria.
"Safe driving is crucial to our efforts to halve the number of road deaths and serious injuries by 2030," said Commissioner Vălean.
Last year more than 20,000 people died in road accidents in the EU.
lki/dpa
