Who races so late through night and wind? It is the mother with her child. This or something similar is more and more often the sad statement when you take a look through the rearview mirror into the tailgating car behind you on the road. Because speeding and tailgating have long since become a popular sport, and it would be presumptuous by now to reduce speeders to certain groupings. Where in former times really predominantly driver's license beginners, craftsmen or businessmen proved a lead foot on the gas pedal, there are hardly still demarcations and the pensioner steps just as joyfully on the tube, like the truck driver or evenly the mothers, who drive their children to the school. Speeding seems to be "in.
Frustration reduction in road traffic
The fact that, when driving, you constantly have another road user breathing down your neck, who seems to be particularly caught up in the rush, is by no means just a subjective feeling. If you take a look at the statistics of the Kraftfahrt-Bundesamt (Federal Motor Transport Authority), it becomes clear that parking and speeding are among the most common offenses in German road traffic. Why people like to step on the gas so much – and what then almost inevitably happens, the car in front gets into trouble afterwards – is probably more a case for the psychologists than for the traffic office. Because speeding no longer has much in common with safe and relaxed driving. It's better to speed from one red light to the next, because even if some speeders imagine it, they can't really get through the crowded streets of the big city any faster. One accusation that the particularly fast drivers often hear is that they are mainly trying to relieve frustration at the expense of the safety of others.
Speed limits are out
If the superior has given a telling off or after a quarrel with the spouse, people often and gladly speed up in order to vent their own anger. The signs of the speed limits then quickly become ignored accessories and it is blithely raced off on it, in thirty zones at schools and kindergartens as well as on dangerous routes and on highway or freeway. Consideration is then absolutely out of place, because according to one's own opinion nothing happens to oneself anyway, it is always only the others who get killed while speeding. That's what some people have thought, unfortunately, who in their speeding frenzy have dragged innocent people with them to their deaths.
Tougher penalties for speeders
Anyone who drives more than 70 kilometers per hour too fast within built-up areas currently receives four points in Flensburg, as well as a fine of 680 euros and a driving ban of three months. Sounds like a lot at first, but it's not, if you listen to the voices of many critics. Because speeders are almost without exception repeat offenders and after a little whining about the lost money and the fact that the car has to stay in the garage for a quarter of a year, it can go on blithely in the fourth month and it is allowed to continue speeding again. Of course, there are always teachable exceptions, but here, too, statistics show that speeding is rarely an isolated incident. Because if you are only 21 to 25 kilometers per hour too fast, you get a meager point and 80 euros fine. Keeping in mind that in such a case, the victim can be hit in the thirty zone at around 55 kilometers per hour, the chances of surviving such an accident unharmed probably decrease dramatically. But until the penalties for such speeding really hurt and the offender might come to his senses and take his foot off the gas, it can take a few times to get caught. In the end, the sad thing is that most of them accept the offer, usually still angrily pay the fine and then blithely continue racing. Many sensible drivers therefore demand much harsher penalties for speeders and tailgaters and not without reason.