After 99 days

Already 17 cars confiscated from speeders in Lower Austria

If you drive too fast, you can lose your car.

(Bild: yaroslav1986 - stock.adobe.com)

On March 1, an amendment to the Road Traffic Act made it possible to impose significantly harsher penalties on speeders. Since then, 17 cars have been confiscated in Lower Austria and further proceedings are underway.

Anyone driving too fast since March 1 can lose their car as well as their license. The 34th amendment to the Road Traffic Act (StVo) makes this possible. Since then, cars can be confiscated on the spot if they exceed 60 km/h in urban areas and 70 km/h in open country. If the driver has previously been caught for similar offenses, such as participating in an illegal car race, the vehicle is auctioned off. Otherwise, the vehicle will be returned to him, but his driving license will not. Anyone speeding at 80 or 90 km/h is irrevocably deprived of their car.

Lifelong driving ban
The only exception is if the owner of the car was not caught or if it is a leased or rental car. These can only be temporarily confiscated for a maximum of 14 days. However, the driver is banned from driving this vehicle for life.

Since then, 17 vehicles have already been seized directly by the police in Lower Austria, and proceedings are still ongoing for others because they were caught by radar boxes. The first person to lose his car in this way was a 21-year-old who was caught driving at 247 km/h on the A22 near Stockerau on March 9. The young man from the Mistelbach district was therefore 117 km/h too fast. However, he is taking legal action against the acceptance; the case is before the provincial administrative court.