VW soon under the hammer?

First speeding driver’s car threatened with forced sale

A 17-year-old was speeding along the A1 motorway in a VW Passat as shown in the symbolic picture.

(Bild: KLEMENS GROH)

Has the time come? More than five months after the law came into force, the car of an extreme speeding driver could soon end up under the hammer for the first time in Upper Austria. A 17-year-old in a VW Passat was clocked at almost 200 km/h on the Westautobahn.

At least the legal requirements for the first auction in Upper Austria of a 17-year-old's VW Passat seem to be met. As reported, the boy from Salzburg had been speeding at almost 200 km/h on the Westautobahn on Sunday and was clocked at 92 km/h over the 100 km/h limit in Ansfelden, minus the measurement tolerance.

The 17-year-old was therefore so fast that his car can be "forfeited", as the law says, even for the first offense. The second requirement for this is that the speeding driver must also be the owner of the car.

The path to "forfeiture"
"In the first statements, the driver emphasized that the vehicle is his property. We assume that it will be forfeited if this is the case," says Manfred Hageneder, the responsible district governor of Linz-Land.

However, the review process is still ongoing and the authorities have two weeks to complete it. If the seizure is indeed final and legally binding, the district authority will "make the best possible use of the car. For example by way of an auction at the Dorotheum", says Hageneder.