Balance sheet for Tyrol

Police have already taken away the vehicles of 34 extreme speeders

Anyone speeding at 70 km/h outside built-up areas will have their car confiscated for the time being.

(Bild: Christof Birbaumer)

A drunk driver was driving at 204 km/h instead of the permitted 110 km/h on the A12 highway in the Tyrolean Oberland on Tuesday night. He was stopped in Pettnau - his driver's license and car are "gone" for the time being. Speeding drivers' vehicles are confiscated time and again - mostly men are affected.

Again! Shortly after midnight on Tuesday, the police officers carrying out speed measurements on the Inntal highway near Zirl were quite astonished. They caught a would-be Verstappen at 204 km/h - almost 100 km/h too fast!

End of the line in Pettnau
The journey came to an end a little later in Pettnau. The officers not only temporarily confiscated the drunk (!) speeding driver's license, but also confiscated the car. As a reminder: since March 2024, the police have been able to take this drastic measure if someone is driving too "fast" by 70 km/h outside urban areas or 60 km/h in urban areas.

Most of the violations - 26 - that led to confiscation occurred out of town, only seven on the highway.

Enrico Leitgeb, Leiter der Tiroler Verkehrspolizei

Bild: Polizei Tirol

"We have provisionally confiscated a total of 34 vehicles since then," says Enrico Leitgeb, head of the Tyrolean police traffic department. In 22 cases, it was cars, eleven times motorcycle drivers were caught and once even a small truck was driving dramatically too fast.

All speeders are male
Men dominate the statistics in an extremely inglorious way. "With one single exception, all speeders are male," Leitgeb continues. In around two thirds of cases, these were locals. The absolute bird - so far - has been shot down by the speeding driver who "sped along" on a main road at an incredible 183 km/h instead of the permitted 70.

60 km/h zone a "magnet" for speeders
According to Leitgeb, many of the drastic speeding violations that lead to confiscation occur in 60 km/h zones. And interestingly, most of the "extreme speeders" were stopped during the day - 21. "And not mainly at off-peak times, as you might think," Leitgeb wonders.

Speeding drivers are more conspicuous
However, it is not possible to draw conclusions that there are currently more speeders on the road than in the past. The statistical upgrading would probably only make speeders stand out more.