Documented on video

Here a speeding driver clears the police from the overtaking lane

A driver pushes a plainclothes patrol out of the way here.

(Bild: Polizei Stralsund)

A case of "dumber than the police allow": tailgating and tailgating on the highway is generally not very smart. Even less so at high speeds. If the person being tailgated is also an unmarked police officer, the just punishment is not far away ...

Every now and then on the highway, you see a red sign flashing in the rear window of apparently harmless cars: "Police! Follow!" or "Police! Follow!" In Austria, these are often fast Audis and VWs. Whoever was driving in accordance with the regulations is probably not meant.

The case of a German driver is different: he got into an argument with the police of all people and drove extremely close to a so-called video car at 180 km/h in the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in order to force it out of the overtaking lane.

And he succeeded. The officers cleared the way - but only to follow the man in his Mercedes. He had no idea about his "opponent" and stepped on the gas. He sped off at up to 250 km/h, according to the police.

When the lane is clear, the tailgater pulls away at 250 km/h.

(Bild: Polizei Stralsund)

For those who want to know exactly: the whole thing happened last Tuesday on the A20 between the Grimmen West and Grimmen Ost junctions. The police officers were overtaking other cars at 170 to 180 km/h when the headlights of the Mercedes in the rear-view mirror became larger and larger - and remained that size for several hundred meters.

"The evaluated speed of the 60-year-old German speeding driver was almost 170 km/h. The evaluated and reproachable distance over a measuring distance of over 300 meters was just over 13 meters, including tolerance deduction," the police said. And added to illustrate the danger: One should "remember the rule of thumb of 'half the speedometer', whereby an appropriate distance at this speed is therefore at least 85 meters. The driver would need a reaction distance of around 50 meters just to have his foot on the brake."

A short time later, the officers caught up and stopped the impatient driver in an emergency stop bay. He was apparently not aware of any guilt, the police wrote: "During the check, the speed offender gave the impression that the left lane of an unlimited highway was only intended for vehicles traveling at least 200 km/h." From the police officers' point of view, this attitude has no place on public roads. "Of course, they tried to explain to him that this was not only reckless behavior, but also a serious traffic hazard."

The man is given time to reflect in the form of a two-month driving ban. Regardless of whether he learns the lesson, it will cost him 320 euros.

And what do we learn from this? It's better to think twice about how you drive. You never know who's in the other car.