Road safety: Germans are Europe’s best speedsters

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The Germans are Europe‘s best speedsters

Road safety: Germans are Europe's best speedsters-europe

Accident prevention has been practiced in Germany for many years with some somewhat macabre messages. But even the vultures waiting on this poster are apparently hardly frightened by v…on the lawn.

Source: AP

More than 160 km / h? No problem! Flensburg points? Does not matter! According to the survey, Germans are the most uninhibited drivers. But also Europe‘s best.

D.Germany has the most skilled drivers in Europe. After 2008, the Germans do best this year in the eyes of their European neighbors. This is one of the results of the second AXA Road Safety Report, a cross-border study on the safety awareness of motorists in ten European countries: Germany, France, Belgium, Great Britain, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal, Switzerland and Spain.

Around eight out of ten Germans surveyed (83 percent) feel safe on their own roads, more than the European average of 75 percent. The Europeans as a whole (67 percent) as well as the Germans (73 percent) mostly rate their own driving behavior as good. What is surprising is that the Germans surveyed still feel safest on country roads. A dangerous fallacy, because more than half of all fatal accidents occur there.

Otherwise, the car drivers surveyed from Germany know very well where sources of danger lurk in traffic. Around 90 percent cite disregarding safety distances, driving without a seat belt, drinking and driving and overtaking on the right on the autobahn as the most dangerous traffic sins. This shows that Germans are more aware of dangers on the road than their European neighbors.

For example, only 76 percent of the Italians surveyed perceive driving without a seatbelt as dangerous, compared to 94 percent in Germany. Using a cell phone at the wheel also seems to run in the blood of many Italians. One in five (19 percent) does not consider telephoning without a hands-free device at the wheel to be dangerous, a further 19 percent do it although they are aware of the danger and despite severe fines of up to 600 euros. In contrast, Germany, Great Britain and Ireland are particularly exemplary: only every fourth German driver (25 percent) says they commit the "phone sin" occasionally.

Ireland is on par. The show nation is Great Britain with only 12 percent. You pay almost 80 euros on the island for calls without a hands-free device in the car. If you get caught doing it on German roads, you get away cheaply in comparison: 40 euros and one point in Flensburg are due.

When it comes to speeding, however, the Germans are not a role model, because neither points in Flensburg nor fines help.

Half of the respondents (49 percent) say they drive too fast in built-up areas every now and then (Europe: 41 percent). Current accident statistics also confirm the German desire for speed: According to the Federal Statistical Office, more than 14 percent of accidents with personal injury are due to excessive speed.

When it comes to speed, the Germans are also difficult to teach and speed cameras have little effect: Only 39 percent can be influenced by speed cameras and only around one in four (27 percent) fear points in Flensburg. Europeans as a whole show more respect: an average of 48 percent of drivers take their foot off the accelerator. Only when it comes to the environment do Germans show willingness to speed less. After all, every second person is in favor of a general reduction in speed of 10 km / h if it helps the environment.

Traffic education and preventive measures are considered important for Germans – but only for others. 97 percent support such campaigns, but only a fifth allow themselves to be influenced by them. This puts the Germans in last place behind all other motorist nations.

This may also be due to the fact that the German penalties for traffic offenses are relatively low compared to other countries. Nevertheless, almost half (44 percent) are of the opinion that traffic offenders are adequately punished in this country (2008: 36 percent). This could be in connection with the new edition of the catalog of fines as of February 1, 2009, with which the fines were in some cases significantly increased.

It is noticeable that motorists from countries in which high fines are already levied on traffic offenses are particularly often calling for further tightening. Take Italy as an example: although Italian cell phone sinners have to dig deep into their pockets with a fine of almost 600 euros, almost every second Italian motorist surveyed (48 percent) is of the opinion that the general penalty for this offense is not yet sufficient (Germany: 28 percent).

The women were able to win the battle of the sexes behind the wheel. 51 percent of the drivers surveyed consider women to be more competent, only 19 percent are of the opinion that men are better drivers. In traffic offenses, however, men take the inglorious first places. While around a third (31 percent) now and then make calls in the car without a hands-free system, the figure is only 18 percent among women.

Men (31 percent). More often than women (20 percent) disregard the safety distance and are more prone to frenzy. They also drive three times more often than women after two or more alcoholic drinks (16 percent versus 5 percent) and while eight out of ten women (78 percent) think that speed restrictions are used to avoid accidents, only 60 percent of men agree with almost a quarter believe that speed limits are primarily a source of income for the state (compared to 11 percent for women).

According to the Federal Statistical Office, 12 percent of all road fatalities in Germany in 2008 died as a result of an alcohol-related traffic accident. Alcohol behind the wheel is dangerous, say nine out of ten German drivers, one in ten drives occasionally despite consuming alcohol. The European average looks much worse: Every fifth driver (21 percent) occasionally gets behind the wheel of the car when drunk.

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