OT: Autobahn Deaths Force Germans to Rethink Passion for Speed

[Guest guest]

Hi y'all,

 

Just a point on acceptable differences in different cultures. Such

thinking carries over into more areas than just driving.

 

German passion for speed .. Turkish passion for disobeying traffic laws

while celebrating following football games, and other shows of defiance

in nations where the public is closely regulated by Big Brother .. are

in some ways healthy and necessary opportunities to be free of their

government's control .. something Americans have yet to experience.

 

If you've not driven on the Autobahn you've missed a real thrill .. I

like it a lot. Funny is the statement below ..

 

> The 14.8 million-member German Automobile Club, the equivalent of AAA,

> argued that statistics show no correlation between safety and speed

> limits. What is needed instead is a crackdown on practices such as

> following too closely, said Markus Schaepe, a legal specialist on

> transportation at the club.

 

If a car moving 95 MPH is approached from behind by one moving 155 MPH

it won't be long afore the slower one is followed too closely. ;-)

--

 

By John Burgess

Washington Post Foreign Service

Saturday, February 28, 2004; Page A13

 

BERLIN -- The Kia automobile carrying a young woman and her 2-year-old

daughter was moving down the high-speed lane of the autobahn. Rolf

Fischer, a 34-year-old test driver for DaimlerChrysler, was approaching

from behind, in a powerful Mercedes Benz CL600.

 

His speed was not unusual on the long stretches of German highways,

where drivers can legally go as fast as they want: about 155 mph.

 

As he closed in on the Kia, a court later found, he flashed his

headlights to signal he wanted the lane cleared. But the woman driving

the Kia apparently became spooked. She swerved, lost control and went

off the road, striking two trees. She and her daughter died instantly.

 

Last week, after a trial covered closely by the German news media, a

court convicted Fischer of negligent manslaughter in the July 2003

deaths and sentenced him to 18 months in prison.

 

Germany's world-famous right to speed was not on trial, but its

opponents have seized on the verdict to renew long-standing demands for

controls. Senior politicians in the ruling Social Democrat-Green

coalition have declared that the time has come for limits, arguing that

it's only common sense that slowing down would save lives.

 

The trial will heighten that debate, predicted Reinhard Weis, a Social

Democrat member of parliament who specializes in transportation issues.

Concerning controls, he said, " I think [public] acceptance is there, as

long as people see it as a safety issue. "

 

But defenders of the status quo are already beginning their defense. In

this otherwise heavily regulated society, many Germans view the right to

drive fast as a last frontier of personal freedom.

 

The 14.8 million-member German Automobile Club, the equivalent of AAA,

argued that statistics show no correlation between safety and speed

limits. What is needed instead is a crackdown on practices such as

following too closely, said Markus Schaepe, a legal specialist on

transportation at the club.

 

" We are in favor of installing [more] video cameras to better monitor

the distance between vehicles, " Schaepe said.

 

Germany's Transport Ministry, which oversees the 7,500-mile-long

autobahn system, said after the verdict that it saw no need for limits.

A better response, it said, would be to redesign stretches of road where

accidents routinely occur.

 

Any change would target an enduring figure in contemporary German life

known as the " autobahn racer. " In the view of critics, the racer is

almost always male and middle-aged, and at the wheel of a high

performance car he becomes a sort of tailgate terrorist, appearing from

nowhere behind slower vehicles, honking his horn, flashing his

headlights to demand that the way be cleared for him.

 

" I hate it when people tailgate, " said Hartmut Fritz, 49, out walking

his dog on a Berlin street this week. " I cannot do that to others --

it's gruesome. It's like you are forcing someone to do something. " He

favors speed limits, though by American standards, high ones, about 85

mph. " There is just no need " to go faster, he said.

 

But Wolf Schilahb, 48, said he opposed limits. He routinely travels at a

bit over 100 mph -- " as long as no one is in my way, " he said, as he

bought cigarettes at a Berlin kiosk, keys to his Mazda in hand. " People

need to be able to make these decisions individually. What needs to

change is the attitude of many people. "

 

Schilahb called the situation on the highways " a mirror image of what is

going on in society. The slower people get pushed aside by the faster,

more powerful people with stronger elbows. "

 

It's a myth that German highways have no speed limits. On about a third

of the autobahn, limits are posted. On the rest, authorities recommend

that drivers keep to 130 kilometers (about 81 miles) per hour, but

drivers are legally free to ignore that and generally do. Congestion,

bad weather and engine limitations are about all that constrains velocity.

 

When the crash occurred, Fischer was traveling an unregulated stretch of

road between the cities of Esslingen and Papenberg. The Kia was moving

fast, too, according to testimony in the trial. It had been pressed into

its own upper limits, about 95 mph, as it raced down the left lane,

designated for higher-speed traffic, in an attempt to pass another car.

 

Fischer did not stop after the Kia spun off the road, but he later

aroused suspicion by making inquiries about what had happened to it.

Police eventually tracked him down using witness accounts, cell phone

records and gasoline receipts.

 

His trial was in many ways tailor-made for speeding opponents -- if a

professional driver for one of the country's premier high-speed cars

couldn't handle such speeds safely, how could the ordinary person?

According to the German media, Judge Brigitte Hecking received death

threats after making remarks that suggested she favored speed limits.

 

The court ruled that Fischer was responsible for the deaths, but it

accepted his explanation for leaving the scene, that he did not see the

Kia go off the road. He remains free pending appeal.

 

The German Automobile Club says that the deaths were tragic but held no

lessons about the dangers of speed. " The autobahns in Germany are

Germany's safest roads, " Schaepe said. " The probability that you would

die in an accident on an autobahn in Germany is less than it is on an

American highway, " where limits are posted.