Speeding accidents - Prosecutor: Young men must not have access to 250 hp
The prosecutor in charge of Raser cases at the Berlin Public Prosecutor's Office, Andreas Winkelmann, speaks out in favor of a driver's license for cars. "A young man should not have access to 250 PS," Winkelmann said in an interview with the "Süddeutsche Zeitung." It is necessary to make it more difficult for young men to gain access to highly motorized vehicles, as is already the case with motorcycles.
"If you look at new car registrations, you notice an increasing number of PS," Winkelmann said. "The trend is that cars are becoming more highly motorized and offer incentives for offenders to test them at maximum power." Winkelmann demands a nationwide ban on handing over highly motorized vehicles to young drivers. If a father has a 300-PS car, he must limit its power if he wants to let his son drive it. Renters should only be allowed to rent out less powerful vehicles to young people, Winkelmann demands. Eighty percent of offending vehicles are rented or leased.
There is a very clear Raser profile: "Ninety-seven percent of Rasers are young men between 18 and 30, with the largest group being those between 21 and 25." Rasers come from all social classes, but they have one thing in common: "They want to surround themselves with the glamour of a luxury car and show who they are and what they represent. Status consciousness and self-overestimation come together, a fatal mixture."
Building changes on popular Raser streets, such as the Berlin Ku'damm, are not a solution. Highly motorized cars need ten or eleven seconds to go from 0 to 200 km/h - that's 250 meters. Therefore, the road would have to be paved with speed bumps. Barriers or narrowing of the roadway again pose an obstacle for rescue vehicles, and Rasers move to parallel streets.
Winkelmann's proposals extend beyond motorcycles, as he advocates for making it harder for young men in Germany to obtain access to highly motorized vehicles, such as cars. The SZ reported that Winkelmann is concerned about the trend of new cars registering with higher PS ratings, which he believes incentivizes young offenders to test their cars at maximum power. In response, Winkelmann proposes a nationwide ban on handing over highly motorized vehicles to young drivers, suggesting that fathers limit the power of their 300-PS cars if they want to let their sons drive them, and rentals should only provide less powerful vehicles to young people. According to Winkelmann, eighty percent of offending vehicles are rented or leased in Germany.
