News

 

The scenario in question took place in March 2023 on the A1 motorway near Kölliken in the Swiss canton of Aargau.

A 58-year-old driver rear-ended the car in front of him so hard that he fell well short of the safe distance to the car in front of him. At a speed of around 120 km/h, it was only eight to twelve metres instead of the prescribed 60 metres.

The investigating authority spoke of a "high abstract risk of accident". The Zofingen District Court found him guilty and imposed a conditional fine of 50 daily rates of 1970 Swiss francs (around 2110 euros) - a total of around 105000 euros.
The extraordinary amount of the fine is the result of the Swiss system of assessing fines on the basis of the offender's income. Fines can range from 30 to 3000 Swiss francs. In addition, there is a so-called liaison fine of 15,000 Swiss francs (around 16,000 euros), which is intended as a kind of warning.

However, the person in question has shown no sign of remorse. He lodged an appeal. The reason given was a lack of information about his rights. There was also criticism of the district court's analysis of the distance from the video recording. Furthermore, he could not have anticipated the braking manoeuvre of the car in front of him. And even if he had, "he would have stopped in time thanks to his sports brakes".
However, the court did not rule in his favour. He had been informed of his rights and there was nothing wrong with the calculation of the distance. The district court had estimated it on the basis of the length of the guidelines.
In the meantime, sitting out the fine and not paying it is not very promising. Since May, fines from Switzerland can also be enforced in Germany.
So there is no way around paying, unless you are in the right... which was clearly not the case here.

Picture: Dr. Wolf-Henning Hammer