I live about two miles from the Autobahn, and yesterday....we had this unique event to occur.
The A3 Autobahn around Frankfurt is one of the congested and most traveled Autobahns in Germany. Even on Sundays.....there's a fair amount of traffic as Germans are returning from their vacations and trips.
Well....around between three and four in the afternoon....four individuals in four cars....decided to have a 'drag-race' shortly after the Niedernhausen exit. In blunt language, 'drag-races' on the Autobahn are illegal, and there's severe fines with points involved. You will end up in front of a judge, and it's likely you will lose your license for at least six to twelve months.
About a mile or two in this 'race', a Syrian guy in a Mercedes CL350 (one of their bigger sports cars), knocked a non-participant car off the road, and triggered a major accident to occur. Six cars are heavily damaged. Three folks were injured enough to require ambulance services.
The bigger problem? This part of the Autobahn was shut off for three hours while they cleared the debris and cars from the mess. This triggered a line of cars stretching back almost 20 kilometers to be backed-up. In some cases, it added another hour or two onto the travel time of people, and triggered extra stress.
The other three drag-racers? They took off. There's a description of the vehicles, and some partial plate numbers.
Cost of the accident? The cops are still adding up the numbers....it's not just the cars and injuries but the man-hours for the fire-department and the Autobahn crew to clear the road. One of the vehicles damaged is a old collector's car. So I'm guessing the total for damages (cars and the services) to be up around 250,000 Euro minimum.
Odds of the cops catching the other three cars and drivers? They will spend some time on this but if no one can cite a tag number.....then catching them won't occur. This Syrian guy? I'm guessing that they tested his blood and will check on drug or alcohol usage as a possibility. Getting the license lost for a year is just the first problem. His insurance probably is just the normal type and won't go beyond 100,000 Euro in cost. Jail-time? Well, for drag-racing....there's some new laws in effect if bodily harm is caused, and he might be looking at a year or two in prison for that act.
The thing that gets me....if you follow the German news, there's a drag-race event where accidents occur almost weekly now in Germany, with people injured or killed. I don't remember this type of behavior being exhibited back in the 1980s.....you just didn't have drag-racing on public roads or streets. The change? I think video-games triggered part of this.....but simply immature behavior by young men has increased in a dramatic way.
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