Driving offences and police traffic fines

Could not find anything about this so here is for those of you not aware:

When fined for a traffic violation you're being registered at the KBA (Kraftfahrt Bundesamt) in Flensburg. They will keep a record of the points you collect. each violation is measured in points. eg calling on your mobile is 3 points. You will also get fined a certain amount to pay.

8-13 Point Intitles you to receive a letter with a recommendation to join a driving school. If done so you can get some points discounted. (usually they send a letter with driving schools in your area with it)

For those who think that showing a foreign licence might help, your wrong. Those are registered as well. It has not been clear to me what is happening if you are driving with a foreign car registration. So far the experience shows that you usually get a fine to pay and that is it.

14-17 Points You are to participate in a Seminar regarding traffic. Deduction of 2 points max.

18 Points - Your licence will be revoked for one month initially.

Under Punktesystem and PunktenKatalog you can find the points for each violation. (unfortunately only in German)

More information, also in English, can be found at http://www.kba.de/ check puntensystem and Im Uberblick. There is a button to swap to English.

The points will be valid between 2, 5 or 10 years depending on the traffic violation. Leaving the country and deregister will not erase them either. The points can only be deducted once in 5 years.

Happy driving

G.

I got stopped in Leopold Str last year for using my handy. I gave them all my details and never heard anything more. They said I'd get a letter with the fine- nothing ever arrived.

I was stopped in June last year and was 0.6 on the Richter scale for alcohol. The limit is 0.5. Between 0.5 & 0.8 you get a small fine, a slap on the wrist and lose your licence for a month. I failed to hand in my licence until Jan this year (!) when I had to go to the police station because my car was towed away. So, while I was there I handed it over. They were trying to fine me 600 Euros until that point because I hadn't handed over my licence freely - "freiwillig". But, because I'd walked into the station and handed it over they dropped the 600 Euro fine. I still haven't heard anything else about the "small" fine yet and they still haven't sent my licence back either! Have they forgotten me?

Sould anyone be speeding, then up to 20kph over a limit means only a fine, no points.

More than 20kph over a limit and it's points plus a fine.

When you are 'blitzed' then they give you a leeway of 3kph.

What I am not sure of is whether the 20 kph 'over' also applies to lower limits like 30 kph & 50 kph areas. As 20kph is a large amount by percentage.

As for the 3kph they allow you, I find this strange as we are always told in the UK that the regulation imposed on car manufacturers is to have speedometers accurate to within 10% of true speed.

Its 10% plus the 3kmh.