The introduction of a stricter catalogue of fines in November 2021 has brought significantly more revenue to the state budget in Hesse. With 88.6 million euros last year, the state's central fine office in Kassel recorded an increase of around 22.3 million euros (plus 33.6 percent) compared to the previous year. According to Kassel district president Mark Weinmeister (CDU), this is a record value, both in terms of the total amount and the increase compared to the previous year. The increase was largely due to the amendment of the fine catalog regulation, the fine office announced on Wednesday in a press conference.
Ralf Euler
Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung, responsible for the Rhein-Main section of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.
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Since many of the so-called minor administrative offenses have been upgraded to serious administrative offenses in the new regulation, the authority is observing, as expected, a decline in reports of minor violations and an increase in reports of serious offenses, Weinmeister (CDU) reported. Nationwide, the Central Fines Office, which is located at the Regional Council, processed around 1.27 million traffic reports last year, around 77,000 fewer than in the previous year (minus 5.7 percent). The proportion of serious traffic violations rose from 33 to 53 percent – from around 446,000 to 667,000 in absolute terms.
The most common reason is speeding violations
Minor administrative offences include penalties of up to and including 55 euros, and serious administrative offences of 60 euros. According to the new catalogue of fines, parking on sidewalks, cycle paths and on cycle lanes with danger is classified as a serious administrative offence – and costs 80 euros. However, anyone who only stops their car on a sidewalk or cycle path commits a minor administrative offence and must pay a fine of 50 euros.
According to statistics, the most common reason for charges is speeding violations. Around 67 percent are due to speeding. According to statistics, the second most frequent complaints were for stopping and parking violations (17 percent). The third most frequent complaints were filed as a result of traffic accidents (5.8 percent). According to the acting head of the Central Fines Office, Christian Herr, there are no abnormalities in the age of the traffic offenders identified. Neither particularly old nor particularly young people appeared exceptionally often in the statistics.
In 2022, the Central Fines Office issued almost 494,000 fines, of which around 26,100 resulted in a driving ban. In 5.4 percent of the cases, an objection was filed. Approximately 1.4 million procedures were completed; around 263,000 had to be hired because the person responsible could not be identified.
Accepting and changing misconduct
Around 165,000 road users living abroad who had been noticed in Hesse for speeding or other serious violations were contacted by the Central Fines Office and informed in their national language of the possibility of paying the fine in advance. The payment behaviour of foreign traffic offenders is high, it is said in Kassel, but decreases the further east in Europe the countries of origin are. Naturally, the residents of the neighbouring countries of Poland and the Netherlands have the largest foreign share of traffic violations in Hesse.
In the prosecution of traffic offenses, it is not a matter of asking citizens to pay, said District President Weinmeister. "We are not doing this to restructure the state budget." Rather, the goal is to get people to think about their misconduct and change it.
In addition to the Central Fines Office, the regulatory authorities of the cities and municipalities are also responsible for processing proceedings concerning minor violations with a warning fine of 55 euros or less. Since some municipalities operate their own traffic monitoring and punish violations, the figures presented by the central office do not reflect the entire situation in Hesse. There are no complete nationwide statistics. Violations on the territory of the city of Frankfurt, for example, are not included in the balance sheet. In the Main metropolis alone, more than ten million euros are collected annually by traffic offenders.