BH must decide

Lead foot must now fear for his luxury BMW

This BMW 530i has been impounded for the time being and is being towed away - the authorities will decide what happens next.(Bild: Dostal Harald, Krone KREATIV)

A 36-year-old overtook a police patrol in a white BMW on the Westautobahn, which then confiscated a vehicle for the first time in Upper Austria. Now the lead-footed man has to fear for his car, the district authority now has two weeks to make a decision.

With three passengers in the car and 250 hp under the hood, a 36-year-old drove his BMW 530i along the Westautobahn on Wednesday evening, overtaking a patrol car shortly after the Sattledt slip road. The officers called for reinforcements due to the high speed, and when the highway patrol measured 230 km/h by laser - 223 minus the measurement tolerance - the "racing" came to an end.

Four people were in the car, the laser measurement showed 230 km/h. Minus the device-specific value, the reproachable value is 223 km/h.

Klaus Scherleitner, Leiter der Landesverkehrsabteilung

The 36-year-old was stopped at the Allhaming rest area and his BMW was confiscated. The Serbian from Switzerland is therefore the first driver in Upper Austria to have his car confiscated under the new speeding law.

Luxury BMW could soon be auctioned off
It took 20 days since the new regulation came into force for the first lead-footed driver to be caught above the Enns. "The car was taken away by a towing company," reports Klaus Scherleitner, head of the provincial traffic department. "Now we have to see whose property the vehicle is." Because only if the extreme speeder is also the car owner can his car be foreclosed on in extreme cases.

The new regulation

Since March 1, stricter rules have applied to extreme speeders in Austria: If they exceed the speed limit by at least 80 km/h in urban areas and by at least 90 km/h outside urban areas, their vehicle will be confiscated by the authorities. For drivers with relevant previous convictions, the speed limits are reduced to 60 and 70 km/h respectively. In the final instance, the car can be auctioned off.

The Wels-Land district authority is responsible for this. The car was provisionally taken away by order of the authority. The authority must now decide within two weeks whether this will become an official, i.e. permanent, acceptance and whether the car will be "forfeited", i.e. sold by force.

30 percent goes to the country
There are two prerequisites for this: "The first is fulfilled with the speeding offense," explains district governor Elisabeth Schwetz to the "Krone". "The second requirement is a negative prognosis." This means that if there is a risk of repetition, the 36-year-old will lose his BMW forever. "From today's perspective, we would turn to an auction house," says Schwetz for this case.

We have to decide within two weeks whether the conditions for official seizure and forfeiture of the vehicle are met.

Elisabeth Schwetz, Bezirkshauptfrau der BH Wels-Land

If the car is sold, 70 percent of the proceeds will go to the nationwide road safety fund and 30 percent to the state of Upper Austria.