German office focuses more on toll payments than on road safety

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The German daily Die Welt sounds the alarm – the number of accidents in the country is increasing, and the authorities entitled to control the drivers focus on toll payments instead of punishing traffic offenses.

Faulty vehicles, fatigue, and distraction of drivers are the most frequent causes of accidents involving lorries. Nevertheless, only 231 officers of the Road Control Service (SKD), a branch of the Federal Office of Freight Transport (BAG), control lorries and their drivers – the German daily Die Welt reports. Almost twice as many (458) BAG officials check whether the same drivers have paid tolls. Soon there will be even more of them because at any moment Germany will extend the tolls to 40 thousand kilometers of federal roads.

Is toll more important than safety?

These proportions give us food for thought, especially in view of the constantly growing number of accident victims on German motorways involving trucks. States densely packed with roads, such as Baden-Württemberg, North Rhine-Westphalia, recorded a record growth this year in these infamous statistics, the German daily reports.

Inspecting toll payments is evidently more important than improving road safety” – emphasized in the statement for „Die Welt” Stephan Kühn, Green party member.

The „Green” party criticizes the sharp disproportions in the controls. Although the draft budget assumes an increase in the number of SKD officers to 325, according to the Greens, there will still be too few of them.

Photo: Twitter.com/Polizei_MH

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