Even stricter action against drivers who ignore driving a driving ban? Police judges warn of « unreasonable » penalties in plans Federal Government
Those who drive the car today, while the driver's license has been withdrawn risks that the police judge declares the vehicle involved forfeited. The car then becomes the property of the state.
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But that deterrence seems insufficient: every day the police caught more than 60 drivers who drive despite a driving ban. A prohibition that they were, however, imposed on them, because they went very badly in traffic. Several of the most heavy traffic accidents of the past months also happened with drivers who were not allowed to sit behind the wheel due to a driving ban.
Enormous financial consequences
That is why the Government De Wever will now introduce even stricter penalties. The intention is, among other things, to impose police judges that they must now declare the vehicle with which someone violated his driving ban.
In the Chamber, however, police judges have questioned such a 'compulsory forfeiture'. « The Constitutional Court ruled in 2 recent judgments that a punishment should not be unreasonably heavy and should not have enormous consequences for the financial situation of a person, » said Luc Brewaeys of the Royal Association of Peace and Police Courts.
© Marc Herremans
Brewaeys then mainly refers to situations where, for example, the family car must be forfeited, for example, because the man – despite a driving ban – still crawled behind the wheel. “And where the question is whether the woman was aware of the driving ban. It may have enormous financial consequences for such a family if their car is taken: children no longer get to school, and the woman no longer at work. ”
He also is also very stricter penalties or higher fines as a solution, which fellow politian judges also did before: “An important part of our audience in the police court, and we regularly speak very strict punishments – nothing else. What should you do with such people? Society as a whole would consider it. About how such people can get that far. «
Knowingly
N-VA traffic specialist Wouter Raskin emphasizes in a response that it would be the intention that police judges could deviate from such a mandatory forfeiture, for example when someone lent his vehicle, and could not possibly know that the driver had a driving ban. On the other hand, we do hold on to the mandatory forfeiture of the car used when someone knowingly and knows his vehicle lending to someone with a driving ban. ”
In the longer term, it is intended that it will soon be clear to everyone via digital driving licenses whether a driver's license is valid or not. A matter that, for example, car rental companies no longer lend cars to people whose driver's license has been withdrawn. Today they can't check that.
Via a digital driver's license – think of a kind of identity card from which you can request the validity status online – that will be possible.
