I don’t have a license or car. A friend of mine posted a story on IG driving at 300 km/h on the highway. I know it’s fast, but just how fast in terms of driving?
I don’t have a license or car. A friend of mine posted a story on IG driving at 300 km/h on the highway. I know it’s fast, but just how fast in terms of driving?
It’s about 3 times the speed limit for most highways in most places. Give or take.
The stopping distance at those speeds is 500+ meters.
Even with the best tires, brakes and driver that’s several football fields end to end before that car comes to a stop. If anything happens at those speeds it is unlikely the driver will be able to do anything about it in time.
There was a woman that worked for a car magazine that was doing a video on the Autobahn and someone pulled out in front of her around those speeds she instantly killed everyone on the vehicle she hit and she was left permanently injured and barely able to walk. She wasn’t even at fault in that situation either. It’s the job of the people pulling into the fast lane to check for fast moving cars and for whatever reason they didn’t.
You friend is playing a dangerous game with more than their own life.
If you go faster than 130 km/h you are always allotted a certain percentage of fault in Germany. You don’t have the right to speed if you are endangering others.
That is simply not true. 130kph is the recommended speed. For certain marked stretches of the Autobahn there is no speed limit and it is understood that you do not pull into the left lane without checking for fast moving cars behind you. If they find that you still would have crashed if you had been going 130kph you are unlikely to be held responsible.
She was filming a video at the time and when she woke up in the hospital days later the German police told her what had happened and she was not found to be at fault at all. The deceased person who had pulled into the left lane without checking was entirely at fault. She flew home as soon as the German doctors had done the major surgery to her legs and spine.
My mom’s entire side of the family is German and many of them still live in Germany. Talks about the Autobahn have come up at family gatherings on multiple occasions.
I am willing to admit my data might be out of date, but from a quick Google it appears to still be the same rules.
TL;DR: “sorry, you are right, I over-simplified”and “don’t be a dick on the Autobahn”
Ok, you are technically correct, which is - as we all know - the best version of correct. 😎
I admit to gross over-simplification on my part. This is the internet after all.
My point was to not underestimate the weight of the advisory speed limit. Living over here at a stretch of Autobahn with no posted speed limit I have seen my fair share of reckless speeding and felt compelled to make a point as the image projected by many ‘influencers’ is that anything goes on the Autobahn.
Some more details for the three people still reading this:
Courts over here in good ol’ Germany are pretty clear that paragraph 1 of the German highway code lays out the guiding principle of traffic and has to be followed at all times:
[…]
To the advisory speed of 130 km/h:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advisory_speed_limit
[…]While travelling above the advisory speed limit is not illegal per se, it may be negligence per se and liability for any collisions that occur as a result of traveling above the limit can be placed partially or entirely on the person exceeding the advisory speed limit.[…]