TYROLEAN DAILY NEWSPAPER, editorial. "Toxic Relationships", by Wolfgang Sablatnig

2023-06-14 22:00:25

Issue of Thursday, June 15, 2023

Innsbruck (OTS) – When it comes to the car, people don’t like to slide into it. The government tries anyway. But she is not yet at the end of her journey. A reduction in emotions would be required.

Rainhard Fendrich has always had a feeling for the Austrian soul. “Yesterday my luck ran out,” he sings in his “Two Relationship”. But his loved one didn’t leave him: “You’re lying outside at the car graveyard,” he says.
Fendrich’s proud car owner is devastated. The insight is missing: Actually, the curve “but easily tolerated 130” – even with six eighths in the blood.
The relationship of Austrians – in this case it is primarily men – to their car varies between pragmatic and toxic. They don’t want to be fooled. Not when it comes to the means of transportation. Especially not when they see the four wheels and the high gloss all around as a status symbol.
The government is now stepping in anyway. Is there any argument against the plan to take the car away from extreme speeders? No. Transport Minister Leonore Gewessler (Greens) rightly speaks of a weapon. And she’s also right when she thinks that 100 or 130 kilometers per hour doesn’t just happen in the local area.
Nevertheless, there are possible objections. What about someone else’s property if it’s not your own sled with the speedometer reading over 200? Are the driving bans effective if someone else’s horsepower has howled? The law must prove itself in practice. And if it doesn’t, it has to be tightened up – but that should actually apply to all laws.
The Board of Trustees for Traffic Safety also already mentions the most important points of a next speeder package: higher penalties, lower speed limits for the confiscation, the inclusion of the lawn in the priority offenses and a linking of the data between district authorities and federal states.
Even with alcohol sinners, the experts would like to sharpen. Since Corona, the number of drunk drivers has increased.
It’s all a matter of common sense, one would think. Reason has always been number two in toxic relationships. “Can you remember the first time we were on the autobahn. Wir zwa allan”, Fendrich sang.
So much for safety. The impact of cars and traffic on the climate, CO2 and soil sealing was not even mentioned.
This is where it gets really toxic. This would require serious considerations between benefits, necessity, harm and alternatives. But that’s another topic, even if Fendrich (unintentionally) brings it together: “What’s left is just an accident.”