21 April 2021 - ETG WEBINAR: Young drivers: Driving without a licence

Driving without a driving license is a deadly danger on German roads. A quarter of Germans who caused an accident with personal injury without a driving license were between 25 and 35 years old. 22 percent of Germans who took to the wheel without a driving license and caused an accident were even under 25 years of age.¹

"This poses a major problem for road safety on German roads, and this is why MOVING called for the Day of Road Safety on 15 June 2020: "Let's all draw the attention of people in Germany to the extent of the responsibility they bear in road traffic - not for themselves but above all for the health and lives of other people. We say NO to driving without a driving license".

MOVING thus supports Vision Zero, a political goal of the coalition agreement signed by the current government. The aim is to make road traffic so safe that there will be no more injuries or deaths. To this end, the design of the means of transport and the traffic routes should be aligned accordingly and regulations on participation in road traffic should be adapted. However, driving without a driving license is not only a problem in the young age groups: even if the number of road traffic accident perpetrators decreases with increasing age, drivers between the ages of 35 and 45 still account for 17 percent of the total number of those without a valid driving license who caused an accident with personal injury. The share in the age group between 45 and 55 years was 15 percent. Only from the age of 55 did the proportion decrease significantly.¹ In 2017, a total of two percent of all accidents in which people were injured or even killed were caused by drivers without a driving license. Looking at the proportion of fatalities caused by drivers without a driving license, the figure is at three percent.¹

Unfortunately there are neither statistics in Germany nor in Europe that record the individual persons per federal state or country, but only the number of offences. This means that multiple driving without a driving license by one and the same person is also included. We urgently need statistics of this kind, relating to individuals, in order to be able to draw up a representative comparison between the European countries and at the level of federal states. Only in this way can we correctly assess the consequences to be drawn and implement appropriate measures.