The Frankfurt am Main District Court ruled in its judgment of 17 November 2023 that a driving ban should also be imposed, even if the person concerned has already had a driving ban imposed for a similarly committed administrative offense shortly beforehand.
In the concrete case, the driver of the car in question did not maintain the required minimum distance to the vehicle in front in a negligent manner. The court stated this in a fine proceeding. The distance
was therefore less than three-tenths of half the speedometer reading.
About six weeks before this violation, the person concerned had likewise fallen short of the minimum distance at the same measuring point. Therefore a Fahrverbot of one month had been imposed against him. This Fahrverbot had already been completely served by the time of the subsequently conducted main hearing.
Fine and a further driving ban
After the evidentiary hearing, the court imposed on the person concerned a fine for
the distance violation, together with an additional one-month driving ban. There was no sufficient reason to refrain from the further driving ban merely because the person had, in the meantime up to the hearing, already served a driving ban for a distance violation committed shortly before at the same location, according to the court.
Driving ban as a deterrence measure
Because the driving ban is meant to function as a reminder and deterrence measure for every traffic offense, particularly
as a preventive measure. This function would be undermined if the driving ban were waived, the Frankfurt am Main District Court continued.
Moreover, the defendant was not made worse off by punishing the two traffic offenses separately. Although in a joint adjudication of the two offenses only one driving ban could have been imposed, due to the particularly persistent delinquency of the defendant, in this case a two-month driving ban was appropriate in terms of both conduct and culpability.
