traffic controls
“Car-Friday”: Police target car tuners and speeders
Police officers check a tuned Volkswagen Golf that was pulled out by a traffic check on the so-called “Car Friday”. photo
© Felix Kästle/dpa
It’s a tradition: every year on Good Friday, the poser and tuner scene comes together at selected meeting points. With a transnational campaign, the police want to spoil the fun for the PS splurgers.
Car tuners and speeders have to be prepared for increased police checks nationwide on Good Friday. In the transnational campaign under the motto “Red for speeders, posers and illegal tuning”, the police want to target selected areas. According to the Ministry of the Interior in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, these would not be announced beforehand.
“Traditionally, the so-called Carfriday for car and motorcycle lovers throughout Germany is the start of the season, which they celebrate with trips together,” the ministry said. But it has also become a symbol for racers, tuners and posers, who on this day “roar across the streets together with their lowered and performance-enhanced vehicles and measure their highly tuned horsepower numbers”.
Specially trained officials
The head of Cologne’s traffic police department, Frank Wißbaum, has already announced that anyone who is convinced that the road is a race track and that the car has to be loud and fast will be pulled out of the traffic. The police will show no tolerance for speeders and posers. There should also be more controls in other cities in the most populous federal state.
According to the Neuss district police, specially trained officers are on duty on Good Friday, who can quickly identify unauthorized changes to vehicles. The city of Paderborn issued a general decree for Good Friday that prohibits any meeting of the scene.
Nürburgring, the “Motorsport Mecca”
In Hesse, the focus of the controls should be in the metropolitan areas, as the State Criminal Police Office (LKA) announced. In Rhineland-Palatinate, too, the police announced increased controls. In recent years, the “motorsport Mecca”, the Nürburgring in the Eifel region, has been a focus of the scene, it said. In the Bavarian Middle Franconia, the “Car-Friday” is also “on the screen,” said a spokesman for the dpa. There should also be increased controls there and one is set up accordingly.
The car fans from the tuner and poser scene can face severe penalties. In addition to high fines, illegal races can also result in points in Flensburg or the withdrawal of a driver’s license.