GER: Driving Licence Revoked after DUI on E-scooter

Jun 23, 2023 Benn-Ibler Rechtsanwälte

Riding an e-scooter under the influence of alcohol creates a presumption of unsuitability for driving a motor vehicle. Driving licenses are not revoked only in certain exceptional cases. According to the German Higher Regional Court of Frankfurt am Main, the fact that an e-scooter is merely an electric vehicle cannot be used to rebut revocation.

In spring 2022, the defendant rode an e-scooter home after frequenting a bar. His blood alcohol level was at least 1.64 per mille. The district court sentenced him to a fine and a driving ban of six months for negligent drunk driving. His driving licence, however, was not revoked. The public prosecutor’s office appealed against this decision. The Higher Regional Court (hereinafter OLG) overturned the decision to revoke the defendant’s driving licence.

According to the OLG, a driving licence must be revoked if the offence shows that the offender is unfit to drive a motor vehicle under Section 69 (1) sentence 1 of the German Criminal Code. Driving under the influence of alcohol usually implies unsuitability for driving a motor vehicle. Only if the circumstances of the offence clearly differ from those of an average case, revoking the license could be dispensed with in rare exceptional cases. However, such reasons did not exist in the case at hand and, according to the OLG, and had been wrongly presumed by the district court. It was irrelevant that the defendant had not driven a car but an e-scooter. The argumentation that the potential danger of a drunken drive with an e-scooter was lower was also not convincing. A collision by an e-scooter with a pedestrian or a cyclist could cause very serious, even fatal injuries.

Rather, the purpose of revoking someone’s driving licence is to ensure the safety of road traffic in general.

The case was referred to the district court for a new hearing.

Press release no. 41/2023 by OLG Frankfurt a. M., 1 Ss 276/22 (08.05.2023)