How To Address A Letter In Germany

back in november my local newspaperreported on an accident caused by a 90-year-old driver,in which two people were seriously injured. this began a debate inthe “letters to the editor” section over whether or not older peopleshould be allowed to drive at all. the debate dragged on,

How To Address A Letter In Germany, and then one elderly gentleman wrote in to saythat he enjoyed driving particularly slowly. one one long route,where passing is virtually impossible, he would regularly drive at30 km/h below the speed limit. on arriving at his destination, he wouldgaze back at the long line of happy drivers

all enjoying the “decelerated drive”. the paper printed that letter, and unsurprisingly received a very large numberof very angry responses. driving like that is not really legal in germany: it’s causing an obstruction. at best, it’s really very annoying. at worst, it might actually be dangerous. it wasn’t just the newspaperthat received angry responses. the district council was alsoinundated with letters,

demanding that something be done. the district council felt compelled to act. they informed this driver that he might have toundergo a medical-psychological assessment. but they gave him the opportunity to firstmake a statement, which he did. his letter, he said, was intended as satire. he would never actually drive like that. the council believed him, probably because they had no actualeye-witness reports of this happening, so they dropped the matter.

but what is this medical-psychological assessment? it’s a test administered whenthe authorities have reason to believe that you may not be fit to drive. it looks at things like your medical history, relevant psychological factors, any evidence of alcohol or drug abuse, reaction times, ability to concentrate and so on. you might be assessed if, for example, you’ve beenrepeatedly caught under the influence of alcohol, or if you have a history of drug offences,

or if you lose your licence, or if you’ve been convicted of an offence that suggests a high level of aggressionor a lack of self-control. and, apparently, also if you writeletters to newspapers claiming to enjoy making life difficultfor other drivers. in the past, the test was also administered topeople who failed their driving test three times, which is why it’s also colloquially knownas the “idiot test”. this was droppedwhen it was found there was no proof that people who failed their test multiple times

were any more likely to cause accidentsthan those who passed first time. in general, though, it appearsto have been quite successful. according to statistics, the “idiot test” is far better at reducingthe number of accidents on the road than, for example, simply increasing fines. but let us not forget that the german authoritiesare not known for their sense of humour. this has to bethe only democratic country in the world where writing an amusing letter to a newspapercan put your driving licence at risk. thanks for watching. if you enjoyed the video,why not send me a postcard? here’s the address.

or visit rewboss.com, follow me on twitter,subscribe to my blog.