German drove for 50 years without a driver's license
First, belated fright from the fact that I managed to forget my license at home and drove without it all day, not even suspecting it. And almost simultaneous relief that, thank God, I didn't catch the eye of the police.
But still I must admit that my fright was, frankly, toy-like: with my 'vegetarian' driving style, chances of catching the eye of the police were slim. Of course, the law of maximum nastiness has not been repealed, but traffic statistics know of much more significant records of driving without documents, compared to which my temporary 'amnesia' will seem like a grain of sand on a Baltic beach.
Take, for example, a case last week. Around half past three in the morning, Munich police were conducting a routine traffic check and stopped an unremarkable car with a 68-year-old driver. Who modestly confessed to the officers that he had no driver's license at all. And moreover, he never had one.
Once at the age of 18 he failed his driving test and since then never tried to get a license again. But he did not stop driving, bringing his illegal driving experience to a record 50 years. Moreover, he drove, apparently, carefully and without accidents. And if not for this night trip, when the likelihood of police checks is noticeably higher, he would have continued to do without documents.
But this time he was unlucky: during a random check they stopped exactly his car. After clearing up all the details, the elderly man was not given a lecture, but simply politely asked to switch seats with the passenger sitting next to him. Especially since that passenger had a driver's license. You ask, why didn't the passenger drive initially? Because he himself had no idea that his friend had no license, and the latter apparently did not want to admit it.
In short, the police let them go, but it remains unclear whether the 'record holder' will be punished in any way for long-term driving without permission. Theoretically, he faces up to one year in prison or a fine of up to 180 daily salaries. On the other hand, many comments on the internet propose issuing the offending driver a license for fifty years of accident-free driving. How the issue will be resolved in this particular case remains to be seen.
Curiously, the 'record holder' is by no means alone: reports of the arrest of yet another experienced driver without a license appear regularly in the German press. That one can drive for years without documents in Germany surprises no one. I know from my own experience how German police trust road users: personally, in the last 15 years I have been stopped only twice. In one case they checked for a first aid kit. It happened a few days after I changed cars, so the flustered author could not find the first aid kit. After which I was mercifully let go with a wish to find it sometime in my spare time. Which I subsequently, as a law-abiding driver, diligently did.
Sergey PROKOSHENKO.
'Russkaya Germaniya'.