It is a well-known fact that cyclists risk their driver’s license while drinking alcohol. Driving incapable of driving is driving incapable of driving, with or without an engine. But you can even lose your “ticket” on foot or at home – or you have to fight for it all at once for a lot of money.
Can’t happen to me? This is deceptive. A fall, drunkenness on foot, a message, a parcel, even an anonymous tip (more on the cases below) can suffice: anyone who is suspected of having consumed alcohol or drugs, or of mental or physical ailments (old age!) Without taking part in traffic, is targeted device, quickly ends up with driving ability tests that cost thousands of francs.
Anonymous information is sufficient
Authorities actually have to have “reasonable doubts” about fitness to drive. Actually: A drunk woman from Aargau sent a friend a message with a suicide threat. The acquaintance called the police. The woman – who had never wanted to kill herself – promptly received mail from the road traffic office. The test request was only stopped in front of the federal court.
The “observer” wrote about a man from Basel-Land with impeccable repute. His package of hemp seeds had been noticed at customs – off to the traffic psychological test. The “Tages-Anzeiger” reported on a woman from Zurich who had no drug history and who was anonymously blackened for alleged drug use. She had to go to the test.
Even if the ID card is not immediately withdrawn from security, the fight for the certificate will be expensive. The Road Traffic Office in Zurich, for example, names around 900 to 1200 francs for a traffic psychological examination and 1500 for a traffic medical examination. In some cases, both have to be completed – depending on payment in advance. If more hair and urine samples are taken later, thousands more are quickly gone. Almost only those who are drawn to the federal court are known of the cases – which the majority of those affected shy away from for reasons of cost.
Because the withdrawal of a driver’s license is a serious encroachment on personal rights, a change in the law should create more legal certainty. In the future, authorities are to be obliged to reassess the precautionary withdrawal every three months. This ruling can then be challenged again.
In addition, if the allegation and thus the fitness to drive test prove to be unjustified, those affected will soon be able to claim damages from the authorities if anonymous tips are given. The anonymity of the reporter is preserved, but the authority can get the money back from them.
In April, the Federal Council submitted the planned revision of the relevant ordinance, including other changes (such as accelerated procedures and regulations for professional drivers) for consultation by August 11, 2021.
Prehistory is the same as the exam
It is understandable that one is checked with a corresponding previous history. Or if you have a very high alcohol level, as if you haven’t had a lot. Then the suspicion of an addiction problem is obvious. Here too, according to the Federal Supreme Court, people tend to act too eagerly. In Aargau, a man on foot broke his ankle with a good 2.3 per thousand. Because he had driven drunk more than six years earlier, he was supposed to take the 1,000-franc test. The federal court said no to that.
Partly it is about participation in traffic without driving. In the canton of St. Gallen, a woman had to see an appraiser because she was involved in a traffic accident on foot and had a blood alcohol level of three per thousand, but she looked stable. In the same canton Blick knows of a case of a man with impeccable repute, caught sniffing cocaine in the car – in the parked car and as a passenger. The man lost his ID for six months due to the disfranchisement. The Federal Supreme Court later agreed that he did not need to have his driving ability tested any further.
Reversal of the burden of proof
But why is that allowed? Because the driving ability test is not a criminal, but “only” an administrative procedure. So authorities don’t have to prove guilt here, but rather those affected have to prove innocence. The fact that the number of cases had risen sharply for a while was mainly due to the Via Secura Act, which came into force in 2013: authorities took the hard line for a good security purpose.
This often goes against the case law of the Federal Supreme Court. In the last five years, the number of withdrawals (2015-2020 from 80,200 to 70,700 per year) and the number of traffic psychological examinations (from 4400 to 3900) have decreased – perhaps also because the Federal Council made changes for more legal certainty (see Box above) for consultation.