fastball, very good point. Europe in general is way ahead of us in traffic laws. I have a good friend in the Army in Germany who was in a head-on collision with a Jeep. The guy in the Jeep wasn't wearing a seatbelt, and died. My friend was, and only had his legs shattered when the engine came through the firewall and smashed them.

Anyway, because he was Army the German courts decided to press charges on him - since they both dislike our soldiers there (who are apparently very rowdy and ignore a lot of laws and regulations) and the other guy obviously couldn't be prosecuted. It took about 10 witnesses, 25 character witnesses, and a REALLY good Army lawyer working in conjunction with a civilian German lawyer to get him out of serious jail time for vehicular manslaughter. The dead guy's family were outraged nonetheless. His brother got on the stand and said "It doesn't matter that he wasn't wearing a seatbelt, he should be alive right now!"

My friend was very lucky to get 31 days in solitary, a comment on his Army record for reckless driving, an injunction against him every driving in Germany again, and a medical discharge for his legs - he was a sniper/recon and is unable to perform those duties.

But because of this, he emailed me a lot about famous German traffic cases, and their strictness compared to ours. Here in MD, he was busted a few weeks before going in the army for going 125 in his FC RX-7. He got off because the Army stood in for him - he was in boot camp for the trial. He said in Germany there is no way that ever would have happened - he would have gotten SLAMMED. Lots of other things too. He was also impressed with the sliding ticket scale depending on how much you make. Even the lowest tickets are prety hefty, though.

Interesting...