Germany’s victim support organization for traffic accident victims, Verkehrsunfall-Opferhilfe Deutschland (VOD), is advocating for a lowering of the minimum age for supervised driving Peter Schlanstein, the organization’s executive board member, stated in comments published Wednesday that VOD is calling for supervised driving to be permitted from age 16 He emphasized the need for young drivers to accumulate more practical driving experience under safe conditions, particularly in light of the high number of serious accidents occurring on rural roads
Schlanstein cited Sweden as a positive example, noting a roughly 40 percent decrease in accidents involving young drivers after the introduction of earlier supervised driving programs He clarified that Sweden maintains the standard age of 18 for a full driver’s license, adhering to EU law A similar model, he suggested, could be implemented in Germany, “provided the political sphere creates the necessary legal framework
Young drivers are consistently identified as a high-risk group on roadways; the accident risk for 16 to 24-year-olds is approximately double the average for the general population This data underscores the organization’s call for increased supervised practice to mitigate risk and improve road safety for this demographic