As reported by rmf24.pl:
A 30-year-old driver from Bolesławiec County in Lower Silesia has as many as 23 court-ordered driving bans, including 15 that are active (...). He is an absolute record-holder in this respect in Poland.
As an RMF FM reporter established, our fellow resident received the ban after being stopped while driving under the influence of alcohol. But he did not particularly care about the court’s ruling. He continued getting behind the wheel. He was stopped by police many times both in Lower Silesia and in Lubusz Voivodeship. The 30-year-old currently has 15 active bans, including six for life.
Waldemar Żurek, head of the Ministry of Justice in Donald Tusk’s government, announced that the ministry would respond to the matter.
We will return to this topic.
For years, Poland has been facing the growing problem of so-called “ban drivers”—drivers who continue to get behind the wheel despite court-ordered bans. The scale of the phenomenon is concerning: every year, police stop tens of thousands of people driving vehicles despite active bans.
They are most often people who:
- lost their driving licences for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs;
- have had multiple bans imposed by courts, often as many as a dozen or more;
- disregard the legal consequences.
Current regulations provide for a sentence of up to five years in prison for this, but in practice many ban drivers receive suspended sentences or fines. The effect? Some of them feel completely immune from punishment.