Vague legal concepts and Fuzzy Logic. An attempt to Determine the Reuired Period of Waiting after Traffic Accidents

Riassunto

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Vague legal concepts and Fuzzy Logic. An attempt to Determine the Reuired Period of Waiting after Traffic Accidents

1.1. According to German law, a person involved in a traffic accident may not leave the site of the accident but is required to wait until somebody arrives who is willing to take Ms name and information on the car and the accident; otherwise he commits «unerlaubtes Entfernen vom Unfalloro (leaving the scene of an accident; § 142 I StGB). Of course nobody has to wait forever, but only for an «amount of time adequate under the circumstances».

The statute, however, does not tell us what amount of time is adequate under what circumstances. That information is nowhere to be found. Fritjof Haft tells us1: «A rule of thumb might be: 'The more severe the accident, the longer the required wait'. More cannot be said. Even a lawyer cannot tell you more, not even for money»,

That is indeed very little. Comparative rules (the more severe - the longer) carry only little information. The rule does not say how bad an accident has to be to require a certain period of waiting.

Perhaps the rule of thumb given by Haft could be supplemented by another rule: «A severe accident requires a long wait; a medium accident requires a medium wait; and a slight accident only requires a short wait, Very extensive damage, esp. if people are killed or severely injured, necessitates a very long wait2. If the damage is merely a scratch, one can leave immediately». This new rule joins a indeterminate time of required waiting with an equally open issue.

It does not give much more information, however. First, one has to take into account that te...

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