Overview
- Coverage on Monday reiterated that Germany’s road rules (§9 StVO) and a 2009 Oberlandesgericht Brandenburg ruling treat following an abknickende Vorfahrt as an act of turning, so drivers must use their turn signal.
- A yellow additional sign under the priority sign shows the bend of the priority road and is the cue that following that marked line requires a blinker while leaving the priority road straight ahead does not.
- Observational studies document persistent noncompliance: an ACE count in June 2024 found 24.7% of drivers signaled incorrectly when exiting roundabouts and other surveys from Dekra and ADAC report long-term errors.
- Standard fines for not signaling start low (about €10 to €25) but can rise to €100 plus a point if others are endangered, and courts and insurers can treat missing a blink as a breach of care that shifts liability.
- Experts and traffic psychologists say the main causes are habit and misreading the sign, so drivers should check the black directional line on the Zusatzschild and signal when following the bend to reduce crash risk and legal exposure.