Orders given by police officers

During interventions, after accidents or other traffic disturbance, police officers may need to give traffic instructions to road users, which must be obeyed.

Here are the 3 most common instructions.

Road users who fail to comply with Police traffic officers' orders are liable for a fine of €145 and the loss of 2 points from their driving licence. (The loss of a set number of points applies automatically depending on the type of offence committed.)

Officer with arms outstretched horizontally
The horizontally extended arm(s) signify "stop for all road users coming from a direction intersecting the direction indicated by the extended arm(s)".
Police officer with left arm extended horizontally and right arm bent at an angle
Übersetzter Text Zielsprache auswählen Englisch (UK) The left arm stretched horizontally with the right arm bent at right angles means: "Starting the traffic in the open direction".
Police officer with arm raised vertically
The arm raised vertically means "Stop for all users, except for those inside an intersection, who must evacuate it".

These are also to be considered as orders: orders given verbally by officers as well as signs on the vehicles used in such interventions, instructing drivers to follow said vehicles. 

Repeated whistle blasts indicate that a regulatory offence has been committed and mean: "Compulsory stop".

Police officers' orders prevail over the normal traffic rules as well as over traffic lights and road signs.

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