A steering device for vehicles having a pair of wheels which can be steered freely as a function of the current driving state of the vehicle or whose steered position can be locked by an electronically actuable locking device, having an electronic control device and having sensors which are connected to the electronic control device and have the purpose of monitoring current driving state values, with the electronic control device actuating the locking device when a minimum velocity of the vehicle is exceeded, in such a way that the steered position of the pair of wheels is locked, characterized in that driving state values which characterize critical driving situations are additionally stored in the electronic control device, in which the steered position of the pair of wheels is locked in critical driving situations, and in which, after a critical driving situation, the locking device does not release the pair of wheels again until predefined critical driving state values are undershot at least for a predefined period of time.