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Speeding in France


MondeoMan
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Hello, I'm a new member and pretty desperate for advice/assistance.

On Saturday I was stopped by the Gendarmerie for speeding on the A16 towards Calais. I know I was wrong, but I got carried away with the gin-clear skies and clear autoroute. I was clocked at a physical speed of 186km/h.

My car was immobilised by the Gendarmes when I couldn't retrieve enough on my various cards to pay the 750€ fine, and I called my French landlord to bring me back to my apartment.

I work between the UK and France (50/50ish), and my car is UK registered and I have a UK licence and address, technically I do not live in France.

My landlord and landlady are going to drive the car back to my apartment.

How long am I likely to be banned in France for? I will abide by the ban, whatever they decide it to be, because I can get a bus to my French office, and fly to the UK if necessary.

I just want to know what happens now? After my ban is finished can I get back in my UK car and drive on my UK licence in France?

I don't want to have to leave a very good job for the sake of a couple of months driving ban, but if it is longer, I will have to leave, and fly someone out to France to drive me to the UK.

The car is a company car, and currently still sits at a motorway Péage, where it was immobilised.

I've asked my French landlord for assistance, but even he seems confused about the law and what will happen.

I'm happy to put the car in my garage and forget I have it for however long I am banned for. I have, today, paid 750€ and the car is now allowed to be driven, and will be brought back to my apartment on Saturday.

Thanks to anyone who can help me out, I know I've given Brits driving in France a bad name, but I can't be the only one this has happened to. I've searched the forum, and there seems to be some confusion as to what will happen.
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I was stopped doing 134km/hr. in a 70km/hr. near Loches on the Tours road. At the time I was on my way to Caen with my mum who was having an asthma attack so I was a bit distracted. The gemdarmes ignored this and took my licence, telling me I was banned for a month and filled in copius amounts of forms. I have a masion secondaire so they used this for an address. After about an hour they let me drive on. On return to the UK I called the DVLA - they told me that the French have no juristriction to endorse my licence. About a month later my licence came back- nothing was said about a fine. This happened in April - in August I received a notice at my French address telling my that I had been fined 296Euros. How long did they ban you for??
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Hi Jean,

Thanks for the rapid response.

They haven't told me how long I am banned for, the form I got to state they have retained my driving licence says that I will have my UK licence returned to my UK address along with notice of how long I will be banned for.

Today in the Gendarmerie, when I paid the fine, I was given back my counterpart driving licence, I don't officially have a French address - I stay in a company apartment when I am in France.

After a lot of form filling, they took my 750€ but were unclear about what would happen next, despite my asking.

When I was initially stopped at the road side, they were also unsure and said "maybe two months, maybe six months".

For the record I was "clocked" at 194km/h, my actual speed was 184km/h and the speed limit was 130km/h.

I'll pay any further fines, I'm just concerned that they may jail me, or that I may have problems in the future, driving here. Also, my partner has suggested she fly over and be my driver, in my company car. Does France have a record of UK number plates of cars? I don't want my partner to fly over here and get stopped every ten minutes because my car "flags" on their database.
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[:-))]Blimey!   Clocking 120mph when the highest limit anywhere in the country is 80mph, and that's only on the toll motorways. I can't say I have any sympathy. What possible excuse could you give, not that it matters.

I generally find that offenders get upset when they finally get caught, despite having got away with for ages... speaking from personal experience [:$]

"If you can't do the time, don't do the crime!"

 

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Thank you for your response.

I have absoloutely no excuse for driving at that speed. I just got carried away, if you will.

I don't find myself upset as such, just uncertain as to what comes next. I deserve a huge fine and a ban - no doubt. I'm just trying to predict the outcome.

It's all part of the risk of choosing to drive at that sort of speed, you risk the fine, you risk the ban.

Frankly, I'd happily pay 750€ or 1500€ or whatever else they want to fine me, as long as I knew the outcome.

Regards,

MondeoMan.
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I think the form is that you are currently banned from driving for 30 days . This covers the period up to the court date.

The maximum you then risk is a fine of up to 1500 euros and a ban from driving for 3 years.

http://www.radars-auto.com/sanctions_radars.php

I suppose the good news is that if it had been your own car it would have been confiscated.

What you have paid so far is regarded as a kind of deposit pending further action. A friend of ours was on holiday in France and was stopped near Lille. He paid the fine at the roadside. Subsequently back in the UK he received a refund of the fine, but was banned from driving in France for 6 months. As they only visited once a year....... I think now it's a fine AND a ban!
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MondeoMan - here's a link to the fine / points for speeding. As BJSLIV says - you're looking at a 1500€ fine. The French authorities can't do anything to your UK licence - i.e they can't apply points or suspend it or ban you. If they even record the details of your licence / plates I'd be amazed! They just want the cash!

http://www.321auto.com/Juridique/Infractions/Contraventions/Contraventions.asp

 

Simon:-)

 

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[quote user="BJSLIV"]I think the form is that you are currently banned from driving for 30 days . This covers the period up to the court date.

The maximum you then risk is a fine of up to 1500 euros and a ban from driving for 3 years.

http://www.radars-auto.com/sanctions_radars.php

I suppose the good news is that if it had been your own car it would have been confiscated.

What you have paid so far is regarded as a kind of deposit pending further action. A friend of ours was on holiday in France and was stopped near Lille. He paid the fine at the roadside. Subsequently back in the UK he received a refund of the fine, but was banned from driving in France for 6 months. As they only visited once a year....... I think now it's a fine AND a ban![/quote]

Thank you for your informative post, this is what I was looking for.

Ironically, if it'd been my own car I was driving, I would barely be able to get to the speed limit, let alone exceed it! I suppose it is fortunate though, as the car is quite a nice piece of kit, and if I owned it, I'd be mortified to lose it.

If all else fails, I suppose, I could save myself a fortune in company car tax by declining one at renewal time.

Does the 750€ I have already paid go towards any potential fine? For instance, if I am fined 1500€, would I have only 750€ left to pay? (And, of course, a suspension of my entitlement to drive in France).

I read a recent blog from someone who was stopped going 1km/h slower than me, he got a 3 month ban.
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First and most important thing, beware of inadvertently placing your French neighbours in the position of driving without insurance. They may believe they are insured to drive your car by thinking that UK car insurance works the same as in France where the car is covered for any driver which of course it doesn't. I would think it unlikely that your UK insurance covers them either.

Whilst the French cannot award points to a UK licence they CAN ban you from driving in France however FWIW and AFAIK there is no mechanism by which offences committed by foreign drivers, or their car registrations, are recorded nationally - or possibly even locally within the department in which an offence takes place - and because the fact is not communicated anywhere else theoretically, even if you were summarily 'banned' in 62 (Calais etc.) once you crossed the border into a neighbouring department, you would be in the clear, but personally I wouldn't like to put it to the test [blink]

For the same reasons as above your car should not be flagged or targeted on future visits.

One further problem you have now though is the lack of your UK licence. Banned in 62/France or not clearly without a licence to produce you cannot drive anywhere in Europe and I don't know what DVLA's stance is on this situation. You cannot fib and say it's been lost/destroyed/stolen as eventually it will be returned by the French with the reason it was confiscated so a lie will out. Nor will the French necessarily be in a hurry to send it so I think you need to speak to DVLA and find out the way forward on this point. Remember the paper counterpart in itself is NOT a licence.

BTW, whether it was 194kph or 184kph you were a total pratt to drive at that speed and my comments imply no sympathy [:@]

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AnOther - Thank you for your response, and to clarify - I'm definitely not here looking for sympathy from anyone, just advice/information. I can't even feel sorry for myself for this one.

I have a duplicate copy of my driving licence, obtained when I thought I'd lost it and then found it again, so I have two licences, in theory.

Because I work for an international firm - we have a lot of people with licences from various EU states, our brokered company insurance allows anyone over 21 with a UK or EU licence to drive any of our vehicles, provided they have the permission of the person to which the vehicle is assigned. In this case, me. I've read, and re read the small print on this one, because I wouldn't want them at risk, they'e helped me hugely, and if I had any doubt, I'd have the car transported to my apartment. They're covered.

I'm a great big bloody prat, I know, I expect no less than being told because I'm well aware of how bad this is (I'd also lose my licence in the UK for this, so why it crossed my mind that France should be different for me, I do not know)

Thanks again.

MondeoMan.
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And you are sure that they are not going to confiscate the car? They can, I'm pretty sure that if the speed is over 50 kms per hour over the limit they have that right.

When they started clamping down on speeders a few years ago there were quite a lot of cases where the confiscation was immediate, but I think that they aren't 'quite' as hard as they used to be now.

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[quote user="Simon-come-lately"]AnOther - you never been naughty then[/quote]Astonishing !

If you consider driving at 115 - 120mph as simply 'naughty' then your values are clearly radically different to mine and, I would suggest, to those of the majority of reasonable road users [:@]

Whatever happens to the OP he will be lucky. For the same in UK he would be facing a certain ban, a possible charge of dangerous driving, and a resit of his driving test for dessert. I won't even mention what that would do to his insurance premium.

Apologetic or not the OP is a pratt and doubly so for thinking that because he was in France it was somehow OK to behave so outrageously, remember this was a deliberate act not an accident.

I wonder what expletive you would have uttered if the OP had happened to pass you on the autoroute at that speed ?

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[quote user="MondeoMan"]I have a duplicate copy of my driving licence, obtained when I thought I'd lost it and then found it again, so I have two licences, in theory.[/quote]No you don't. The new one you obtained immediately cancelled any and all previous ones so it is now a worthless piece of paper - or photo card - whose only conceivable possible could be to commit fraud.

The best thing you can do with it is cut it up and bin it.

PS: Even if your car is insured for your neighbours according to the strict letter of the law they are not entitled to drive a foreign registered vehicle unless the owner is also onboard.

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Simon,

AnOther is no different to anyone else on this forum, he has a right, within the rules, to express his opinion.

If you don't like that opinion well tough, live with it.

Its life.

As regards the OP well a bit silly, as he has admitted.

Everyone should know the 50kph rule.

.

.
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What annoys me about the OP's case is that he states that he is willing to pay the fine whatever it may be; as if it's OK so long he is able to pay for the priviledge. Some people just don't want to fit in do they? And there is the added feeling that he thinks he can get away with it here because he doesn't live here, regardless of how his driving could affect our lives.

The more I think about it the more I think this is a big wind-up!

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Personally I would stop speed limits on motorways, so we would not even be having this discussion.

I don't speed, but helas, I do, it has been known, even though I try not to. I have never owned a car that would go to such heady speeds as mentioned, but have travelled in some and they have been well over the limit, including one that was stopped with an immediate fine. I had not even noticed that we were going so fast.

Wondering how the bikers on here are always so 'good'. In my bit of the Rhone Alpes the bikers never seemed to believe that any speed limit was applicable to them.
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Hello,

This is not a wind up, and I'm certain;y not implying that I should be able to pay a premium for being able to speed.

What I'm saying is that I'll take any penalty I'm given, I'm just trying to predict what this will be. Some early posts cleared that up pretty quickly. I know some people who would naff off back to the UK and not pay up.

My car is a fast car. I drove it fast. No excuses, no exclusions. I did it. Ford built my car to drive at 140mph +. I have no excuse, I was aware that I was travelling at that speed, I was on cruise control.

What I will say is that I was on an empty motorway, the conditions were good, my car is in tip top condition, and I wasn't blasting past a school at 60mph. I NEVER exceed the speed limit in built up areas. Not mitigating, but fact.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, for sure.

As for the car - I've paid the fine, the car has been mobilised and can be driven - they will not confiscate it because it is not mine. The insurance covers the vehicle to be driven by anyone with my permission. I spoke to the office this morning and they've confirmed this. I don't need to be a passenger in the car, but in this case, I will be.

In my experience, car drivers ratify bikers that drive like mentalists, and bikers ratify car drivers that drive like menalists, nobody is ever going to win.

Regards
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[quote user="Bugsy"]Simon, AnOther is no different to anyone else on this forum, he has a right, within the rules, to express his opinion. If you don't like that opinion well tough, live with it. Its life. As regards the OP well a bit silly, as he has admitted. Everyone should know the 50kph rule. . .[/quote]

 

Bugsy do put your handbag down you might fall off your bike!

So AnOther has the right to express his 'sanctimonious' opinion - so long as noone else expresses theirs eh? That seems fair - but then it would if your used to walking on water unchallenged.

Keep dry Bugsy :-)

Simon :-)

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[quote user="MondeoMan"]My car is a fast car. I drove it fast. No excuses, no exclusions. I did it. Ford built my car to drive at 140mph +. I have no excuse, I was aware that I was travelling at that speed, I was on cruise control. What I will say is that I was on an empty motorway, the conditions were good, my car is in tip top condition, and I wasn't blasting past a school at 60mph. I NEVER exceed the speed limit in built up areas. Not mitigating, but fact.[/quote]

And then on the empty motorway a tyre suddenly bursts - could be bit of debris on the road and now the car is somersaulting through the air and the motorway is closed for a number of hours for the recovery of body and car and the investigations that take place.

But I see where you are coming from, it is Fords fault for building a car that can go at 140+ mph.

Perhaps you could stab someone and then blame the knife manufaturer because they made it sharp.

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