Speeding fine...

[zeltus]

Both my wife and I have French driving licences.

The car is registered in my name.

But she was the one who drove thru' a speed trap and got a 45€ fine! Although the penalty notice was addressed to me as the owner of the car (at least, I presume that's why it came to me)

No real problems, other than noting that the French, like the Germans, seem to be heading towards a "no-excuses, even 1kph too fast is speeding" attitude - the on-line web-site for paying the fine is extremely well designed and easy to use, with a well-nigh perfect English version (as well as other languages)

But now I have been notified that I have a point on my licence. Or if you wish, 11 points instead of 12. But I don't recall receiving any query asking me to agree I was the driver or otherwise nominate who was. One point might not be a lot but as it stands a) I've been wrongly landed with a penalty point and b) in effect, this means my wife can really go to town (only in theory, of course) with gay abandon and I'm the one who gets to lose his licence.

Any comments, anyone?

[Tony F Dordogne]

Yes, write to the French authoritioes and tell them that your wife was the driver!

[Pickles]

The penalty notice has a page headed "Formulaire de requete en exoneration" which you should have completed (Section 2) with your wife's details. You should have then returned the form, with a copy of your wife's driving licence if possible, and WITHOUT PAYMENT. Your wife would then have received the penalty. The fact that you have paid the fine against the initial penalty document means that you have in effect pleaded guilty to the offence.

Regards

Pickles

[Chancer]

I havnt ever been copped in France, I drive too slowly these days [;-)] but it looks like they dont actually ask you who was driving at the time, I guess that getting the money is more important to them han who commited the offence.

Why dont you write and tell them that Gay Abandon was driving? [:D]

I have however this week recieved a PV from Belgium (I drove there one day only) except its not a PV nor a notice of intended prosecution either.

Its all written in Dutch but there is shorter French translation which makes little sense, it is from the procureur and says that after examining the dossier he estimates that there exists sufficient charges (not evidence) to pursue me for the chef d'avoir ??? followed by:

art. 5 A. R. 1.12.1975 panneau C43 limitation de vitesse.

So I am guessing that my car was flashed in a restricted speed zone as there were roadworks on the autoroute.

It goes on to propose that I pay them €90 and they will then not pursue the chef des faits précités.

So I am guessing that the chef must mean the person responsible in this instance.

They have given me 3 months to go to Gent with my avocat (they must be confusing me with someone that either has money or gives a ****) to examine the dossier.

The letter ends by saying that I am free to do nothing about their (indecent!) proposal but in that case I am exposing myself (the present tense was used) to a procedure in front of the tribunal.

So I have decided to exercise my right to do nothing and find out if this is just another hollow threat, if not then I will just have to go and expose myself in front of the tribunal [6]

In all seriousness it shows that cross border traffic citations are already a reality, clearly the Belgium procureur has access to the French registration database but can they issue proceedings in another country? Or perhaps I should be asking would they bother without even asking/knowing who was responsible?

[AnOther]

EU wide I think it's still just a proposal and a pipe dream however there is nothing to stop individual states from coming to private agreements, Italy I believe have been particularly active in pursuing foreign offenders.

With the commonality of language I guess Belgium and France make good bedfellows

http://www.euractiv.com/en/transport/meps-back-cross-border-traffic-fines/article-175218

[Pierre ZFP]

An agreement came into force about a year ago whereby there are now recipricol agreements between Luxembourg, Belgium, France and Germany so that if say as a Lux driver you speed in one of the other countries, they'll come and get ya,  or say as a Belgium speeding in Lux you can expect a fine/points.

This came as a big surprise for many Lux people (although it was heavily published in the press beforehand) who were suddenly getting points knocked off their licences.

A good thing really as before this it has to be said that Lux drivers used to belt down from Bruxelles/Strasbourg/Paris at huge speed and Belgium drivers, well, they're a bit 'special' anyway.

I don't know if this agreement applies between France/Belgium/Germany but I wouldn't like to put it to the test