Warning if you are driving in France

[Clair]

The idea is to put it on BEFORE you step out of the car to fetch your triangle...

[Gyn_Paul]

A fine theory, but in practice the only place they could live ('inside' the vehicle), is tucked into the pockets in the seat backs. I don't lean over car seats anymore, not since I stretched for something on the back seat and cracked a rib. Not funny I can tell you! So the net net is I'd be getting out of the vehicle to open the back door anyway.

p

[Clair]

Most French drivers I see when I'm out have got them on the back of their seat, just like a jacket over the back of a chair.

[PeterG]

Just on a serious note, we have just returned from a lovely weeks holiday and missed all the miserable weather still going on in the UK that we call summer.

The hire car we had did not include the afore said luminous jackets or triangle.

Does this mean that if you hire car, in France,  you have to bring your own jackets and triangle from the UK ?

If the hire companies included them would they be afraid the would keep getting nicked?

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

I would imagine that the car hire companies would mention in in their literature, but then who reads all that?

Chances of getting pulled are pretty remote though.

[cassis]

[quote user="Gyn_Paul"]A fine theory, but in practice the only place they could live ('inside' the vehicle), is tucked into the pockets in the seat backs. I don't lean over car seats anymore, not since I stretched for something on the back seat and cracked a rib. Not funny I can tell you! So the net net is I'd be getting out of the vehicle to open the back door anyway.

p[/quote]

Go on, Gyn - tell us what goodies are packing in your front door pockets and glove box(es) at the minute. I'm guessing a 2004 road atlas, a tin of 10-year-old travel sweets, a torch with a flat battery, a disposable camera with out of date film, a box of spare bulbs (some broken), a box for all the documents that you have to carry around (motor insurance policy, constat amiable, ID and gas bills for every occupant), spare spectacles, spare spare spectacles, an inflatable lifejacket, a puncture repair kit for the same, emergency rations, fire extinguisher (powder), fire extinguisher (foam), defibrillator ...

What if your boot is accessible from inside the car?  This law is full of so many imponderables ... [Www]

[powerdesal]

Cass, you forgot the folding brolly and the cuddly toy

[Gyn_Paul]

(Paul in fact, not Gyn),Actually the list is fairly accurate: missing only the Skye ferry timetable, the wind-up torch, the endless bits of cable and adaptor to power long dead things, the Tomtom charger cable, 4 pairs of ear phones, the Sanef thingy (we call it a digerydoo) for the autoroute which refuses to say stuck to the windscreen, so now lives in the bottom of which ever glove-box one opens last, thus ensuring you spend longer looking for the thing, then waving it about until it bleeps, than you would have spend winding down the window and picking a ticket. and a few wooden pegs used by my tiny mother to stop the seat-belt from chaffing her neck. 4 cassettes without cases (I'm mystified by this as the car only plays CD's) and a very old flapjack (half-eaten).

paul

[AnOther]

[quote user="PeterG"]If the hire companies included them would they be afraid the would keep getting nicked?[/quote]Truth is they've probably already been nicked but the hire company hasn't noticed yet and when they do the last person to have hired the vehicle will find a charge on their credit card [:'(]

Tedious as it may be the best advice is always to thouroughly check when picking up a car and make sure the hire company notes there and then if bits are missing or there is any yet unreported damage [;-)]

[allanb]

Does anyone know for sure whether the French rules specify yellow for the vest?  (I have a rather stylish orange one which I bought in Spain.)

I've googled hard but I can't find the text of the latest French regulation.  The EC standard that has been quoted apparently dates from 1989, and in any case, the existence of an EU standard doesn't mean that the standard has necessarily been made compulsory in France - or does it?

[Clair]

http://www2.securiteroutiere.gouv.fr/vos-infos/presse/communiques/2-2008/CP_14-04-08.html

[quote]Pour être homologué, le gilet de sécurité doit disposer du marquage CE et être accompagné d'une notice d'instruction.[/quote]

[AnOther]

The vest only needs to conform to and bear the European Union EN471 mark which does not actually specify colour.

Provided they carry the mark orange 'railway specification' hi viz jackets can fall within the regulations.

Note: EN471 is the CE mark and may typically be written CE EN471

 

[allanb]

Clair and Ernie, thanks for the clarification.  My Spanish (orange) vest carries a version of the EN471 mark, so I'm going to assume that it complies with the French rule.

The manager of my nearest motor accessories shop firmly believes that yellow is required.  (He may, of course, be influenced by the fact that he has a large pile of yellow ones that he's trying to sell.)

[dave21478]

It was quite amusing the other day on the Toulouse ringroad to see two drivers on the hard shoulder after a minor shunt standing discussing things as they took their jackets out the packaging and put them on!

Then there was the broken down merc further on with the diver stretched out sunning himself on the verge with his vest on while waiting for recovery.

 

I can see the benefits at night, but on a bright sunnyday....seems a bit silly to me.

 

 

[Clair]

[quote user="dave21478"]It was quite amusing the other day on the Toulouse ringroad to see two drivers on the hard shoulder after a minor shunt standing discussing things as they took their jackets out the packaging and put them on!

Then there was the broken down merc further on with the diver stretched out sunning himself on the verge with his vest on while waiting for recovery.

I can see the benefits at night, but on a bright sunnyday....seems a bit silly to me. [/quote]

It's a blanket rule for car drivers and you can hardly expect a list of concessions and exceptions  (not if it's sunny, not if the road is not wet, yes if it's overcast...)

The idea is to make drivers more visible in case of a breakdown or accident.

[quote]

Gilet et triangle obligatoires dans les véhicules

Cette obligation vise à renforcer la sécurité des usagers en situation d'arrêt d'urgence : le conducteur et son véhicules doivent être mieux signalés.

Le gilet de sécurité devra être porté par le conducteur avant de sortir d'un véhicule immobilisé.

Le triangle de pré-signalisation devra se trouver à bord du véhicule et placé sur la chaussée à plus de 30 mètres de l'obstacle à signaler.

[/quote]

[dave21478]

What happened to the good ol days of allowing people to use common sense to decide if conditions warrant their use?

This legislation is the sort of thing I would expect in nanny-state UK, not France.

[woolybananasbrother]

Welcome to the real world of Europe

[AnOther]

Ulimately I think that as long as you are in possesion of, or if neccessary wearing, a hi-viz vest of some sort it would be a pernikity Gendarme indeed who started looking at the label to see if it conformed to regulations CE EN471 [:-))]

Having said that even the cheapo ones on fleabay have the EN471 mark, I know because the 5 assorted sizes that I recently bought for something like £8 the lot all do so. In all probability then it's going to be next to impossible to buy one without it [:D]

Coming from China as mine did you might justifiably question whether the labelling is actually valid or not but no Gendarme could really argue with it could they [:D]

 

[Russethouse]

[quote user="dave21478"]

What happened to the good ol days of allowing people to use common sense to decide if conditions warrant their use?

This legislation is the sort of thing I would expect in nanny-state UK, not France.

[/quote]

If common sense was so common, more people would have it.[:)]

The problem with it is that your version of common sense is different to the next blokes.....

[Benjamin]

[quote user="dave21478"]

What happened to the good ol days of allowing people to use common sense to decide if conditions warrant their use?

[/quote]

A bit like the use (misuse?) of high intensity rear fog lamps?  [8-)]

[AnOther]

Oh don't get me going on that one please...............[:-))]

[allanb]

I've almost convinced myself that I should wear my orange vest all the time when I'm driving:

(1) If I have to get out of the car in an emergency (and in the dark) I won't have to struggle to find it and put it on.

(2) The gendarmes won't need to stop me if they are doing random checks.

On the other hand, I will feel like an idiot.

Difficult decision.

[Tony F Dordogne]

[quote user="dave21478"]

What happened to the good ol days of allowing people to use common sense to decide if conditions warrant their use?

This legislation is the sort of thing I would expect in nanny-state UK, not France.

[/quote]

And the problem with common sense is that it isn't very common.

Any latitude and you end up with interminable ways of people applying their 'creative thinking', like the rules on vehicle registration and health care.

Set rules, can't argue, simple really.

[Alan Zoff]

In almost 30 years of driving in France, mostly in GB labelled cars, I have never been asked by a gendarme for documents or to see spare bulbs, etc. So much for the suggestion that they lie in wait for Brits.

We were pulled over once near Rheims but it turned out they were stopping all cars as a convict was on the loose. The officer just wanted to know if I had seen anyone unusual. I pointed to Mrs Z but he quickly waved me on.

[powerdesal]

I too have only ever been stopped by the gendarmes once, many years ago, for a breathyliser (sp) check. Lunchtime in the massif centrale, it was quite embarassing as my French was worse than now (is that possible?) and I had no idea how to do a breathyliser test - never having had that pleasure. Still, it was ok, I hadn't had a drink anyway.

I have been stopped once in UK, only once though. By an ex RAF Policeman who took great delight in giving me a b****king for not having my F1250 (ID Card) on me whilst in uniform. It made his day !!!!!!