Speed Limit Offences and Penalties
21st April 2023
The loss of a point on the driving licence for a minor speeding offence is to be relaxed.
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Currently in France, the penalty for a minor speeding offence is a deduction of 1 point from the licence and a fine.
However, whether you drive at 2 km/h above the limit or at 10 km/h, the penalty is the same.
This week, however, Gérald Darmanin, the Minister of the Interior, announced that: "From 1st January 2024, there would no longer be deduction of points for speeding below 5 km/h".
According to the Interior Ministry, around 50% of points losses on driving licences currently arise from speeding offences of less than 5km/h: "In 2020, of the 12.5 million tickets issued for speeding controlled by radars, 58% concerned excesses below 5 km/h".
This relaxation of the penalty will apply on top of the current tolerances that are already permitted on speeding offences.
On automatic radars, a tolerance of 5km/h is used, whilst on mobile radars it can be 10km/h.
The minister stated: "We will keep the tolerance, if for example, on a speed limit of 100 km/h you do 103 km/h, there is a tolerance of 5 km/h, so you are not concerned [by any penalty], but at 107 km/h, 103 is used.
This means that a motorist flashed by a radar at 55 km/h on a road with a speed limit of 50 km/h would not get any penalty. If flashed at 56km/h they would pay a fine, but not lose a point.
There is no change to other speeding offences. Speeding between 5km/h and 19 km/h will still result in the withdrawal of 1 point and a fixed fine of €68 on roads with a maximum authorised speed of 50 km/h, or €135 on other roads.
Speeding between 20km/h and 29 km/h above the authorised limit is liable to a withdrawal of 2 points and a fixed fine of €135. The number of points withdrawn increases the higher above the speed limit you are flashed.
Motoring organisations who have long campaigned for the change welcomed the announcement, but the measure also has its detractors. Gilles Foursicot, lawyer for families of road victims, denounced a "complete unravelling of the points-based licence. We have a statement by Darmanin that is populist, and that has no thought behind it for road safety."
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