French speeding fines.
 

Just had an e-mail from my mate who lives over there. He got flashed doing 58kph in a 50 in his work van, (he works all over the N. of France as a safe breaker.........an official one!).

The French allow 53kph as the upper limit before prosecution, (that's LESS than 2mph error).:(

He can pay €90 within 17 days, (he now has only 10, since his firm forwarded the fine to him and the clock starts ticking after the date on the letter, no matter HOW many people it has to go through).
If he doesn't pay within the alloted time, it rises by 50% to €135.:(:(

And if he doesn't pay, or contest it, within 49 days, it rises AUTOMATICALLY to €375, which, if you then contest it and lose, you pay anyway.

And we think our system is bad?

Even my ole mums been fined :o and bro in law

she does live there tho

Crikey.

We were lazered on the N10 south of Bordeaux doing 125km/h on a downhill stretch stretch with a 100km/h limit. I wasn't driving, but spotted the Gendarme on the sliproad, I shouted police police, but was far too late to slow down in time.

I was expecting the one to jump in his Impreza and chase after us. But no, they waved at us to slow down, we waved back to acknowledge. Never had anything in the post about it.

Maybe lucky I guess, or the red tape involved in tracing a car with Spanish plates is too much like hard work :D

Cheaper not to speed then.

Les

We'll its more than a 5% allowance.

On the plus side, speeding only looses 1 point from the licence (French start with 12 points and loose points for each infraction) unlike the UK where the same offence gets you quarter of the way to loosing your licence.

I got busted in Spain giving a hire car a damn good thrashing.

Once I'd decoded the letter which came in the post (several months after coming home), I paid up as you got 50% off if you paid within a couple of weeks. Worked out about £35, which I figured was good value to avoid any latex glove action on my next trip...

I'm glad i never got caught when i was doing circa 160 mph through calais and bolougne in order to catch our ferry :D those laws sound quite harsh

My mate did, confiscated his new GTR from Le Man's whenever that is till October and fined him €750, and I think a daily storage charge. There was the threat of keeping the car so he was quite chuffed with that.

Unless it's changed recently, it's 2 points per infraction, and yes, out of twelve.

Different infractions carry more points and further over the limit, ditto.

Really? I only got 1 point for 102 in a 90.

Is that because it USED to be that they only had 6 points to start with?
How long ago was it?

A work colleague go nailed by the police in Germany on his first trip.

€150 on the spot, and as he didnt have it, he was escorted to the nearest cashpoint in the next town, and had to remove the money to pay.

I did a late night run from Calais to Saarlouis some years back, we went through most of France at 160kph :D:D luckily it was in the small hours of the morning.


Mart

I'm sure someone posted that the "Frogs" get very nasty very quickly if you are going seriously quickly.

As in confiscation of vehicles :eek:

dunx

Reminds me of a holiday a France about 3 years ago.
Other half got flashed by a camera.
We got to the toll booth further on and he went to the credit card lane. eh!!!!
We always paid cash.
He was flapping and told me to get a move on shoving the card into the toll machine. I just got the bugger out when he pulled away, leaving smoke in his wake.
The Law were waiting at the booth to catch him and were walking over to the car as he pulled away :lol1:

I have been flashed by cameras in France, but unless there is a Policeman holding the camera I don't thnk there is a problem.

Never received anything in the post as the French authorities would not have had access to information or the means to prosecute UK drivers.

Someone did tell me that there is now more cross border cooperation in these matters? But I have no idea.

Have driven very quickly through Spain also, past many signs indicating radar, but there was no enforcement at all. Again, I don't know if this is still the case.

Asif

You all need to come up here and do some speeding, fines here are ridiculous.

Any infraction, in some places 1km/h over the limit = €115 automatic fine.

Depending on how fast you were going though, that changes, and on comes the lovely income based "day fine", for example a "rich" bloke, who earned 560,000€ in 2007, did 82km/h in a 60km/h zone, was fined 12 "day fines", coming at just over 9300€ per day = fined 111,888€.

Yes, almost one hundred and twelve THOUSAND euros.

With my modest income, I'd have been fined almost 1200€.

:eek::eek::eek:

Someone I know contested a speeding fine saying he didnt know who was driving

They said ok, 900€ for not being a responsible owner

he said no, I remember now, it was me

:D

I have travelled around Europe in car and on bike in the last few years, most of my alleged speeding offences have been minor, just a few miles over the posted limit, I have never received a ticket from any country upon my return. I have been at some high speeds when the environment allowed- Excellent motorways in most countries with very little traffic generally.

Andy

I got flashed in Belgium once on the motorway from Brussels to Oostende, camera was hidden in a bush on the central reservation. 8 months later I get a fine for some rediculous amount. Just ignored it and not heard anything since. I modified my route home so as not to go through Belgium but as I have changed my plates I am not sure it would stil be an issue.

Seems a matter of priorities to me.

Is deliberate speeding really worth having to pay all that cash and earn the points? Is it that much of a thrill?

Les ;)

Whats helsinki like ? I spend alot of time in Tallinn but have neverr made the boat trip to helsinki as most people say its a bit dull while others have said a night night out in helsinki is an experience not to be missed in terms of absolute drunked debauchery.