The government has confirmed the end of the withdrawal of points for speeding less than 5 km / h, although the fine will be maintained. The debate rages between defenders and opponents of this measure.
It was an expected measure: the end of the withdrawal of points for minor speeding, was officially confirmed yesterday by the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin. And it’s a controversial decision.
What change?
From January 1, 2024, excesses of less than 5 km/h over the selected speed will always result in a fine, and therefore clearly a financial penalty, but no longer the withdrawal of a point which currently applies to all excesses of less than 20 km/h compared to the limit in force.
In built-up areas, an excess of less than 20 km/h gives rise to a fixed fine of 135 euros (90 euros minus). Outside urban areas, the fine is 90 euros (68 euros minus).
Note also that this is indeed the speed used: it is 5 km/h lower than the speed recorded for speeds below 100 km/h, and 5% lower above 100 km/h.
Concretely, on a 50 km/h limit, the verbalization applies from a recorded speed of 61 km/h, which will be retained at 56 km/h (limited to 50 + so-called “technical” margin of error 5 km/h). On motorways at 130, verbalization applies from a recorded speed of 142 km/h, i.e. 137 km/h of speed retained (limited to 130 + margin of error of 5% of 130, i.e. 6, 5 km/h).
Common sense…?
First defender of this measure: Gérald Darmanin. “I am elected from a territory where I constantly come across women and men who explain to me that they travel 30-40 km in the morning to go to work, 30-40 km in the evening to come home from work, who go looking for their children at school, and who pass (…) in front of 10 speed cameras every day to go to work. (…) When 5 times a week you pass in front of 10 speed cameras, you have a fairly strong chance of be a little more above the authorized speed”, explained the Minister of the Interior this Thursday morning, the day after the announcement of this decision.
“A measure of common sense” for Gérald Darmanin, who insists on the desire not to punish too much the small excesses carried out on daily journeys, even if the fine will remain, according to him, dissuasive. Especially on this category of workers for whom a fine “between 6O and 135 euros” remains “an extremely strong sanction”.
“We are not going to take away their work tool, which is their driving license, when they were only 2-3 km / h above the tolerance of the Ministry of the Interior “, he added.
This measure had been demanded for a long time by automobile associations. This is particularly the case of the Drivers’ League, as its spokesperson Alexandre Legendre explains:
“We are not going to sulk our pleasure that we stop deleting a point for very small speedings which are more the result of a thoughtlessness or a lack of attention rather than the deliberate will not to respect the Traffic Laws.”
For Yves Carra, spokesperson for the Automobile club association, we must wait to see the decree implementing this measure to find out if the end of the withdrawal of points will apply to all roads and to individuals and professionals.
“A truck at 90 or 95 km / h, in terms of consumption, in terms of impact in the event of an impact, it is not the same (as a passenger car)”, he underlined on BFM TV.
… or nonsense?
But the measure also has its detractors. Gilles Foursicot, lawyer for the families of road victims, thus denounces a “complete unraveling of the license with points”:
“We have a declaration from Darmanin which is thunderous, which is borderline popular or even populist, and which has no reflection behind it on road safety.”
The lawyer also regrets the lack of consultation on this subject:
“Objectively, I worry that there is such a sensational statement without there being a debate with road safety associations, or even motorist associations, but especially debates in the National Assembly.
Another argument brandished by Gilles Fouriscot to oppose this measure: motorists with higher incomes who will be less affected by a purely financial sanction: “We have a penalty-based license which operates on the principle of equality: whether you are poor or rich, you have exactly the same number of points. What will remain? A fine. But a fine of 135 euros for excess in urban areas, it is not at all the same thing if you are smicard at 1350 euros, than when you are an executive at 5000 euros net per month.”
“We are going to have an inequality which will be provided for by Darmanin according to income while the principle is the equality of all by the administrative title which is the driving license.”
Beware also of the effects of this measure on the figures for road accidents. If 58% of the fines with withdrawals of points relate to these “small excesses of speed”, for Yves Carra, these withdrawals of a point are not most often at the origin of a risk of canceled license.
“I often talk to the trainees (to recover points on the license), and at the beginning (I am told) ‘ah, I lost points because of (excess of) less than 20 km/h’, and when you discuss a little deeper, there are always additional and more serious violations: a stop sign, a light.”
“We do not lose a license because we only lost points with less than 20 km / h”, underlined the spokesperson for the Automobile Club association.
