France cuts speed limit on roads after alarming rise in deaths

The French government has said it will lower the speed limit on two-lane highways to 80km/h (50mph) from 90km/h, in an attempt to reverse an alarming rise in road deaths.

Highway deaths reached nearly 3,500 in 2016, with about 55% of those deaths (1,911 victims) occurred on the 400,000km of so-called secondary roads across France, two-lane routes with no separating guardrail.

The government says the lower speed limit could save 350 to 400 lives a year.

“Unsafe roads are not inevitable,” prime minister Edouard Philippe said after a meeting of the government’s road safety council.

“Lowering speeds reduces the number of accidents, as well as the severity of these accidents,” he said.

The government also plans to crack down on the use of cellphones while driving. Police can now suspend a licence if the driver is found to have broken other laws while using a phone that could “endanger his own security or that of someone else”.

To read more details on this story please visit:  https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/10/france-cuts-speed-limit-rise-deaths

Speed cameras being covered with bin liners in protest

France’s tobacconists are covering speed cameras with black bin liners in protest at plans to enforce the sale of cigarettes in plain packets. They say the "cover up" action is a symbolic move to reduce the government's revenue, similar to what they say will happen to their tobacco revenue.

The 2014  European Union law ordered that health warnings cover 65% of the front and back of cigarette packs with 50% of the sides - though member states are allowed to force completely plain packaging when "justified on grounds of public health".

Following the first action over a month ago, 20 of 97 districts have now been targeted.

So far three people have been arrested, but all were released without charge.

 

British sports cars booked by French helicopter for racing

off-duty officer who was overtaken by 5 sports cars racing down autoroute phoned on-duty officers and the Gendarmes swooped.

French gendarmes sent a helicopter chasing after five British-registered sports cars - including a Lamborghini and two Porsches - after an-off duty officer in a private car spotted them speeding down the A63 motorway near Biarritz in the southwest 

The British vehicles overtook him at speeds far above the French maximum limit of 130 kph (80 mph). The Britons were traveling on Friday afternoon in the direction of Hendaye, on the border with Spain. The convoy slowed to permitted speeds once the drivers spotted the chopper following them. 

The cars were tracked down to a toll booth where several police cars hauled them over and imposed fines for speeding. Police said they did not know exactly how fast they were going because the helicopter that had followed them was not equipped with speed radar.

Plans For Super Highway Means Ultimate Road Trip Could Be Possible From Britain To USA

A 12,400 mile super highway is being proposed that would take you from Britain to America in what would be the ultimate road trip.

The idea has been put forward as a way to improve Russia's tourism, with the hope that people would be more willing to travel through the country having a much more desired destination at the end, like the States.

The Siberian Times report that the route would be based on The Trans-Sibera Railway, going through cities like Yekaterinburg, Irkutsk and Vladivostok. Not exactly most sought after tourist locations it must be admitted.

Head of Russian Academy of Science says that the project is 'ambitious and very expensive' and that it not only gives the chance to improve roads in the country, but also the railway.

"It will solve many problems in the development of the vast region. It is connected with social programs, and new fields, new energy resources, and so on. The idea is that basing on the new technology of high-speed rail transport we can build a new railway near the Trans-Siberian Railway, with the opportunity to go to Chukotka and Bering Strait and then to the American continent." Vladimir Fortov, the Head of the Russian Academy of Science

The real selling point for the rest of the world, is that you could theoretically travel, by car, from Britain via the Channel Tunnel and then all the way to the USA.

With it being 12,400 miles, it could take more than 200 hours to get over there, and that is probably only as far as Alaska. However, you'd just have to make a road trip as epic as that.

Source

French Police Watching British Drivers

The A64 marks the final stretch before reaching their holiday destinations in France. Most are in a hurry to get the holiday started and going a little faster than they should. French police say many foreign drivers break the speed limit because they think they can avoid a fine. EU figures from last year show that foreign drivers make up 5% of road traffic but account for 15% of speeding offences in the 28-nation bloc.

New EU legislation came in to force November last year that was aimed at tackling that anomaly. The legislation means member states can exchange data on motoring offences, to track down guilty drivers. So if a French camera catches a Spanish motorist speeding, that driver will still have to pay a fine in Spain (provided the driver is the owner of the vehicle) The UK and some others however opted out of the EU directive. This means the only way UK motorists can be sanctioned on French roads is if they are caught in the act by the police and made to pay on-the-spot fines.

There is a 32-strong special division of the gendarmerie that is equipped with special binoculars that can calculate speeds. They watch discreetly, about a kilometre before a toll booth, on a section of the A64 where the speed limit is 110km/h (68 mph). French motorists are given a fine that they can pay at a later date, but foreign drivers are in for a surprise. They have to pay cash up on the spot (the fine can be up to 375 euros (£323), If they don't have any money on them and they are on their own, they will be driven to the nearest cash point. If they really have no money at all, then an on-duty judge will be called to decide what to do. But that can mean waiting around for up to three days and the car will not be allowed to move.

• There are a variety of things that you can also be fined for including speeding
• Maximum speed on motorway is 130km/h (80 mph)
• On-the-spot fine of 90 euros if driver goes up to 40km/h over limit
• If speed breaks limit by more than 40km/h, police can seize car and demand 750-euro fine
• Driver must have a reflective jacket and warning triangle in car - fine can be 90 euros if either is missing
• In-car radar detectors are illegal
• law to carry one unused breath test see here for more information

Pretending not to speak French will not help drivers. The police quite often have a very adequate level of English. British police sometimes even join their French counterparts on missions in northern France, though they do not have the authority to issue fines on French territory.

The UK government are staying out of the new EU data exchange for several reasons. It is not happy that the directive means exchanging vehicle owner information, rather than driver information - and often, it argues, the offending driver does not own the vehicle.

The UK government also says fines are a poor deterrent for bad driving, compared with points on a driving licence, or the threat of losing a licence altogether. And the government wants to assess the cost of setting up the EU-wide data exchange system before joining in.

Sources: BBC, Sunday Times

 

10 Speed Cam Facebook Page Fans in Court

In France ten motorists are due in court in September, because they are active members of a Facebook page that identifies the location of speed cameras. They have been accused of using “a device capable of detecting radar”. This is illegal in France (not illegal in the UK) The Facebook page has 9,000 members, all of who can update it in real time with the location of permanent and mobile speed camera sites using their smartphones, this will instantly notify all other members of the page.

David Alegre is one of the 10 defendants, he is a truck driver David Alegre, said he was stunned to receive a summons. He admitted he regularly contributed to the Facebook page, but said he had no idea it would land him in trouble with the law.

He said: “I am being treated like a radar detector.”

Mr Rémy Josseaume his lawyer argues that communicating information on the Internet does not fall under the ban on using radar detectors in France.

 Read the story on our site about this french facebook story

Sources: connexionfrance.com