"EvelynVogtGamble(Divamanque)" wrote in message
news:em97o9120a9@news3.newsguy.com...
>
>
> parisphotog@gmail.com wrote:
>
>> English Rob wrote:
>>
>>>I was rushing to return a rental and catch the ferry to Southampton
>>>after visiting a mate whose in taule at Clairvaux. I was doing about
>>>210 k/ph on the motorway and I'm pretty sure I got caught in a radar
>>>trap. Will the car hire company send me a bill?
>>
>>
>> Call the rental company and ask.
>>
>>
>>
>>>Whats a fine like that
>>>likely to be? Can I protest it? Can I just shred the bill and tell the
>>>agency to bugger off?
>>
>>
>> Yes of course, you can drive at any speed you happen to prefer and
>> just tell people to bugger off.
>> Anyone in the world would certainly do the very same in your country
>> don't you think?
>
> ....But with varying success, depending upon the country, and any
> reciprocal treaty arrangements.
>
>
There are two issues at stake here (leaving aside why anyone should drive at
nearly twice the legal limit). First, the rental company will be obliged to
disclose the driver details when demanded by the French police. But there is
at present no mechanism for enforcing French traffic conviction and fine in
UK. EU has been working on a system of union-wide traffic enforcement (so if
you are banned from driving in one member state, you are banned in all), but
it's not in place yet (though there are some bi- and trilateral agreements,
e.g. France and Germany). So British authorities won't take any action
against the driver, and any driving ban etc they suffer won't extend to UK.
Secondly, the rental company may have an agreement with the French
authorities that should one of their cars be photographed for traffic
offence and they cannot collect the fine from the driver, they will pay
instead and charge the amount (plus a handling fee) to the driver's credit
card. When you signed the rental contract, a clause may have been buried
somewhere in the small print authorising them to do so.
So the OP should first get in touch with the rental company (through their
UK counterpart, in most cases) and find out where they stand. Secondly,
should they get a fine through the post, they need to weigh up their
options - either to ignore it (and suffer the consequences next time they
are in France - one presumes a record is kept somewhere on the police
computer) or pay it. Speeding fine starts around 130 euro and goes up to
thousands.
Was it Jensen Button who was caught doing 228 kmh in a diesel BMW in France
and the police escorted him to a cashpoint to pay the £500 fine (that was in
2000 - fine is sharply higher than that now).
http://sport.independent.co.uk/motor_racing/article277571.ece
Alec
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