Small speeding will no longer be penalized by the withdrawal of a point from January 1, 2024, according to a letter signed by the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, addressed to the senator of Var Françoise Dumont (Les Républicains ), dated April 11. “A common sense measure for our fellow citizens”, wrote the minister on Wednesday evening on Twitter, specifying that it will be implemented “at the request of the President of the Republic”.
“Work has been undertaken at my request in order to adapt the repressive regime applicable to minor speeding violations”, those “less than 5 kilometers per hour”, explains the minister to the senator in this letter revealed on Wednesday April 19 by the regional daily Nice-Matin and authenticated by Agence France-Presse with the elected official.
In his letter, Gérald Darmanin recalls that “it will not be a question of decriminalizing these offenses, which will remain punishable by a fine”. It is a question of “introducing an administrative indulgence with regard to these shortcomings which are more a matter of lack of attention than of the deliberate desire to free oneself from the rule”, estimates the Minister of the Interior.
This track had been mentioned as early as May 2022 by the Minister of the Interior. Some road safety associations then deplored a “regrettable” track or encouraging motorists “to drive faster”.
In 2020, of the 12.5 million tickets issued for speeding checked by speed cameras, 58% were for speeding less than 5 kilometers per hour, according to a response from the Ministry of the Interior in April 2022 to a Written question from Françoise Dumont.
“It will have no effect on accidentality”
“We have been working on this measure with the Ministry of the Interior for years, so I can only welcome it,” reacted Pierre Chasseray, general delegate of 40 million motorists. “This will show that it will have no effect on accidentality,” he anticipates. “The second step now is to obtain the non-financial penalty, because there is still the fine to pay,” he added.
Today, speeding less than 20 kilometers per hour is sanctioned with the withdrawal of one point and a fine of 68 euros (on roads where the maximum authorized speed is greater than 50 kilometers per hour ) or 135 euros (on roads where the maximum authorized speed is less than or equal to 50 kilometers per hour). In 2022, 3,260 people died on the roads of mainland France. This balance sheet is stable compared to 2019 (0.5%), the last reference year before the Covid-19 pandemic.