Speed limits - all change again

so many daft fools forget that the National Speed Limit only means one can drive to that speed… if conditions are suitable

I wonder if that is taught in french driving lessons, I’m fairly sure its regarded as a minimum target speed by a lot of young drivers :thinking:

Lots of decent departmental roads, low population density. However if part of the road changes from a department one to a national one, the speed limit drops to 80kph.

Don’t know why the Lot hasn’t followed the example of the neighbouring Aveyron and Cantal

I use the hazard lights for a second or two to make those bullies back off.

2 Likes

All to gain fines from the poor motorist.

The fines never bothered me much, I alway paid them online within minutes, it was the points that I worried about.

I just set cruise control and then ignore them. Though if they’re properly persistent then I’ll gently knock off a km/h or two every so often until they decide they’d rather pass.

I’m relying on memory here. I paid my speeding fine, like you, immediately, and I believe I sent a cheque for 45 euros or thereabouts. I thought that was the end of the matter, but about two years later I received a letter to say that I was now exonerated, and my ‘criminal’ record were null and void. My speeding offence was, I think, on record for two years, but I don’t remember exactly. Would a speeding fine be on record for that amount of time?

My information was that it lasted for 6 months if you did not again infringe, but as it was at one time difficult to test I am not sure. How long it lasted if you did infringe was even harder to determine.

1 Like

Is it not the case (pun) that all offences processed through by ANTAI are overseen by an in-house court that confirms the penalty imposed.

I discovered this when my son narrowly escaped his car being impounded and paid a large ‘on the spot’ penalty. Ayear later he received the court decision approving his penalty. Researching later we discovered that there is always the possibility of a higher penalty being imposed subsequently by the court reviewing the case.

If it’s under a certain level of infringement and you don’t do it again within 6 months then you get your point back, but if you do reoffend then the clock is reset to 2 years, as far as I remember. If you get down to 4 or 5 points you get a letter suggesting you might like to do an awareness course and basically buy back 3 points.
I have all my points at the moment but there was a period where my daily commute of just over an hour each way involved lots of shifts between 30/50/70 and I lost a point here and there fairly often and got a bit worried about it. Luckily I changed job so the commute was different.

1 Like

I’ve had 3 speeding fines over 30 years! Speeding was simply a mistake each time and not drastic. 80 in a 70 zone, missed seeing the sign while looking in the rear-view mirror, something along those lines. I must have had a second speeding offence in the 6 months, which will explain why I received a letter two years later. I remember, I think, that it congratulated me in not having any speeding offences over the preceding two years.

Yes that letter is a masterly bit of patronising head patting but in that it is concomitant with getting all my points back I didn’t get too revved up over it :grin: