EU rules in favour of two drivers in France in photo enforcement cases

The EU Human Rights Court has ruled in favour of two drivers who received traffic tickets from French authorities, but were not provided the means to contest them. Both men paid the fine required and one lost a point off his driver's permit. Both called for the reimbursement of the fine.
March 19, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
The 1116 European Union Court of Human Rights has ruled in favour of two drivers who received traffic tickets from French authorities, but were not provided the means to contest them. Both men paid the fine required and one lost a point off his driver's permit. Both called for the reimbursement of the fine.

The EU court did not order that the fine or the point be reimbursed claiming that it was not competent in the matter of French driving law and that it could only review the fine reimbursement if the two drivers had been allowed access to judicial proceedings.

One driver claimed that he could not recognise himself as the driver of the vehicle without photographic evidence. The other said that he was not driving the vehicle during the infraction. An officer in the case threw out their demands and called for the fine to be paid.

In its defence, according to the French constitutional council, the lack of access to judicial recourse is not constitutional.

The EU court has also ruled that the officer exceeded his authority in demanding the fine.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Young Driver Risk
    April 16, 2018
    Police in the US state of Ohio recently found themselves in a high-speed pursuit involving a vehicle taken without its owner’s consent. The chase lasted for around one hour and the vehicle hit speeds of up to 160km/h during the pursuit, which covered a distance of around 72km in all between Cleveland and Milan. Officers managed to box the car in and bring it to a halt, without anyone being injured. The driver was a 10-year-old boy who took his mother’s car, the second time that the lad had done this in just
    Read More
  • Sheep in the city
    May 22, 2019
    Christmas follies Christmas congestion was caused in Cambridgeshire due to an errant Santa. Traffic was forced to halt on a busy stretch of road in the town of Wisbech after an inflatable Santa was blown from the house where it had been secured. The giant Santa inflatable came to rest on Cromwell road, lying on its side and appearing to wave drunkenly at vehicles passing in the opposite lane. Two men then managed to remove the giant inflatable from the roadway, allowing vehicles to pass. And an overze
    Read More
  • WASH AND GO
    February 9, 2018
    Our Skidmarks page is highly rated by readers. Your input could help make this page even more entertaining. If you come across any amusing road-related stories or pictures email me at [email protected]
    Read More
  • Roo'd Awakening and BMW Drivers
    June 29, 2018
    A rider amongst a group of cyclists on a training run in Australia had a rather unpleasant experience. The man was cycling along a road with his team mates when a young kangaroo jumped out from the road side and collided with him, knocking him from his bicycle. Although he was riding at speed at the time, he was not seriously hurt and as one of his team mates filmed the incident, will have video footage to better remember the incident by. The feelings of the kangaroo over the incident were not recorded.
    Read More

Highlighted Content