France weakens rules on penalty points for speeding

The French Minister of the Interior has announced that speeding offences of less than 5 km/h above the speed limit will no longer be punished by a loss of driving licence points, but only by a fine. The change is expected to be implemented from 1 January next year.

According to official figures for 2020, the change will affect more than half of the 12.5 million sanctions issued each year.

ETSC’s Projects Director Graziella Jost said:
“This change sends completely the wrong message and is of particular concern on urban roads where small speed increases can make a big difference, especially when combined with the tolerance already allowed by speed cameras.

“France had a 10% rise in road deaths between 2021 and 2022 and now the government is effectively saying speeding is not a big problem. This new change follows another recent manoeuvre that has allowed French regions to increase the rural road speed limit from 80 km/h to 90 km/h. This looks to us like populism pure and simple, and throws decades of research into the impact of speed on injury and death out of the window.”