Drunk drivers in France lose their cars in new French road safety laws
February 14, 2008
Prime minister of France Francois Fillon confirmed the installation on the roads of France of 2500 new radar detectors starting now. The program will continue until 2012 at the rate of 500 new machines per year. Fillon also announced a series of measures designed to reinforce the fight against drunk driving in France. Repeat offenders in France would face harsher penalties and could now see their vehicles confiscated. The announcements came after an interdepartmental committee meeting held in Matignon about road safety in France.
In 2007, 4,615 people were killed on the roads in France. This is a drop of 2% compared to 2006 and constitutes the sixth consecutive annual reduction for road fatalities in France. But the ambitious objective set by Fillon and Sarkozy, who mentioned it during his campaign to become president of France, is to pass under a symbolic bar of 3,000 road fatalities in France per year by the year 2012.
More precisely, the French government wants to cut the number of alcohol-related accidents in half, and to do likewise the number of motorcyclists killed on French roads. And the government wants to cut by a third the number of young people who die on the road in France. Alcohol-related accidents are the number one cause or death on the roads in France. It took 1,241 lives on French roads in 2007.
According to the Prime Minister, any motorist caught driving without a valid French license, repeat speeding offenders and those driving under the influence of alcohol or narcotics will have his or her vehicle confiscated. In addition, a car ignition that tests drivers for alcohol and will not allow drivers to start their cars if they are over the limit will be imposed on drivers who have already been found guilty of DUI in France who are stopped for excessive blood-alcohol content at the wheel. The same system will be also installed in the school buses in France starting now and until the resumption of classes in September 2009. Electronic alcohol tests will also be installed at the exit of night clubs in France.
Francois Fillon also promised the prohibition of the alcohol sales in service stations in France and the automatic confiscation of the license in the event of vehicular homicide in France. He also said that driving while watching a television or playing a video game in France would be severely punished.
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