Fines for motorists failing to use seat belts are one of seven categories that can now be enforced across EU member States’ borders
New EU legislation allows authorities to collect fines from errant foreign motorists even after they have returned to their own country.
New1816 European Union legislation means drivers in many Member States can be prosecuted for breaking traffic laws when driving outside their home country. While not all the Member States will not be signing up to Directive 2011/82/EU facilitating the cross-border exchange of information on road safety related traffic offences, for those that do the deadline date to implement the EU Directive is 7 November.
From that date the details of motorists committing any one of eight offences can be sent to another member state in order to pursue a prosecution. The offences include the ‘big four’ - speeding, failing to stop at traffic lights, failure to use seatbelts and drink driving – which account for 75% of fatalities. Other offences on the list in order of death causation are driving under the influence of drugs, motorcyclists failing to wear safety helmets, illegal use of an emergency lane and illegal use of a mobile phone while driving.
The1690 European Commission estimates that some 100 million cross-border road trips are undertaken annually within the EU and its figures suggest that foreign drivers make up around 5% of traffic but commit around 15% of speeding offences.
When introducing the legislative proposal in 2011 Siim Kallas, European Commission Vice President responsible for Transport, said: “We know that a foreign driver is three times more likely to commit an offence than a resident driver.”
Until now most of these offences have not been penalised as the enforcement authorities where the offence was committed have been unable to pursue foreign drivers once they had left the country to return home. “Many people still seem to think that when they go abroad the rules no longer apply to them. My message is that they do apply and now we are going to apply them,” said Kallas. Antonio Avenoso, executive director of the European Traffic Safety Council, reinforced this point saying: “Traffic laws apply to all drivers, regardless of the country where their vehicle is registered.”
When the new regulations take effect next month that will no longer be the case for drivers from the UK, Ireland and Denmark as these countries have not signed up to the new regulations. Motorists resident in other Member States who commit an offence in the three non-participating countries will also not be pursued for fines. Another important facet is that the new regulations only deal with financial penalties as endorsements or the withdrawing of a driving licence are not covered by the legislation.
According to an EC impact assessment, the Directive will save between 350 and 400 road deaths a year with the major reduction expected by mitigating the three most risky behaviour offences: speeding, drink driving and non-use of seat belts.
With the latest statistics indicating that in 2012 some 27,500 people were killed on the EU Member States’ roads there is clearly still work to be done. This is especially the case if the EU is to achieve its stated aim of a 50% reduction in the number of people killed on Europe’s roads by 2020.
Road policing plays a vital role in the EU’s strategy to save lives and reduce serious injuries on the road.650 TISPOL, the European Traffic Police Network which covers the 27 EU states plus Norway and Switzerland, has been coordinating a number of pan-European operations targeting specific offences.
Recently TISPOL coordinated an operation in 28 countries resulting in almost 761,000 drivers being detected for breaking speed limits. Around two thirds of the detections came from automatic technical means without police officers being directly involved. As these offenders are not apprehended at the time, many will have escaped penalties when they returned to their own country.
A similar police operation earlier in the year involving all TISPOL member states resulted in almost 900,000 drivers being breath-tested which led to 14,557 alcohol-related offences with another 1,789 drug offences recorded. In a separate operation seat belt wearing was targeted across 27 countries and almost 110,000 offences were recorded.
The problem has been that, with very few exceptions, a driver committing an offence in a car registered in another EU country evades prosecution because of the difficulty of identifying them or being able to check the vehicle’s registered address.
With the introduction of the new regulations, EU residents committing a motoring offence in another member state will not be beyond the reach of the law. The regulations enable EU drivers to be identified and thus prosecuted for offences committed in a Member State other than the one where their car is registered.
In practical terms, the new rules give enforcement authorities in each Member State mutual access to each others’ vehicle registration data via an electronic data exchange network. This will allow for the exchange of the necessary data between the country in which the offence was committed and the one in which the car is registered.
So for instance, if a German motorist committed a speeding offence in Italy, it would be up to the Italian police to decide whether or not to follow up on the traffic offence. If it is decided to follow up the offence the Italian police will send a request for information to the country where the vehicle is registered – in this case Germany, The registered driver’s name and address will be sent back to the Italians and they will send a letter to the presumed offender detailing the offence, when and where it took place and the fine. As the directive does not harmonise rules on traffic offences or penalties, it is the rules and penalties in the Member State where the offence is committed (Italy in our hypothetical case), that will apply.
As the ETSC points out, should the errant German motorist not send the money to the Italian authorities, the whole file is passed to the German police. It will then be up to the German police to pursue the motorist not only for the non-payment of the original penalty, but also the additional offence of non-payment of the fine. According to ETSC, this will be done under existing legislation (Framework decision 2005/214) which enshrines mutual recognition to financial penalties imposed by the judicial and administrative authorities of another Member State.
Figures compiled by ETSC show that well over 30 million speeding tickets are issued each year by the participating Member States while the EU estimate that foreign motorist commit 15% of speeding offences. That indicates there is the potential for something in the region of 4.5 million cross-border fines to be collected and that excludes penalties for red light enforcement, not wearing a seatbelt and drink-driving and the other four specified offences.
It seems cross-border collection of motoring fines is set to become big business.
New
From that date the details of motorists committing any one of eight offences can be sent to another member state in order to pursue a prosecution. The offences include the ‘big four’ - speeding, failing to stop at traffic lights, failure to use seatbelts and drink driving – which account for 75% of fatalities. Other offences on the list in order of death causation are driving under the influence of drugs, motorcyclists failing to wear safety helmets, illegal use of an emergency lane and illegal use of a mobile phone while driving.
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When introducing the legislative proposal in 2011 Siim Kallas, European Commission Vice President responsible for Transport, said: “We know that a foreign driver is three times more likely to commit an offence than a resident driver.”
Until now most of these offences have not been penalised as the enforcement authorities where the offence was committed have been unable to pursue foreign drivers once they had left the country to return home. “Many people still seem to think that when they go abroad the rules no longer apply to them. My message is that they do apply and now we are going to apply them,” said Kallas. Antonio Avenoso, executive director of the European Traffic Safety Council, reinforced this point saying: “Traffic laws apply to all drivers, regardless of the country where their vehicle is registered.”
When the new regulations take effect next month that will no longer be the case for drivers from the UK, Ireland and Denmark as these countries have not signed up to the new regulations. Motorists resident in other Member States who commit an offence in the three non-participating countries will also not be pursued for fines. Another important facet is that the new regulations only deal with financial penalties as endorsements or the withdrawing of a driving licence are not covered by the legislation.
According to an EC impact assessment, the Directive will save between 350 and 400 road deaths a year with the major reduction expected by mitigating the three most risky behaviour offences: speeding, drink driving and non-use of seat belts.
With the latest statistics indicating that in 2012 some 27,500 people were killed on the EU Member States’ roads there is clearly still work to be done. This is especially the case if the EU is to achieve its stated aim of a 50% reduction in the number of people killed on Europe’s roads by 2020.
Road policing plays a vital role in the EU’s strategy to save lives and reduce serious injuries on the road.
Recently TISPOL coordinated an operation in 28 countries resulting in almost 761,000 drivers being detected for breaking speed limits. Around two thirds of the detections came from automatic technical means without police officers being directly involved. As these offenders are not apprehended at the time, many will have escaped penalties when they returned to their own country.
A similar police operation earlier in the year involving all TISPOL member states resulted in almost 900,000 drivers being breath-tested which led to 14,557 alcohol-related offences with another 1,789 drug offences recorded. In a separate operation seat belt wearing was targeted across 27 countries and almost 110,000 offences were recorded.
The problem has been that, with very few exceptions, a driver committing an offence in a car registered in another EU country evades prosecution because of the difficulty of identifying them or being able to check the vehicle’s registered address.
With the introduction of the new regulations, EU residents committing a motoring offence in another member state will not be beyond the reach of the law. The regulations enable EU drivers to be identified and thus prosecuted for offences committed in a Member State other than the one where their car is registered.
In practical terms, the new rules give enforcement authorities in each Member State mutual access to each others’ vehicle registration data via an electronic data exchange network. This will allow for the exchange of the necessary data between the country in which the offence was committed and the one in which the car is registered.
So for instance, if a German motorist committed a speeding offence in Italy, it would be up to the Italian police to decide whether or not to follow up on the traffic offence. If it is decided to follow up the offence the Italian police will send a request for information to the country where the vehicle is registered – in this case Germany, The registered driver’s name and address will be sent back to the Italians and they will send a letter to the presumed offender detailing the offence, when and where it took place and the fine. As the directive does not harmonise rules on traffic offences or penalties, it is the rules and penalties in the Member State where the offence is committed (Italy in our hypothetical case), that will apply.
As the ETSC points out, should the errant German motorist not send the money to the Italian authorities, the whole file is passed to the German police. It will then be up to the German police to pursue the motorist not only for the non-payment of the original penalty, but also the additional offence of non-payment of the fine. According to ETSC, this will be done under existing legislation (Framework decision 2005/214) which enshrines mutual recognition to financial penalties imposed by the judicial and administrative authorities of another Member State.
Figures compiled by ETSC show that well over 30 million speeding tickets are issued each year by the participating Member States while the EU estimate that foreign motorist commit 15% of speeding offences. That indicates there is the potential for something in the region of 4.5 million cross-border fines to be collected and that excludes penalties for red light enforcement, not wearing a seatbelt and drink-driving and the other four specified offences.
It seems cross-border collection of motoring fines is set to become big business.
