Thursday, February 23, the prefect of Seine-et-Marne, Lionel Beffre, following “the deterioration of road safety in 2022 and at the start of 2023”, decided to toughen the penalties for traffic offenses related to speeding and alcohol. He modified the scale of administrative suspensions of driving licenses, adding that the accident caused by the humorist Pierre Palmade on a departmental road in the south of Seine-et-Marne “has only reinforced our choice”.
New aggravated scale
“This new scale increases the duration of driving license suspensions for offenses and offenses of driving under the influence of an alcoholic state and speeding”, explained the prefect in a press release.
- Thus, from February 24, anyone driving under the influence of an alcoholic state at a rate greater than 0.40 mg/litre of exhaled air is liable to a penalty of six months’ driving license suspension. .
- Anyone committing a speeding equal to or greater than 40 km/h is also liable to a six-month driving license suspension, regardless of the authorized speed, regardless of the road network.
Maximum penalty
On February 10, comedian Pierre Palmade drove his car after consuming cocaine and synthetic drugs and crashed into an oncoming car. The collision left three seriously injured in the same family: a man, his six-year-old son and his pregnant sister-in-law, who lost her baby. In Seine-et-Marne, from Friday, it is the maximum sanction which is directly applied whereas previously the “sanction was progressive” according to the alcohol level and speeding, specified the prefect.
A scale specific to each department
The prefect recalled that each department “has its scale” then the “judicial takes over” by reversing or confirming the administrative sanction. In 2022, Seine-et-Marne counted 894 accidents against 770 in 2021, and 58 people were killed against 51 in 2021. According to figures from Road Safety, a total of 3,260 people died on the roads of Metropolitan France in 2022. After Pierre Palmade’s accident, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin wanted anyone driving under narcotics or alcohol to automatically have the 12 points on their driving license withdrawn.