Thursday, February 23, the prefect of Seine-et-Marne, Lionel Beffre, following "the deterioration of road safety in 2022 and at the beginning of 2023", decided to toughen the penalties for traffic offenses related to speeding and alcohol. He changed 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 "only strengthened our choice".

New aggravated scale

"This new scale worsens the duration of driving license suspensions for offenses and offenses of driving under the influence of alcohol and speeding," the prefect said in a statement.

  • Thus, from 24 February, anyone driving under the influence of alcohol at a rate greater than 0.40 mg/litre of exhaled air is liable to a six-month suspension of driving licence.
  • Anyone who speeds at or above 40 km/h is also liable to a six-month driver's licence suspension, regardless of the speed limit, regardless of the road network.

Maximum penalty

On February 10, comedian Pierre Palmade got behind the wheel of his car after consuming cocaine and synthetic drugs and crashed into an oncoming car. The collision left three people 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 penalty that is directly applied while previously the "sanction was progressive" according to the alcohol rate and speeding, said the prefect.

A scale specific to each department

The prefect recalled that each department "has its own scale" and then the "judicial takes over" by reversing or confirming the administrative penalty. In 2022, Seine-et-Marne counted 894 accidents against 770 in 2021, and 58 people were killed against 51 in 2021. According to Road Safety figures, a total of 3,260 people died on the roads of metropolitan France in 2022. After the accident of Pierre Palmade, the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin wanted that anyone driving under drugs or under alcohol would automatically have the 12 points of his driving license withdrawn.

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