Foreign drivers will escape punishment for UK offences.

[ringway]

Foreign drivers will be able to drink and drive, break the speed limit, jump red lights and escape without punishment because the Government has not signed up to an EU crackdown, it was claimed.


LINK.

 

[st13phil]

Complete twaddle.

Whether or not the UK enters into the Cross Border Enforcement Directive foreign drivers can be and are prosecuted for motoring offences in the UK. The situation will be unchanged from how it operates now. To say that foreign drunk drivers will somehow escape punishment because the UK isn't signing up to the directive is sensationalist clap-trap of the worst kind. The only thing that the directive would permit that doesn't happen today is prosecution by post for automatically detected offences like speedcams (shame).

What people neatly sidestep when they bang on about this directive and the benefits it would bring are the barriers to defending an allegation of misdemeanour that would acompany them. Let's say you were on holiday in France, hired a car, and upon your return received the equivalent of a UK fixed penalty notice for an offence apparently commited by that vehicle but on a date/time or place that you were not driving it. How would you defend the charge? Would you spend hundreds or perhaps thousands of pounds on travel and accomodation so that you can defend yourself in a French court? Probably not, so you'd be unjustly punished for an offence you didn't commit.

If the offence is serious (e.g. drunk or dangerous driving) then the foreign driver will be processed in the same way as a UK driver and vice versa. If it's a roadside stop for speed limit infraction the same applies. As I say, it's only the camera-based offences that "escape" and in the whole scheme of things I doubt contravention of a bus lane is that important.

 

[Spinal]

Phil - fully agree with you!

Also, times are different... for example, in Italy, the police can (and often do) wait 3-5 YEARS before sending a ticket out. I received a speeding ticket 4 years after the alleged offence... (well, technically they sent it just under 4 years after, and the rental company took another few weeks to pass it on...)

I couldn't even remember if I was in that city when it happened... I ended up just paying up and forgetting about it rather than trying to figure out if I was there, contesting it, etc...

For once, I'm pleased with the policy of not joining into anther stupid database!

M.

 

[Burger]

Complete twaddle.

Well said!

 

[Oli]

Wouldn't this work the other way too though, if a UK driver in a UK went through a speed camera abroad they won't be able to persue it?.

 

[219]

I think that's why they fine you on the spot .

Don't the Gendarmes accompany you to a cash machine if you don't have the money on you ?

 

[Burger]

Wouldn't this work the other way too though, if a UK driver in a UK went through a speed camera abroad they won't be able to persue it?.

http://www.mbclub.co.uk/forums/driving-incidents-roadrage/101941-chances-getting-ticket-france.html

Regards,

 

[Blackman]

Complete twaddle.

Whether or not the UK enters into the Cross Border Enforcement Directive foreign drivers can be and are prosecuted for motoring offences in the UK. The situation will be unchanged from how it operates now. To say that foreign drunk drivers will somehow escape punishment because the UK isn't signing up to the directive is sensationalist clap-trap of the worst kind. The only thing that the directive would permit that doesn't happen today is prosecution by post for automatically detected offences like speedcams (shame).

What people neatly sidestep when they bang on about this directive and the benefits it would bring are the barriers to defending an allegation of misdemeanour that would acompany them. Let's say you were on holiday in France, hired a car, and upon your return received the equivalent of a UK fixed penalty notice for an offence apparently commited by that vehicle but on a date/time or place that you were not driving it. How would you defend the charge? Would you spend hundreds or perhaps thousands of pounds on travel and accomodation so that you can defend yourself in a French court? Probably not, so you'd be unjustly punished for an offence you didn't commit.

If the offence is serious (e.g. drunk or dangerous driving) then the foreign driver will be processed in the same way as a UK driver and vice versa. If it's a roadside stop for speed limit infraction the same applies. As I say, it's only the camera-based offences that "escape" and in the whole scheme of things I doubt contravention of a bus lane is that important.

I'm not sure about how it works with speeding fines, when cameras detect it, but I got a friend from Poland who regularly drives here, and he got a few PCN's, which were sent to his home address in Poland, as that's where the car is registered.

So could be the same with speed camera tickets? Although, I'm pretty sure the driver won't get any points, just a fine.

 

[Oli]

http://www.mbclub.co.uk/forums/driving-incidents-roadrage/101941-chances-getting-ticket-france.html

Regards,

Indeed, much as I thought, I went through one in France recently and heard nothing, was only about 10km/h over the limit though.

 

[st13phil]

This all falls under the category of "grandiose scheme to deal with an insignificant problem".

As I said in an earlier post, if someone has committed a serious motoring offence then there are mechanisms to deal with them whether they are UK resident or not. Tales of "Johnny Foreigner" escaping justice if the data sharing scheme is not in place are bandied around for no reason but that they appeal to the most base xenophobic tendencies. The reality of the situation is that some bloke from <insert name of EU country here> doing 35mph in a 30mph zone hardly warrants the use of InterPlod to track him down, so today it doesn't happen. This data sharing scheme would allow UK police to search another country's driver and vehicle registration records just as they can our own thus making it cheaper and easier to trace a "perp" who committed such a heinous crime that nobody thought to either challenge him at the time or stop him when he left the country. The same is true in reverse of course, and access to the UK's DVLA records (which, as we all know, are 100% accurate ) would be available to the police in any other EU member country.

The real issues are of privacy (which this scheme rides roughshod over) and proportionality. Under the scheme the potential for justice to be denied through an accident of geography is significant and such an injustice would be totally disproportionate to the scale of any "offence" for which it would apply.

 

[NewMB]

Germany and Austria already have this system in place. So do the Scandinavian countries.

If you are a foreigner getting caught in Denmark and can't pay, expect to spending some time at a free hotel until you can pay. Cash only!

IMO it is just a matter of time before all EU countries have signed up for this.

As for rental cars, I have had my picture taken in Stuttgart, Cologne and Berlin and everytime a letter and a small charge arrived on my credit card from the car rental company (usually around £11.25) for their fee.

I will soon found out if Belgium is connected as well as a nice little Brussels camera took my pic doing 120km/h instead of posted 100km/h

 

[st4]

Its madness, a great British pass time ruined. Why cannot I go to France and hoon past their autoroute speed cameras at 240kmph. Spoil sports.