Robot may help drivers save licences if caught in speed trap
Lawyer’s website will contest speeding penalties to avoid motorists losing points
DRIVERS are being offered a way to save their licences after racking up too many points for speeding – as a company is ready to contest the penalty on their behalf.
With cameras flashing 20million times in 2015 and bringing in nearly €800million in fines, the EasyRad site has opened just as the government has revealed it expects fine revenue to fall just short of one billion euros next year.
Using the site will not let drivers avoid paying the fine but could allow them to avoid the automatic one, two or three point penalty on their licences as it is not possible to identify the driver of the offending vehicle.
Motoring lawyer Sébastien Dufour came up with the idea for the site at www.easy-rad.org after noticing the number of drivers who came to him to save their licences only when they were at the point of losing them – when they had only a couple of points left of their 12-point total.
He told Le Parisien: “Only 1% of the speed camera penalty notices and only 5% of those from red-light cameras were contested last year but nearly all of these cameras take their photo from the rear of the vehicle – so it is impossible to tell who is driving and not possible to take points off an ‘unknown’ person.”
The Paris lawyer said the majority of drivers racked up points for simple speed offences of exceeding the speed limit by less than 20kph, which costs one point from their licence (two points are lost for excesses of 20-30kph and three points for crossing a white line).
EasyRad charges a flat €54 for contesting the loss of points but the driver must still pay the fine.
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The site is easy to use, asking motorists just to insert the number of the PV (avis de contravention penalty notice) and their plaque d'immatriculation numberplate – and promises that in the majority of cases the driver will not lose points.
Capable of treating 7,000 cases a day, it is run by a robot that sends automatic emails with read-receipts to the Antai speed fine treatment centre at Rennes. Me Dufour is ready to step in if the case goes to a tribunal, which he says is rare.
