Driver wins French speeding appeal due to radar day and time error
The man was not even on the road at the time stated on the fine
The man was 'caught' by a speed camera at a time when he was not even on the road
ricochet64/Shutterstock
A driver in France who was caught speeding by a ‘mad’, malfunctioning speed camera has won his appeal against the fine.
The driver, named Eric Alexandre, received the fine in August 2023 after driving on the RN 224 in Daux, Haute-Garonne (Occitanie) but it was dated the day before he had used the road, reports regional newspaper La Dépêche.
Unsurprisingly, Mr Alexandre contested the fine.
‘I wasn’t even there that day’
After 17 months of fighting and waiting for a response, he was finally able to have his case heard. It was then that the speed camera between Montaigut-sur-Save and Mondonville was found to be faulty.
“The letter mentioned an infraction from Saturday, August 26 at 11:14 precisely,” said Mr Alexandre. “It said there had been slight speeding at 88 kp/h on a stretch with an 80 km/h limit. I wasn’t there that day.”
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When contesting the fine Mr Alexandre received an automated-style email that said there were “no elements that would enable” the fine to be overturned. When he insisted on more proof, he received a photo showing his car on the road in question.
“I immediately understood what had happened,” he said. “I had been on the road, but the day after - on Sunday, August 27, late afternoon, not in the morning. It was obviously a malfunction of the speed camera’s clock.”
He paid the €180 fine but continued to contest it.
“If the speed camera got the date and time wrong, it could also very well have got the speed wrong too,” he said, adding that neither he nor his wife had noticed a ‘flash’ coming from the camera when passing it.
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Another driver affected
Mr Alexandre’s plight was covered in the local press and was seen by another local driver, Michel Rondeau. Mr Rondeau had been sent a fine for the same road, when he too had not been there at the stated time.
“When I got the fine I went to the gendarmerie to see if someone could have falsified my number plates…but it was my car in the photo,” he said. He paid the fine to “avoid any trouble”.
Mr Alexandre eventually won a refund of the €180 paid with the authorities admitting that the camera was faulty.
