THE period of ‘education’ on new rules covering the need to carry a warning triangle and high visibility jacket in your car comes to an end on October 1.
From that date the gendarmerie will begin to enforce the regulations, failure to have a triangle or jacket in your car will mean a fine of €90 for each offence, and the equipment has to meet EU standards.
Also on the same date rules requiring cyclists to wear high-visibility jackets will be enforced, requiring jackets to be worn when outside towns, at night or when visibility is poor during the day.
NB: There was much comment on an earlier article I wrote about the need for cyclists to wear high-vis jackets.
The problem is I have seen two different presentations of the rules namely:
Les cyclistes (conducteur et passager), doivent revêtir un gilet de sécurité pour circuler hors agglomération de nuit, ou de jour lorsque la visibilité est insuffisante, à compter du 1er octobre 2008.
and
Le port d’un gilet de sécurité est également obligatoire à partir du 1er octobre 2008 pour tout conducteur et passager d’un cycle circulant hors agglomération, de nuit (ou de jour lorsque la visibilité est insuffisante).
To my reading, and of course the beauty of having comments is you can help out here, is that the comma between hors agglomération, de nuit can change the meaning.
So I’ve erred on the side of caution and interpreted the text to mean that a jacket should be worn by a cyclist when outside of a town, even during the day, better to be safe than sorry, as well as possibly €35 out of pocket.
Naturally I would be permanently in your debt if someone was able to drop in on their local gendarmerie and clear this up 🙂
Comments
4 responses to “Rules on warning triangle and high-vis jackets enforced”
As someone with an “Eats Shoots and leaves” mentality, I think that the two versions are mutually supportive, stating clearly that the gilet should be worn at night, AND during the day IF visibility is poor, outside urban areas.
To me, if there is a point of doubt, it would be to do with what constitutes poor visibility.
Hi Paul, think I’ll just get off and push my bike 😉
Many thanks, Craig
Please note that the gilet should be available inside the car and NOT kept in the boot.
Hi George, many thanks for that. People shouldn’t be walking around to the boot of the car without the jacket on.
All the best, Craig