“In one of every five fatal accidents, the driver tests positive for narcotics,” recalled Elisabeth Borne on July 17 after the inter-ministerial road safety committee. Faced with this “scourge”, the prime minister announced a series of measures aimed at reducing the number of road deaths each year, which reached 3,267 in 2022.
In addition to creating the crime of “road homicide,” he said he wanted to “make mandatory” the suspension of the license “in case of driving under the influence of drugs.” This mandatory suspension will be carried out by the prefect of the department and will last “from six months to a year”, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin specified.
“We must be intractable with drug users and punish addictive driving more severely,” warned Elisabeth Borne.
But this measure is not entirely new. “This suspension already existed,” recalled Anne Lavaud, general delegate of the Road Prevention Association on the BFMTV antenna. In fact, the prefect can already, today, withdraw the license of the drivers in question.
An “ad effect”
“When the police find an infraction that can be sanctioned with administrative suspension of the driver’s license, they send a copy of the report to the prefect (or sub-prefect),” the public service site indicates.
“The prefect can implement the suspension procedure after the withholding of the driving license” after certain offenses, including driving under the influence of alcohol, narcotics, “refusal to submit to controls on the state of alcohol or the use of narcotics ” or even speeding more than 40 km/h.
Therefore, it is the systematic nature of the measure that is supposed to change the situation here.
“Today the prefect could suspend, tomorrow he will have to do it”, sums up the Minister of the Interior.
However, a barely perceptible “nuance” for Rémy Josseaume, a lawyer for highway law, who speaks of an “announcement effect” rather than a real announcement on this subject.
“In the vast majority of crimes related to alcohol, drugs, refusal to comply, hit-and-run, the prefect suspends the driver’s license,” he justified on the BFMTV set. “It’s not going to fundamentally change anything.”
very rare cases
The cases in which the prefect does not suspend the driving license in case of a positive drug test are very rare.
“We are talking about 0.5% of files that actually escape prefectural suspension,” says the specialized lawyer.
If the prefect does not suspend the permit, “it is because he could not do it within the deadlines that the law obliges him to respect,” he continues, when the toxicological analyzes have not been transmitted, especially in due time. Robert Montury, a member of the association of relatives of victims of traffic accidents in Marilou, also evokes cases in which “police forces have poorly withheld permits.” “It’s a very small percentage,” he confirms.
Finally, the activist recalls the temporary nature of the prefect’s decision. “This administrative suspension only lasts until the court’s decision, she explains. Once the court has ruled, the judicial suspension decision takes precedence and we forget about the administrative suspension.”
Source: BFM TV
