It is prohibited to pay without contact with the phone at a toll. This is what many drivers have discovered this week, following the video posted by a driver fined after completing his trip on the highway with his iPhone and the Apple Pay function.
90 euros and 3 points
The penalty – a fixed fine of 135 euros (90 euros reduced) and withdrawal of 3 points from the license – may seem severe, but it is the one applied in the case of using the phone while driving. “The use of a telephone in hand by the driver of a vehicle in circulation is prohibited,” we can read in article R1412-6-1 of the Highway Code.
This decision seems no less surprising: many drivers have since explained that they regularly pay the toll in this way, without having been penalized or even knowing that the practice was illegal.
We can even see a certain inconsistency and a law that has not evolved since the relatively recent democratization of mobile payment. In fact, it is difficult to understand how it can be more dangerous to let the phone pass, usually fixed on a support and therefore within reach of the driver, than to search for your bank card for a while in a coat or in a bag on the ground. passenger seat or in the back.
Apparently Vinci Autoroutes was also unaware of this: your website indicated again on Wednesday that it is possible to pay with a smartphone “or another connected object” through the contactless toll reader. A mention that has since been discreetly removedaccording to the conclusions of Tech&Co.
Emmanuel Macron takes up the file
An inconsistency recognized by Emmanuel Macron, who responded personally to this news on Wednesday afternoon on Tiktok.
“I think that in 2025 we should be able to pay the toll with our phone. So I passed the file to the Minister of the Interior and we will resolve it collectively. Thank you for the alert,” indicated the president of the Council. Republic.
Pending a possible modification of the Highway Code, the police should a priori exercise more discernment. But the law currently only allows for very few exceptions.
Just an exception to the rule
In fact, we must now clearly interpret what a “vehicle in circulation” is. “For a stopped car, with the engine off, to be considered ‘in circulation’, it must be in a traffic lane and not in a parking space. Therefore, the driver is penalized from the moment he stops in the public road, regardless of whether it hinders traffic,” notes an article in Le Figaro.
Therefore, it is the place of the stop that makes it possible to determine whether the vehicle is really “in circulation” in the sense of the law, the newspaper adds, citing the Court of Cassation.
With only one exception authorized by the judges: the use of the telephone while driving will be tolerated in the event of a breakdown or accident that causes the vehicle to immobilize on the road.
But we must also take into account the location of this breakdown or accident. On the highway, if conditions permit, you must get out of the vehicle and stand behind the safety barrier.
A situation in which it is also requested to use “exclusively” the orange emergency stop terminals to contact emergency services:
“Don’t call from your cell phone. When you call from these terminals you are in communication with the highway company. These terminals are geolocated and allow you to locate yourself more quickly,” states a practical sheet from the Ministry of Economy.
Source: BFM TV
