French woman fined €90 for driving in flip-flops
France’s drive to cut down the number of road accidents saw a woman fined €90 at the weekend, when she was caught driving in flip flops. She complained the fine was worth the same as a pair of shoes.
The woman was snared as she drove along a country road near the south western city of Toulouse.
“They stopped me to check my papers and looked in the car to check everything was in order,” the women told local newspaper La Dépêche du Midi.
“It was a female police officer who stopped me. I opened the door and she noticed my feet and said to me: “I am obliged to give you a fine. You are not allowed to drive with these kind of shoes, that are not attached to the feet.”
The victim said she thought it was a joke at first but was told by the officer that the rules were part of a new raft of driving regulations brought in on July 1st, that also saw the use of headphones banned in cars.
“I really thought she was joking. But no. I left with a €90 fine – the price of a pair of shoes,” she said.
A specialist lawyer in the motor industry told Metro News that driving with flip-flops on is not absolutely forbidden according to French law, but that it could be open to interpretation as they could be considered as something that could impede the driver.
In France the article R412-6 says that drivers must always be in a position to carry out all manoeuvres without delay and that the driver’s mobility and field of vision must not be reduced by any objects they are holding.
This has meant that fines have been handed out to people caught eating sandwiches, smoking or even putting make-up on.
In March 2014 a court in Corsica effectively ruled that it was forbidden to drive in high heels.
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The woman was snared as she drove along a country road near the south western city of Toulouse.
“They stopped me to check my papers and looked in the car to check everything was in order,” the women told local newspaper La Dépêche du Midi.
“It was a female police officer who stopped me. I opened the door and she noticed my feet and said to me: “I am obliged to give you a fine. You are not allowed to drive with these kind of shoes, that are not attached to the feet.”
The victim said she thought it was a joke at first but was told by the officer that the rules were part of a new raft of driving regulations brought in on July 1st, that also saw the use of headphones banned in cars.
“I really thought she was joking. But no. I left with a €90 fine – the price of a pair of shoes,” she said.
A specialist lawyer in the motor industry told Metro News that driving with flip-flops on is not absolutely forbidden according to French law, but that it could be open to interpretation as they could be considered as something that could impede the driver.
In France the article R412-6 says that drivers must always be in a position to carry out all manoeuvres without delay and that the driver’s mobility and field of vision must not be reduced by any objects they are holding.
This has meant that fines have been handed out to people caught eating sandwiches, smoking or even putting make-up on.
In March 2014 a court in Corsica effectively ruled that it was forbidden to drive in high heels.
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