SHARE
COPY LINK

R

Safety campaign clamps down on speeders

The Swiss government is clamping down on bad drivers with a road safety campaign that will toughen penalties against speeders starting in January.

Safety campaign clamps down on speeders
Image from Swiss highways department campaign (OFROU)

Drivers permits will be suspended for at least two years for motorists caught driving at excessive speeds as part of the “Via sicura” programme adopted by the federal cabinet on Wednesday.

The penalty will apply to drivers who travel at 70 kilometres an hour or more in a 30 km/h zone, at 100 km/h or more in a 50 km/h zone, at 140 km/h or more in an 80 km/h zone  and at 200 km/h or more on autoroutes, where the maximum speed is 120 km/h.

Repeat offenders will lose their licence to drive for life with restoration possible after ten years but only after a favourable psychological report.

Under the new measures, police will be authorized to confiscate the vehicles of drivers involved in excessive speeding to prevent them from repeating such offences.

As of January 1st, the use of radar detectors in vehicles will be banned, in line with legislation already adopted by many European countries.

The programme also raises the minimum age for drivers of animal-drawn vehicles, such as a horse-drawn carriage, to 14 years and establishes a minimum age of six for cyclists on major roads.

The broad outline of the road safety campaign was approved by parliament in June in a bid to make roads and highways safer.

Further measures will be rolled out in 2014 and 2015 in consultation with the cantons.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

R

Former Paris deputy mayor ‘charged with rape’, say sources

A former deputy mayor of Paris accused of sexual harassment by a co-worker was charged on Friday with rape and other sexual assaults, several sources said.

Former Paris deputy mayor 'charged with rape', say sources
Pierre Aidenbaum stands behind Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo at a silent march in honour of a murdered Jewish woman. Photo: Francois Guillot/AFP
Pierre Aidenbaum, 78, stepped down as deputy mayor last month just weeks after another deputy mayor quit due to protests over his links to a known paedophile.
   
He was questioned by a judge on Friday and charged, a source close to the case who refused to be named told AFP.
   
A judicial source, who also wished to remain anonymous, added Aidenbaum had been banned from contacting any victim or witness, and cannot show up at city hall.
   
His lawyer Maud Touitou told AFP Aidenbaum had been “hit hard” by the accusations against him “and the suffering expressed”.
 
   
 
Aidenbaum's resignation last month came after another deputy to Mayor Anne Hidalgo, Christophe Girard, quit in July.
   
Opposition politicians and women's groups had demanded his suspension over ties to Gabriel Matzneff, a writer who has never hidden his preference for sex with adolescent girls and boys.
   
Girard has since himself been accused of sexually abusing a minor in a New York Times report he has vehemently denied.
   
Aidenbaum remains on the city council despite his resignation as deputy mayor, but on Friday Hidalgo asked him to give up his seat “immediately”.
SHOW COMMENTS