2020 Road traffic violations annual report

A new version of the report is available, supplemented by the section on the judicial handling of road safety offenses for the years 2019 and 2020.

The ONISR publishes in December 2021 the report of the offenses noted by the police in 2020, and their consequences on the license points. More than 24 million traffic violations have been recorded by national police forces agencies, ANTAI, and municipal police.

Covid-19 pandemic period :
The public authorities confined the population for two periods, from March 16 to May 10 and from October 30 to December 13. Outside these periods, national and/or local curfews have been put in place. During these periods of restriction, business and tourist travel was greatly reduced, as evidenced by the reduction in household fuel consumption.

Break in the series of contraventions and torts (outside automated control) :
For the results of the year 2020, certain changes in the data sources are likely to introduce breaks in the comparisons. Misdemeanors are still provided by police forces, but now include homicide and manslaughter misdemeanors.
As for fines, they are provided by the police for those outside PVe and by the ANTAI (for PVe and CA).
The old data collection framework aggregated types of offenses and did not take into account the entire scope of road safety. This change of aggregate at balance sheet level no longer allows long series to be produced, except for the CA part, the source of which has not been modified. The changes between 2019 and 2020 are therefore calculated on the results of the scope comparable to 2019.
In addition, new offenses created in 2019 and 2020 have been integrated.

In 2020, 2,780 people were killed on the roads of France (including overseas) (French Road Safety Observatory – final data), this figure, 21 % lower than that of 2019, is historically low. This development is largely explained by the effects of the global Covid-19 pandemic. This result must nevertheless be put into perspective with the halving of the number of fatalities between 2000 and 2010 and the drop of -18.1 % between 2010 and 2019. The reduction in the number of victims on our roads is partly linked to the police forces activities combined with the point-based permit system introduced in 1992.

In 2020, just over 24 million traffic violations were recorded. This includes 5.8 million troublesome or unsafe parking violations.

  • In particular, the municipal police have recorded 5.9 million offenses in Electronic Verbal Report (PVe), of which 4.8 million relate to annoying or dangerous parking.
  • The overall volume of offences recorded by the police, national gendarmerie and by the automated control system (CA) is 18,190,650 offences in 2020. Among these offences, 17,818,861 offences are to be compared to 18,190,878 of 2019, i.e. -2.4 %.

Excluding municipal policies and on an equivalent scope

The number of traffic offenses excluding homicides or unintentional injuries (584,714) decreased in 2020 (-10.7 %). The proportion of misdemeanors represents 3.2 % of all offences. For some types of offences, this is the first decrease after five years of increases. However, certain offenses continue to increase, in particular “speeding” offenses with +15.3 %.

The number of parking fines (1,067,559) is significantly reduced compared to 2017 since only dangerous parking offenses remain. Among these fines, 741,331 are to be compared to the 1,173,666 fines recorded in 2019, a decrease of -36.8%. In 2020, all parking fines represent 6.1% of all fines.
Since 2018 the offence of non-payment for inconvenient parking has been transformed into a post-parking package, a fee due to the community for the occupation of public space.

In 2020, the number of non-parking fines was 16,536,033. Of these offences, 16,491,617 are to be compared to 16,436,868 in 2019, i.e. a slight increase of +0.3 %.

The main offenses noted by police forces and automated control

13.3 million speeding offenses were recorded in 2020, i.e. + 3.0%. This increase is a return to the values ​​of 2018 following the drop in 2019, partly due to the vandalism of the automated control system and the reorganization of the activity of the police during the social unrest at the beginning of the year. 2019.

Contraventional blood alcohol levels (greater than or equal to 0.8 g/l of blood or 0.40 mg/l of exhaled air) fell by -12.2% with 101,307 offences, still representing 17.3 % of misdemeanors.

Contraventional blood alcohol levels (less than 0.8 g/l of blood or 0.40 mg/l of exhaled air) accounted for 42,027 contraventions in 2020. Among these contraventions, 41,914 are to be compared to 61,362 in 2019, i.e. a decrease of -31.7 %. 3,820 fines were issued for blood alcohol levels between 0.2 and 0.5 g/l for holders of probationary licenses or public transport vehicles.

The drop in "alcohol" offences can be linked to the various curfews put in place as well as the closure of places of festivity during the year 2020.

Verbalization of vehicle driving after illegal drug use (or refusal to undergo screening) increased with 82,127 offences recorded (+ 5.1 %) in 2020, i.e. 14.0% of offences.

12.9 million offences were recorded by the automated control system (CA), i.e. an increase of +0.3 million.

 

Document development context

Also, this document first of all produces a report of the offenses recorded by the national police and gendarmerie forces in 2020 as well as those of the Paris surveillance agents (ASP) for stopping and parking offenses. The activity of the municipal police will not be counted with the above-mentioned offenses but analyzed separately. This document then provides an assessment of the impact of offenses on the points-based driving licence.

The source of the data is changing, now only data concerning non-PVe offenses are transmitted by the law enforcement departments: the General Directorate of the National Gendarmerie (DGGN), the Central Directorate of Republican Security Companies (DCCRS) , the Central Directorate of Public Security (DCSP), the Paris Police Headquarters (PPP).

The data concerning the offenses recorded via the PVe and those relating to the automated control are provided by the National Agency for the Automated Processing of Offenses (ANTAI). This method allowed us to update the list of offenses at a more detailed level, in particular by type of vehicle.

In addition, this report includes a summary analysis of PVe data for municipal police, transmitted by ANTAI. They are presented separately from the offence data reported by the national police forces.

Since January 1, 2018, the paid parking offense is no longer officially a sanction. It is now a fee due to local authorities for the occupation of public space called "Forfait de Post Parking" (FPS) for which a notice of payment (APA) is sent (see Appendix 1). The number of offenses reported by the national police forces is therefore significantly reduced. There were 3,093,933 in 2017.

National data on presumed perpetrators of fatal accidents (APAM) are sent to ONISR each month by the prefectures. These data, declined and used locally by the departments, constitute an additional tool for adapting the local policy to combat road insecurity.

The figures of the demerit point were communicated by the National Office of Driving Rights managed by the Road Safety Delegation (DSR/ERPC).
The demerit point system in France was instituted by law n° 89-469 of July 10, 1989 relating to various provisions in terms of road safety and fines. It entered into force on July 1, 1992, when road insecurity caused more than 9,000 deaths each year.
The demerit point constitutes a privileged instrument of the system of prevention and fight against road insecurity. Decisions to withdraw points are recorded in the computer files of the National Driving License System (SNPC) regulatory application, placed under the authority of the Minister of the Interior (National Office for Driving Rights).

Data on road safety convictions and penalties were communicated to ONISR by the Ministry of Justice (Statistical Service).

Finally, the data relating to violations of the Road code were communicated to ONISR by the Ministry responsible for transport (Sub-directorate of road transport).