2019 Road traffic violations annual report

In 2019, more than 26 million traffic violations were reported by national police forces, ANTAI, and municipal police.

Beware, since 2018 several million parking violations (those concerning not paying the car park fee) have become a "post-parking fee" and are no longer accounted as violations.

In 2019, 3,498 people were killed on the roads of France (including overseas territories) (Observatoire National Interministériel de la Sécurité Routière - final data), i.e. +0.3% compared with 2018. This result must nevertheless be put into perspective with the halving of the number of people killed between 2000 and 2010 and the 18.1% drop since 2010. The reduction in the number of victims on our roads is partly due to the law enforcement activity combined with the points-based driving licence system introduced in 1992.

In 2019, just over 26 million traffic violations were recorded. This includes 8 million annoying and/or dangerous parking offences.

  • In particular, the municipal police have recorded 7.4 million offences in electronic penalty notices (PVe), of which 6.2 million concern annoying and/or dangerous parking.

 

Excluding municipal police violations and on an equivalent basis :

 

the overall volume of offences recorded by the police, the national gendarmerie and the automated control system (CA) is 18,265,268 offences in 2019, compared with 19,712,188 in 2018, i.e. -7%.


The number of traffic crimes (654,734) will increase in 2019 (+4.0%). Offences represent 3.6% of all offences. For some types of offence, this is the fourth year of increase, reflecting a hardening of certain types of criminal behaviour (notably drug use, +23.3% and hit-and-run offences after accidents, +7.4%).


The number of parking tickets (1,173,666) is down sharply compared to 2017, with only dangerous parking offences remaining, and down (- 2.8%) compared to 2018. This type of ticket represents 6.7% of all parking tickets in 2019. Since 2018, the offence of non-payment for parking has been transformed into a post-parking fee, a charge owed to the community for the occupation of public space.


The number of contraventions excluding parking tickets (16,436,868) decreased by -8.0%.

Focus

12.9 million speeding violations were recorded in 2019, down 9.8%. This sharp drop is partly due to vandalism of the automated control system and a reorganisation of law enforcement activity during the social movements at the beginning of 2019.


Alcohol -related crimes (greater than or equal to 0.8 g/l of blood or 0.40 mg/l of exhaled air or more) is down -4.8% with 115,385 offences, still representing 17.6% of offences.
The contraventional blood alcohol level (less than 0.8 g/l of blood or 0.40 mg/l of exhaled air) decreases by - 14.0% compared to 2018, with 61,362 contraventions in 2019. 6,064 citations were issued for BACs between 0.2 and 0.5 g/l for probationary licence holders or driver of public transport vehicles.


The number of tickets for driving after drug use (or refusing to submit to screening) continues to rise, with 78,137 offences recorded (+23.3%) in 2019, i.e. 11.9% of offences, and is constantly increasing with increasing involvement by the police in this area.


12.6 million offences were recorded by the automated control system , representing a decrease of 1.5 million.

 

Context for the construction of the annual report

 

This document first of all assesses the offences recorded by the national police and gendarmerie forces in 2018 as well as those of the Paris Surveillance Officers (ASP) for offences against stops and parking lots. The activity of municipal police forces will not be counted with the above-mentioned offences but analysed separately. This document then proposes an assessment of the impact of infringements on the driving license demerit point system.

The figures on infringements were transmitted by 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), and finally by the National Agency for Automated Processing of Offences (ANTAI). This report includes a summary analysis of the PVe data for municipal police, transmitted by ANTAI. They are presented separately from the offence data collected by national law enforcement agencies.

Important note : Since January 1, 2018, the infringement for unpaid parking fee is no longer officially a sanction. This is now a charge due to local authorities for the occupation of public space called "Post Parking Fee" for which a payment advice note is sent (see Annex 0). The number of offences detected by police forces is therefore significantly reduced. There were 3,093,933 in 2017.

National data on alleged perpetrators of fatal accidents (APAM) are transmitted to ONISR each month by the prefectures. These data, which are used locally by the local level, are an additional tool for adapting local policy to combat road safety.

The figures on the point licence were provided by the National Driving Rights Office managed by the Delegation for Road Safety (DSR/ERPC).

The driving license demerit point system was introduced in France by Act No. 89-469 of 10 July 1989 on various road safety provisions and contraventions. It entered into force on 1 July 1992, when road safety caused more than 9,000 deaths each year. The points-based permit is a key instrument in the prevention and control of road safety. Decisions to withdraw points are recorded in the computer files of the National Driving Licence System (SNPC) regulatory application, placed under the authority of the Minister of the Interior (National Bureau of Driving Rights).

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

Finally, data relating to breaches of the transport code were communicated to ONISR by the Ministry of Ecological and Solidarity Transition (Road Transport Sub-Directorate)