So I got back to the UK yesterday to find a letter from Avis, forwarding a nice speeding ticket from the Canton de Vaud police It relates to a day back in March. The police letter is of course in French and doesnt really say anything about what I have to do. The fine is CH180 What do you think, just throw it away? My only concern is that I might have problems renting a car next time Im skiing
If you paid the hire car with credit card I think the fine will be debited automatically from your card. The fine is sent to the registered cars owner, AVIS, I think they'll pass the cost onto you. Ring AVIS and see what they say. Otherwise I wouldn't worry about it too much.
pay it. they will pursue you to the ends of the earth.....btw, there are now 23 speed cameras between geneva airport and verbier, about 160km away, so just put the cruise control on at 130 and forget about it.....
120!, not 130. And as Simon says it's avis matters. But you definitely have to pay it. You weren't speeding that much i see. Last time i received something i had for CHF500.
I know the swiss authorities pursue speeding tickets in neighbouring countries (and vice versa) but I've never heard of UK citizens being followed up. Of couse that doesn't mean it doesn't happen. You could actually ring the swiss consulate in the UK and ask what the procedure is. We did that with the italian consulate here regarding a ticket issued in Italy.
They come after you indeed. A while ago I was asked to come to the local police station here in Belgium. They held me at the bureau for 1,5 hrs and questioned me about a Swiss fine. I drove 110 km/hr where I was allowed 100 km/hr (in the Ferrari). I filled out the forms and received a bill for 90 euro's. I just paid.
The fact is, sometimes they don't follow up. It amazes me they did for the belgian case. I was flashed on french plates many many times in Vaud and it never come back to me. Only the BIG fine eventually came to my mailbox, and it was from Geneve canton. I think there is a matter of cost of procedure vs. amount on the fine. If the procedure is too expensive it might not follow up perhaps, or i am totally wrong and in 4 years i will have surprises in my mailbox.
believe me when i say that you can easily roll at 130 without setting off the cameras...i made the journey from geneva to verbier every weekend from dec through april without getting a ticket.... but when you get to the sections marked 100, then you need to get to 100, those cameras are much more sensitive. also they tend to be in tricky spots in tunnels etc.
Even worse are the cameras through towns...for good reasons. In my Healey I was always 'blitzt' in 50's, the speedo wasn't too accurate. I've had 3 fines for 56, 57 and 59 in a 50. 250 chf each. Ouch. Roadworks on the motorway also have more speed controls than before, speeding in an 80 on the motorway is now very expensive.
You mean my car has been engaged in speeding and reckless behaviour !!!!???? When I got done in the Netherlands in an Avis rental, 3 months later they sent me the speeding ticket together with the slip confirming debiting my credit card. One of those OCR camera readers that reads the licence plates at the beginning and end of a section and calculates the average speed over the distance. Something like 30 Euro fine, 50 Euro administrative charge for being single digit over the limit.
The Swiss are sick when it comes to enforcing speed limits. I can't explain their maniacal obsession in any way other than a pathological obsessive disorder on the part of the Swiss anti-car lobby. It can't be only about safety otherwise they would only pursue serious speeding in truly dangerous places and not go after everyone that goes 1 Km/h above the limit! Fact about the Swiss speed limit lobby: did you know that 1) They proposed to electronically limit all motorbikes to 80 Km/h (proposal was canned after massive demonstrations by thousands of bikers blocking highways by cruising at 80 Km/h on purpose) 2) Every few years they propose to reduce speed limits for cars down to 110, 100 or even 80 Km/h. They tried a reduction to 80Km/h with the excuse of "reducing particulate emissions" during a dry season, with the purpose of extending it indefinitely. It was canned after various papers published scientific data showing that cars were responsible for only 1% of particulate emissions, and an 80 Km/h limit would not have affected the biggest offenders: trucks, tractors, agriculture and heating systems. 3) They wanted to reach "zero casualties" for Switzerland by ruthlessly reducing speed limits (40 in town, 60 out of town, 100 on the highway), by enforcing "big brother" electronic black-box speed limitation on all cars, and by installing thousands of speed cameras and using GPS to track vehicle speeds. The proposal notably did not address the issue of unmanned railroad crossings, which cause more casualties per year in Switzerland than motorway accidents! Fortunately this group of cretins that pass themselves for a "concerned citizens lobby" has been thwarted over and over again. But for how long? Now they are riding the banner of CO2 reduction to fuel their speed limiting obsession...
and they have 500 CHF of mine to play with for going 105kph in an 80 zone. Good job they didn't appear a few minutes earlier, when i was going 180!
last month i had a total of 1300 chf in speeding fines, mostly from the 2 brand new cameras they hid on my route home and back, where i was flashed going 4-7km over the limit for about 6 days, before the fines hit my mail box.....absolute speed nazis. and i will tell you the other major reason they are hell for speeders....money. the main reason for virtually every rule and regulation in this country. dont get me wrong, i love switzerland for a lot of reasons, but it is no longer a place to enjoy motoring...at least we are close to italy
