Speeding Fine arrived by registered post from Swiss police

[newirishman]

"Visiting home once a year" is not enough. Here's the detailed rules: http://www.revenue.ie/en/tax/vrt/leaflets/temporary-exemption-foreign-registered.html
Guards and Revenue tend to interpret the rules towards having to register the car in Ireland, they usually get away with it, and there's quite some fines associated. Also, your insurance policy might require special provisioning if you drive outside the country of registration beyond usually 30 days.

Reg. the OP: Switzerland has some of the highest fines in place. You either pay up or you will have trouble getting into Switzerland next time, plus potential criminal record. And one has to say the system works as people tend to abide by the laws, something that is absolutely lacking in Ireland.

EDIT: and no, you don't have a right under Swiss law to get the fine in English. Even under EU law, it is linked to the location of the registered holder of the car.
http://etsc.eu/faq-eu-cross-border-enforcement-directive/
Given rental cars are usually registered in the country, you might not get a fine in your own language (you have to get one in English / Irish if you drive your Irish car in the EU though).

 

[mathepac]

Sorry, typo "especially those with foreign plates". This gets the LAs and Revenue interested.

 

[Jim2007]

€620 is pretty high by our standards!

But the thing is he was not in Ireland and ignorance of the law is no excuse.

The link I posted earlier details the escalating scale of fines in place.

The link you posted is a broad summary of the federal rules. It does not take account of the Kanton (county) and community variations. Also, we don't have enough information to determine how the fine was calculated. We'd need to know exactly where the offence(s) occurred to figure out the exact fine.

 

[Jim2007]

Reg. the OP: Switzerland has some of the highest fines in place. You either pay up or you will have trouble getting into Switzerland next time, plus potential criminal record.

It is not just Switzerland, you can assume that they will share this information with other foreign agencies such as the US etc... So things like visa and visa waiver applications could become problematic!

 

[Jim2007]

On the Garda following fines:, a friend of mine who lives in NI was caught speeding in the south, was stopped and his details taken, the guard told him he would receive a fine in the post however if he didn’t pay there was nothing he could do & he wouldn’t be followed.

Apparently there is at least one startup in the US who are trying to buy such debt and follow up on it! It seems they have already bought some old Italian speeding fines and are chasing the yanks about it

 

[SirMille]

The ticket states the location of the Camera that caught you.
This link gives you a fine calculation table
[broken link removed]

 

[SirMille]

I am guessing you were caught twice outside built up areas doing between 16-20kph, and once doing between 11-15kph.

Any faster and you would have received a summons.

 

[mathepac]

From SirMille link above:

"Repeat offences
If you are caught speeding repeatedly, you will be banned from driving for a much longer period. In the case of excessive speeding violations, you will be banned from driving until it has been decided whether to permanently disqualify you. In addition, you will be assessed by a psychologist to see whether you are fit to drive."

What are the chances it could happen here?

 

[Horatio]

[broken link removed]

It's all there, warts 'n all

 

[Horatio]

Hi all

Went for a 4 day skiing trip with my son driving from Zurich into Austria
in a Hertz car but we went a blistering 23kmph over the speed limit
and I received 4 weeks later yeaterday, wait for it, a 647 Swiss Franc (620 Euro)
penalty notice from the Swiss Police and wait for it again, by registered post.

I already noticed a 45 euro "admin charge" on my credit card from Hertz for this and assumed
that was the fine and the end of it.

Clearly this is an outrageously extreme amount of money beyond belief really and
wanted to know how do I avoid paying this or appeal and pay
just what you would expect like 70 euro or something.

Note, the letter is German and I can't even read it and a quick google
tells me I can request it to be in English under EU Law.

Obviously I am on this section of the forum to ask any consumer advice with regard to ignoring
this slightly stressful letter and not get extradited to Switzerland for being a bold boy !

were you speeding in a built up area?

 

[Cervelo]

EDIT: and no, you don't have a right under Swiss law to get the fine in English. Even under EU law, it is linked to the location of the registered holder of the car.
http://etsc.eu/faq-eu-cross-border-enforcement-directive/
Given rental cars are usually registered in the country, you might not get a fine in your own language (you have to get one in English / Irish if you drive your Irish car in the EU though).

Just wondering if I got a speeding ticket in France does this rule mean I will get a ticket in English and Irish or is the Irish part something I would have to request ??

 

[SirMille]

In addition, you will be assessed by a psychologist to see whether you are fit to drive."

What are the chances it could happen here?

I have received an embarrassing quantity of speeding tickets and it hasn't happened to me, yet.

Three tickets is nothing to worry about.

 

[newirishman]

Just wondering if I got a speeding ticket in France does this rule mean I will get a ticket in English and Irish or is the Irish part something I would have to request ??

You'd probable get ticket in English as it is an official language for Ireland. But you might get an Irish version as well/instead. don't think it is clear cut.

 

[Leper]

Punishment should fit the crime, but in this instance the fine is over €600.00. OK! its the law in Switzerland, but the fine is too much for the over speeding. Nobody was hurt. If it were me, I wouldn't pay the fine and I think I could suffer not visiting Switzerland again. I don't see the Swiss police sending an APB to every Irish Garda station or pursuing extradition. This appears to be a speeding offence not a premeditated murder.

 

[Jim2007]

You'd probable get ticket in English as it is an official language for Ireland. But you might get an Irish version as well/instead. don't think it is clear cut.

The official language is Irish and our diplomatic language is French. The U.K. is the only EU state opting for English.... One can only assume that after BREXIT English will be added in some way or other... The alternative is that we'll all need to improve our Irish!

 

[Jim2007]

If it were me, I wouldn't pay the fine and I think I could suffer not visiting Switzerland again. I don't see the Swiss police sending an APB to every Irish Garda station or pursuing extradition.

It does not really matter what you see or don't see... The best advice remains to pay the fine ASAP to avoid a significantly higher fine and a criminal record, because that will end up being published by the Swiss authorities under their security cooperation agreements. That would mean that visa free travel to the US would no longer be an option for the OP for example!

 

[PMU]

The official language is Irish and our diplomatic language is French.

Not exactly correct. Under Art 8 of Bunreacht na hÉireann "1. The Irish language as the national language is the first official language. 2. The English language is recognised as a second official language.". So you could get the ticket in English. But this throws up an interesting point. The directive says that Member States should consider sending the letter concerning road-safety-related traffic offences in the language of the registration documents, or in the language most likely to be understood by the person concerned, but our registration document, i.e. the Teastas Cláraite, is in both English and Irish. So in which language will the letter be sent? Or it might just be better not to commit any of the road-safety-related traffic offences that come within the scope of the directive.

 

[Jim2007]

Not exactly correct. Under Art 8 of Bunreacht na hÉireann "1. The Irish language as the national language is the first official language. 2. The English language is recognised as a second official language.". So you could get the ticket in English. But this throws up an interesting point. The directive says that Member States should consider sending the letter concerning road-safety-related traffic offences in the language of the registration documents, or in the language most likely to be understood by the person concerned, but our registration document, i.e. the Teastas Cláraite, is in both English and Irish. So in which language will the letter be sent? Or it might just be better not to commit any of the road-safety-related traffic offences that come within the scope of the directive.

I was talking about the official languages selected by the EU states. Only the U.K. selected English. English is clearly needed in the EU so the present arrangement will need to change after BREXIT otherwise there will be no requirement to produce documentation in English. Either Malta or Ireland need to opt for English or more likely it will be added as a global opinion of some kind.

Of course the next question will be which English.... and then whether or not the EU still enforces the requirement that all translators are EU citizens. Bad news for the Brits if they do, good news perhaps for the Americans, Aussies etc if they don't.

 

[mathepac]

but Switzerland isn't an EU State ...

 

[Cervelo]

Punishment should fit the crime, but in this instance the fine is over €600.00. OK! its the law in Switzerland, but the fine is too much for the over speeding.

I don't know about anybody else but I'd rather a large fine and no penalty points then a smaller fine and 3+ penalty points on my licence for the next 3 years??