Every year, thousands of motorists who have committed a serious offense or who have caused a serious accident cannot escape alternative penalties and are sentenced to imprisonment. In which specific cases and for how long? Answers.
According to still provisional statistics from the Ministry of Justice, 192,914 motorists were convicted in 2020 of having committed a serious driving offense, or after having caused an accident with homicide or unintentional injuries. By serious offence, we mean traffic offenses judged essentially by the correctional courts, which concern non-compliance with the rules of conduct in terms of alcohol or narcotics, an offense “papers” (driving without a license or insurance), a refusal to comply, to which are added the fines of 5and class as major speeding without recidivism which can also go through the police courts (not counted here).
The top 10 most serious grounds for conviction in 2020
- Driving in an alcoholic state (at the criminal rate of 0.8g/l and more): 68,471
- Driving while using narcotics: 43,546
- Driving while suspended: 25,193
- Driving without a licence: 24,050
- Lack of insurance: 9,739
- Refusal to comply: 6,307
- Unintentional injuries per driver: 3,645
- Hit and run: 3,582
- Heavy speeding: 2,218
- Faulty plates or false plates: 1,275
Nearly 18,000 sentenced to prison!
Of the 192,914 convictions, the penalties imposed obviously vary according to the seriousness of the offence. The most severe, those sanctioned by imprisonment, concern a small quarter of them (45,717 exactly). In the lot, 61% of the authors nevertheless get away with a total or probationary reprieve (measure implemented in March 2020). For the remaining 39%, 14,758 were sentenced to imprisonment and 3,170 to a partial and probationary reprieve in most cases: the prison sentence was suspended on condition that the obligations and prohibitions set by the court.
Proportionally, it is for driving without a license that the judges have the heaviest hand: of the 24,050 convicted, 5,811 are sentenced to imprisonment, a large half (56%) with a firm sentence or with partial suspension. Identical proportion concerning the refusal to comply, followed by the lack of plates (47%), the hit and run (38%), driving after using narcotics (35%) or alcohol (33%). The authors of homicide or injuries, them, escape more prison, since it is about involuntary acts. Except in the presence of alcohol or drugs at the time of the accident: only 27% of the authors of a manslaughter are imprisoned if they were fasting, while this rate jumps to 62% in the event of drunkenness.
5 months in prison on average for an offense
Whatever the traffic offence, the prison sentences handed down are quite similar, varying from 4.1 months for driving without a license to 6.8 for refusing to comply. Provided it is a single offence. If several are noted at the same time, the addition increases on average by five months compared to the main cause. Concretely: one month extra only in the event of false license plates (i.e. 6 months in total), but five more for driving while intoxicated (5.4) and even seven for refusing to comply (7.5 month).
As for the sentences pronounced in the event of homicide, they are much heavier: on average 24 months, and even 27.7 if other offenses are added. And in the event of injury, it is 8.4 months, or even 14.9 in the presence of alcohol and even 17.8 with the accumulation of other offences. It should be noted that the DDSE (home detention under electronic surveillance) set up in March 2020 with probationary suspension, replacing penal constraint, only benefited 240 people.
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Clear majority of alternative sentences
More than three quarters of the approximately 193,000 convictions do not include any imprisonment, the judges preferring to draw from the impressive arsenal of alternative decisions which can be added up. Thus, 123,416 offenders were fined, 36,031 were given alternative or educational penalties, to which additional measures were added for 145,537. In the end, only 256 were released from punishment.
These 2020 statistics of traffic offenses do not specifically detail the penal compositions (penalties pronounced without recourse to a trial), the penal orders (judgments without a hearing) and the CRPC (appearance on prior recognition of guilt). But a detailed study covering the year 2018 showed that these three procedures represented 74% of criminal decisions.
Less than €400 fine
The price range is quite narrow, varying from €341 for a lack of insurance or €350 for driving under the influence of narcotics and up to €459 for driving despite a license suspension or €422 for a lack of plates.
But the amounts are a little decreasing in the event of “associated penalties” (respectively 167, 299, 352 and 392 €)… Affecting almost two thirds of the convicted, the fine is the preferred solution for certain offenses such as excessive speeding (95% of authors), lack of insurance (92%) or, to a lesser extent, driving without a license (63%). But it will often be combined with other decisions, including the suspension of a license.
Day fines and license suspensions
On the 36,000 motorists sentenced to alternative or educational measures, a third received day-fines (imprisonment converted into a number of daily fines fixed by the court according to the offense and income), 17% of a suspension of license (in particular driving under the empire of alcohol or drugs), 7% of work of general interest, to which are added 648 driving bans, 187 confiscations of the vehicle used, 478 educational measures. But there are also 145,537 authors of “additional measures”, which are in fact the same punishments as the previous ones. Half of them were thus hit with a license suspension, 10% with a driving ban, 4% with vehicle confirmation, etc.
Up to four and a half years of waiting for judgment
Convictions for serious offenses were pronounced after proceedings ranging from a good six months on average to more than a year. The fastest cases to be tried concern excessive speeding (6.6 months), the simplest cases of alcoholism (7 months) thanks to the establishment of hearings entirely dedicated to this question in the criminal courts, narcotics courts (7.8), driving despite a license suspension (8.1 ), refusals to comply (8.3). Conversely, those that take the longest concern hit-and-runs (13.7 months), insurance defects (11.4), license plate defects (9.8). And when it comes to injuries or, worse, homicide, the delays fly away, ranging from a minimum of 12.7 months to 56.5 months (on average)!
