The Highway Code is clear: stopping, parking and driving on the emergency lane are strictly prohibited, except in cases of absolute necessity. And in these situations?…
Stopping, parking and driving on an emergency lane is strictly prohibited by the Highway Code, except in cases of “absolute necessity”. According to Article R.412-8, the driver is liable to a class 4 fine, or 135 euros, with three points deducted, and is exposed to an additional penalty of suspension of his driving license. These emergency lanes are in fact reserved for police and gendarmerie vehicles, fire trucks and SAMU, tow trucks, as well as all emergency vehicles that need to arrive as quickly as possible at the scene of care. Motorists who encounter a medical emergency, who have a breakdown or who have just been in an accident obviously park on the side of the highway.
However, these clear rules are not always respected, since we often see motorists driving there simply to save a few minutes of time in traffic jams or for reasons that do not really seem to correspond to emergencies.. “I see more and more cars parked on the emergency lanes for an urgent need“, Marie, 37, tells us.
Conversely, some situations can be confusing. If the driver can wait until the next motorway service station to go to the toilet, what should he do if he feels drowsy, or if there is a bee in the passenger compartment of the vehicle, making driving dangerous? What if the baby in the back vomits or if our child unbuckles his seat belt? “This is also a matter for the police to assess.” who would pass where the vehicle stopped, confirms Road Safety, which specifies the cases where case law has already recognized a stop as “absolute necessity” without penalizing parking on the emergency lane.
This was the case, for example, in February 2016, when the driver stopped there after hearing “a suspicious noise from his vehicle”. “Such a check appears appropriate, given the uncertainty in which the driver found himself, and the risk of causing a serious accident following a possible mechanical incident. Under these conditions, the decision to stop on the emergency lane meets the notion of absolute necessity contained in Article R 427-7, and no fault can be attributed.” Other permitted reasons include car sickness, especially when the driver’s child was about to vomit in the car.