Telephone while driving: an instruction asks to generalize the suspension of the license
The simple act of holding your phone in your hand can now result in an administrative suspension of your license, according to a ministerial instruction.
Quick Look
A new ministerial instruction asks prefects to generalize the administrative suspension of licenses for the simple fact of holding one's phone while driving, a measure already tested in Landes.
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Why It Matters
The Highway Code makes the use of the telephone an offense, but few prefects penalize this use with a suspension.
The simple fact of holding your phone in your hand, without this leading to speeding or any other offense, may now result in an administrative suspension of your license. The Highway Code makes it an offense, but in reality, very few prefects sanction this use in itself. The instruction signed jointly by Laurent Nuñez and Marie-Pierre Vedrenne sent on September 29 asks them to generalize the sanction of this offense by applying a duration of suspension decided on a case-by-case basis - in the departments which already apply it, it lasts on average fifteen days.
Marie-Pierre Vedrenne, Minister Delegate to the Interior, responsible for Citizenship, indicates that the system does not only concern repeat drivers here, but “Mr. and Mrs. Everybody”. In Landes, where the system has been applied since November 2025, 300 permits were suspended during the first three months and observed telephone use then fell by 12%, according to the ministry. “You can have a death on your conscience, all because you wanted to send an SMS,” she warns Le Figaro.
Open Questions
- Which departments will apply the measure first?
- What will be the exact average duration of suspensions?
