Motoring fines from Italy

billie25

Hello all,

A friend visited Pisa in Italy last April and hired a car whilst there. She has recently received 4 fines in total, all for driving in restricted traffic zones without authorization. Three were from a municipal police station in Pisa - these required a signature, which she didn't respond to when delivered in the pre Christmas post and the fourth arrived in the regular post about a week ago from the municipal police in Lucca. My friend never saw anything saying not to drive down these streets and other cars did!! In total the fines come to 721 euros.

Can anyone advise the best course of action on this? Is it possible to appeal? What are the implications of ignoring them? Is there an agreement regarding countries sharing information? Would she encounter any difficulties when visiting Italy again?

Thanks in advance for any help on this.

dazster

I imagine that if she doesn't pay them then the rental company will, and will charge them to her credit card plus a hefty admin fee (which she doubtless agreed to when signing the rental agreement).

Difficult to see how an appeal could be successful if she can't visit the locations to check on signage and so forth.

Never been to Pisa but I have been to Lucca, I can't imagine how anyone could drive around the place willy-nilly. The thing to do is to park outside the walls and walk in, driving in is madness.

Coupon-mad

I don't think there is an agreement between countries but as these came from the Police, I suspect she could find problems if she tries to enter Italy in future.

Might be worth posting on pepipoo as they may have more specific knowledge:

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showforum=5

That is the criminal offences forum which I think would be the place for the query.

billie25

Thanks dazter and Coupon-mad for your responses. Just registered on PePiPoo but it won't allow me to post for some reason - probably my incompetence!! Would you happen to know of any other forums I may try?

Coupon-mad

No but it will let you post when you get an email allowing you to be cleared for posting. Won't take long. Check you spam/junk emails in case it's gone there already.

Redx

most forums require you to click on the link in their activation email before they let you post, so you would get the same problem no matter where you registered

pappa_golf

nice of those Italians to write to you , I know driving on the "wrong" side of the road is hard , and you must have done very well if they went out of their way to tell you your "driving was fine"


the last time I got a letter from Italy was from some bloke muttering about the "damage" I had done to his daughter!


I haven't bothered going back since

DCFC79

pappa_golf wrote: »

nice of those Italians to write to you , I know driving on the "wrong" side of the road is hard , and you must have done very well if they went out of their way to tell you your "driving was fine"

It was nice of the Italians to write to the OP's friend.

pappa_golf

and their friends as well !

Iceweasel

There is a Cross-Border International EU Agreement on traffic offences and fines - 2014 I think it was.

Countries like France and Italy have huge problems with speeding fines in particular - I seem to remember reading somewhere that over 50% of the speeding tickets in the Summer are foreigners who then don't pay when the letters arrive - we Brits are the worst offenders apparently.

As usual the UK (and Ireland and Denmark) didn't like the 2014 agreement and obtained a short-term exemption, so currently any foreign fines are pretty near unenforceable unless something very serious occurred like failing to stop after an accident or causing injury.

But come May 2017 the 3 countries not already implementing the agreement have to conform.

Mr Cameron of course may soon have us exempted for a much longer period.

System

Here is a bit more information though can't see dates.

http://etsc.eu/faq-eu-cross-border-enforcement-directive/

Note the messed up the first attempt as it didn't refer to Road Safety. Wonder if the DVLA will roll over and anyone any EU national's personal data.