Hello,
I am driving a car with USA plates in Switzerland, and got flashed by a speed camera going 67 km/h in a 50 km/h.
I have three questions:
Will I receive the speeding ticket in the USA? If so, how do they know who to send it to?
How long should I expect it to take to receive the ticket?
Thanks!
If your speedometer read 67, I hope that the camera registered 65 or less, because going 15+ above the limit in a built-up area where you'd typically find 50 speed limits is a criminal offense in Switzerland that involves a court summons. In which case, the authorities might go into the trouble of trying to find you. For a simple "fine", it feels unlikely, but you never know.
Do you plan to register the car in the EU or have you already? Did you have to fill out any paperwork with the Swiss government or any EU country to bring the car in?
If the answers to the above are "no," it's possible you won't get anything.
The Swiss Authorities would have to contact the state where you car is registered to get information. While U.S, states share car registration information, I'm not sure how likely they would do that for a foreign country for something as minor as a traffic violation. Or how likely Switzerland would even bother.
But they might. Only time will tell. But I wouldn't lose sleep over this.
I'm not sure how likely they would do that for a foreign country for
something as minor as a traffic violation.
Speeding is not something minor in Switzerland. I've never had to deal with it myself but on wikivoyage you can read this:
"In Switzerland, speeding is not a violation of a traffic code but a legal offence. If you fail to comply there is a good chance that an international rogatory will be issued and you have to go to court in your home country. This is enforced by most countries, including all of Europe, United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and many countries in South America and Asia. Failure to comply can result in a warrant being issued for your arrest by your home country."
Speeding is not a major crime in the US. The courts cannot take away a citizens rights just because a foreign government wants that.
The Swiss government is not going to waste time and thousands of Francs on going after something like this. I would think they have more pressing issues than a guy who went 2 KPM over the limit.
I can see the headlines now.."American Tourist extradited to Switzerland to face speeding charge." Will he get life in prison?
Talk about bad publicity.
An international rogatory is basically a request of one government to another to get evidence. It can not be done directly. It usually has to go through the country's diplomatic department (US Department of State.) This can take forever. Then the State Department would have to contact the actual US state to get information. The state could then refuse.
This could take months. And then the OP would not stand trial in the US. He would have to be extradited to Switzerland.
For going 2 KPH over the speed limit? And no proof that the OP was actually driving? He could have lent the car that day to someone.
bad arithmetic somewhere. How does one get 67 minus 50 equals 2? OP was speeding by 34 percent. In a residential area.
Wouldn't some government entity over there already have ownership information, in order to allow you to import and drive a vehicle with US plates there?
There will have been a photo of the driver taken to avoid lying. Lying and then being caught out is usually a more serious offence than the speeding.
You can't bring a car into Europe without a paper trail. Just sayin'...
This may well be a sincere post, but it is very unusual for a first and only post.
Apparently you can import a vehicle into the EU without having to complete all the paperwork that is required if you keep the vehicle in the EU for over 180 days. This topic has come up on the forum before. Here is one of the threads:
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/transportation/taking-our-car-to-europe-for-a-90-day-trip.
I wonder what kind of insurance the driver has for that vehicle? Also, the port where vehicle arrived in the EU will have a record of its entry. Now in what database will it housed? Can all countries access the database. In this day and age I would believe that the Swiss authorities can track both the driver and vehicle down. Now what they can do is another issue.
Letters rogatory are not the expensive, time-consuming process suggested above. In my 26 years of working for a federal judge, we received only one letter rogatory, and we thought it was kind of fun to handle. The letter came directly from the foreign court to our (federal) court, and was a simple (but formal) request for the taking of evidence by our court, and transmitting an official transcript to the foreign court. It was handled within a short time (weeks).
There was no extradition involved, nor would there be in the OP’s case of a speeding ticket. I doubt the Swiss authority would even use the letter rogatory process for this matter.
if the car actually has USA plates rather than plates from a state, I would imagine that the base commander would be dealing with it if the OP doesn't, unless they are USA - CD plates when a different authority would.
Wasn't that explained at the time of your transfer?
This may well be a sincere post, but it is very unusual for a first and only post.
I agree - especially since the OP has yet to make a second appearance.
his may well be a sincere post, but it is very unusual for a first and only post.
I agree - especially since the OP has yet to make a second appearance.
When the above was posted, only ~10 hrs had elapsed since the OP appeared.
Perhaps OP has last minute Christmas prep and a job to work into his schedule rather than unlimited free time to sit a watch for the pearls of wisdom that appear here.. Give the guy a break, EVERYONE was a 1st time poster once.
Merry Christmas to all
I’m joining the bandwagon. Someone’s first post in a Rick Steves forum is some guy asking advice about how he can be found after speeding 17 kmh over the speed limit in a vehicle with US plates presumably his somewhere in Switzerland. This reeks of BS.
Wel, Joe, the OP is supposedly in Switzerland ( he says he IS driving, not was) - 6 hours ahead of me in EST time zone. So it is now late evening there. And no response since the initial post 12 hours ago. Hmmm worthy.
