Ministers Fall Into Magazine's Speed Trap

A French motoring magazine caught the transport and interior ministers speeding on their way to a press conference to launch the first automatic radar traps on French motorways.

Auto-Plus magazine said it had used a portable radar to clock the official cars of the transport minister, Gilles de Robien, and the interior minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, at 98kph (61mph) and 103kph respectively on a section of the RN20 dual carriageway south of Paris where the limit is 70kph.

Mr Sarkozy's office declined all comment on the incident. Mr de Robien's staff told French radio that the minister was awaiting the proof of the offence, but would not seek to dodge his responsibility.

"The fact that he was late that day and was also escorted by motorcycle outriders is no excuse," the minister's spokesman said.

"No one can be above the highway code, certainly not the transport minister. For him, as for a great many other people, bad habits have not yet changed."

Last year, President Jacques Chirac, launching a road safety drive backed by stiffer penalties and far more police, called France's 8,000 annual road deaths a "national disgrace". Ordinary citizens, at least, have taken heed: the numbers to have died in their cars has fallen by 1,500 over the past 12 months.