France's top lawman caught speeding

Link : http://uk.news.yahoo.com/041018/80/f4si1.html


MARSEILLE, France (Reuters) - France's minister for justice has admitted his car broke the speed limit during national road safety week, but has pleaded innocent because he had been in the back of the chauffeur-driven vehicle at the time.


"I was indeed in the car, but I wasn't driving it," Minister Dominique Perben told a news conference on Monday. "I generally work while on the motorway and it's hard to gauge the speed," he said.


The incident took place on Friday at the end of a week dedicated to road safety promotion in France.


Perben said he had only learned that his car had topped the motorway speed limit of 130 km (80 miles) per hour through the media, which said his government-provided Peugeot 607 had been flashed by police at a speed of 160 kph but not stopped.


"If there was an error, there must be a sanction, whoever the person concerned," Perben said, adding that his chauffeur was a careful driver and that all government chauffeurs had instructions to obey the rules of the road.


Perben is at least the third minister caught out since the conservative government introduced new measures to combat excess speed, which is blamed for around half of France's annual tally of 8,000 road deaths, one of the worst rates in western Europe.


A year ago, Transport Minister Gilles de Robien and then-interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy -- now finance minister -- were caught over the limit as their cars raced to the unveiling of new speed-monitoring radars outside Paris.