3,000 fines in 50 days: this new radar has been installed on a famous holiday route and is flashing tourists

With 3,000 flashes already in less than two months, a new radar installed on a famous avenue is shaping up to be one of the summer's traps for tourists and reckless drivers.

This will undoubtedly be one of the "serial-flashing" radars of the summer. Since May 27th, motorists using a well-known coastal road have become familiar with it, but this new radar is nevertheless attracting flashes and fines. It was installed just before the summer, but the Alpes-Maritimes prefecture assured Actu.fr at the time that this mobile radar was intended to be moved randomly along this road.

The installation of this device responds to a long-standing request made by the Mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi, to combat road insecurity on this particularly accident-prone avenue. However, it is clear that many motorists do not yet seem to have taken this rule into account. This is evidenced by the 3,000 flashes recorded by the device in less than two months, an impressive figure reported to the authorities by France Info on July 17.

Because while the axis with its 2x3 lanes may resemble a highway in the heart of the city, the speed limit is indeed 50 km/h. "When we are there for an hour, we have around 10 vehicles recorded with excessive speeding and, subsequently, driving license suspensions for a good number of them," explained Aurélie Lebourgeois, chief of staff of the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department, interviewed by France Info.

This road is the famous Promenade des Anglais in Nice, a road known worldwide for its magnificent view of the Riviera, but which has also seen its share of road accidents in recent months. Since 2023, 15 people have lost their lives on this road, including a 41-year-old firefighter, Jérémie Boulon, who was hit head-on a year ago by a speeding car.

An alarming situation that has prompted the authorities to toughen up penalties: from now on, any speeding exceeding 50 km/h over the limit will result in the offender being taken into custody. On July 16, an additional speed check yielded some alarming figures: in two hours, according to France Info, 95 cars were checked, 45 tickets issued, notably for speeding, with four license suspensions as a result.

Even before the tourist-packed month of August, this radar has already largely proven the merits of its installation, according to the authorities. A quick reminder if you're going to be there in the next few days: on the Promenade des Anglais, the speed limit is 50 km/h maximum throughout the entire stretch.