It is almost certain that the recently reconvened CNSR ( Conseil National de Securite Routiere) are redoubling their efforts to reduce the number of fatalities caused by such accidents by clamping down on the helmet reflective sticker law. Gueant's law was scrapped by Manuel Valls on 1st Jan this year because it was unworkable and the FFMC campaign proved it is was useless. A lot of riders have been killed by passing traffic in poor visibility or at night as they have not been easily seen due to the usual dark clothing favoured by bikers. One of the reasons that Claude Gueant introduced the retro reflective material law in 2012 ( now scrapped),as an adjunct to the 2000 helmet law, was to help highlight the presence of a rider who might be down off his/her bike in the road after an accident/fall. This is a link to the recent reminder by the FFMC (in French) about the law, and it also gives the detail of the required size of reflective stickers. The reason this is relevant now is that since the scrapping of the retro reflective material law at the beginning of the year, the Parisian Gendarmerie have been very active with the Helmet homologation requirements, and helmets not considered correct ( ie without stickers) can get you a €135 on the spot fine. Their legal co-ordinator wrote back to me yesterday to confirm that France does apply this law to all riders in and visiting France, although to their knowledge no visiting rider has yet been cautioned or fined.
There have been some concerned questions about whether this law effects visiting riders, so in my capacity as legal moderator on a French based English speaking biker forum, I asked the question to the FFMC ( Federation Francaise de Motards en Colere). France was the only country to sign up to this, but it is mandated in France that all helmets must carry these stickers, and that any helmet not carrying them is considered NOT homologated. Annexed to this was a voluntary requirement to attach reflecting stickers to the helmet.
Some time ago ( 2000) the UN directive for the homologation of helmets was signed to an agreed spec by all nations.
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