Tom
One does not need a license to buy and insure a vehicle, so how would a ban affect that?
Yes. As Tom said, in Switzerland the car is insured and not the driver and the liability insurance is always required to pay.
Of course, if someone drove without a license they may turn around and try to get some of their money back, but that would not affect a third party who suffered damages.
There is no jee weez about it - have you really checked with your Insurance, for sure? You do not have to be a bad driver to have an accident - what a silly statement. Kids do run into the road after a ball, other drivers can hit you, and you then hit a pedestrian, there is sometimes black ice on the road, etc. NONE of us are totally protected from accidents, however good we are as drivers I've never had an accident either (well not when I was driving) but I'd never have the arrogance to say it could never ever happen to me.
I am quite sure that if you do declare the ban and continue driving, the Insurance is very likely to turn against you- as you would be driving illegally. Will check with the police and my insurers out of interest.
let us not be hysterical. The insurer must cover all 3rd parties WHATEVER. The question would perhaps be if the OP drove while banned and got in a wreck - insurance may decide to not cover the OP's loss - i.e. the vehicle. But Odile would be ok.
A US resident is NOT required to turn in their drivers license in order to obtain a Swiss one. As far as I know, only EU residents must actually hand it over. However, one does have to let them have it for a few days so that they can examine it (forensically) to determine if it is, in fact, a genuine license and not a fake. When the US driving license is returned after this examination, a sticker is placed on it that says "Permis non valable en suisse."
Now, if I lost my Swiss license and decided to attempt to drive on my US license by simply peeling off the sticker, I would technically still be driving without a license (Swiss) and eligible for all sorts of fines and punishment (not to mention additional penalties for the stupidity of attempting such a stunt with my Vaud-registered car).
In theory, the Swiss authorities could send a letter to my home state in the US, and the motor vehicle department there could pull my license. In practice, it doesn't happen; in fact, it is quite rare that a driving charge from one state follows you to another. The only exception would be if there were unpaid fines or court fees.
Of course the 3rd party liabilty car insurance would pay all the victimes damage. But the insurence would (at least partly) claim back its payments from the OP as he (in the eyes of a Swiss insurer) was driving without a valid licence (thus committing something like gross negligence). This is called taking "Regress" in German. So by having an accident the OP could quickly end up having a few Millions in dept, which proberably would mean lifelong bancrupcy.
In March, my partner drove 1 km to school with the kids with a thin layer of ice on the windshield of the car. She only de-iced the drivers site (left site of windshield) , because in 2 min. the car would had warm up and the ice would disappear. Unfortunately, the police was at the road just outside our house and caught her. They were very angry and took pictures of the de-iced vs. non de-iced areas of the windshield.
Sentence = 1 month disqualification as driver and we are still waiting for the fine to be established. The police told up to 2000 CHF could be possible.
Of course, this is a stupid thing to do, but we were very surprised about the hard sentence and also the fact about being disqualified as driver. Coming from Denmark, this would have caused a fine in the amount of 200 CHF and if you are disqualified as driver, you are almost close to going to prison. But talking to legal counsiling in our insurance company, assured us that this is quite normal in CH and 1 month is medium gravity, whereas 2 months is max. gravity. We will NEVER go easy on the de-icing again!!
Sorry, It should have read 3 months as maximum penalty
I got nailed by that exact camera too! First and only speeding ticket I ever received in Switzerland...Like you I missed the sign however was fortunate in that I was only slightly over the limit when I was flashed.
I pride myself on my safe driving so was seriously pissed to have been flashed. With it being so close to the border I'm sure that camera is set up as a little cash cow to bag all the Germans as they return home. Absolutely unnecessary to go 60 kph there...
Hmm... that's rather strange, because usually it works the other way around, i.e. the judge (or whoever is responsible in your jurisdiction) establishes the fine and whether it was a light, medium or severe violation. Afterwards the Strassenverkehrsamt/Office de la circulation decides on the license suspension, based on the verdict of the judge and previous violations (if any).
Have you been officially informed about the one month license suspension or was that the estimate of the police officer?
BTW, it's off-topic and probably none of my business but I'm still wondering: Why would someone drive the kids to school for 1 km in a rural area like Murten?
Not quite true, that bridge over the Rhein freezes up regularly in winter and it's on a fairly tight curve exiting from a tunnel both sides where higher limits are in place. On the northbound section there's also traffic merging from Schaffhausen West into one lane in the tunnel, so that's another reason why it's not an 80 km/h zone.
A question you could ask the vast majority of parents in the UK. But this is a whole thread in itself.
Dear Mark.
we have been officially informed about the one month license suspension and in parallel we have had to present information on our finacial status for them to set up a fine.
Just a few thoughts as to the harshness of penalty for the trangression:
Perhaps it needed a judge to decide as it was obvious (but not provable) that the OP wasn't just speeding at the 60 limit but must have been speeding before this anyway otherwise he would have been doing 80 in a 60 and not 97.
As speeding in a tunnel is considered a very serious offence here, perhaps this was taken into consideration and a decision was made that the driver hadn't jut made a slip-up at the 60 limit but had (and he does admit this in his post), blatantly been speeding in a tunnel before that.
A clear-cut speeding offence - a minor error of carelessness in missing the sign compared with the OP and so just a fine.
It happens to most of us!
You're probably right, but it still turns out to be a rather nasty trap for the uninitiated. I think that I saw a "Radar" warning sign there last time I drove to Singen, though. So, no more excuses!
However, I'd rather file the whole setup there under "questionable road design" than "evil speed trap".
If your US Licence is up to date and valid then the answer is yes, period. Just not in CH for the time of the ban.
A lot of points above are moot as they all pertain to a single licence in a country of residence plus Switzerland is not an EEA member thus on single permit issues it would come down to bilateral if existing.
Slightly off-topic, but I also had my Swiss driver's licence taken away - in Mozambique by the "police", after a local drove into me head-on in a corner (wasn't my fault).
Many shenanigans followed, but there was no way they were going to give that licence back in a hurry.
Not that I was too bothered; I had my excuse for the Strassenvehkersamt prepared - "I'm rather sorry, but I appear to lost my driving licence in the bowels of a 2000MW hydroelectric dam, located next to a small mud-hut village called Songo by the Zambeezi River in Darkest Mozambique."
But, in any case, the driving licence was returned on my last day there.
My youngest son was nearly killed by a border guard who did the same thing; de-icing a small area on his windscreen, then drove off, pulling out of a side road and right into the path of my son and his scooter. The guard quite rightly lost his licence for several months, was fined and suspended from his job while he underwent re-training in basic road safety.
Personally I think your partner got off lightly.
ah, its because you didnt offer the international licence return form
I had to give the Swiss authority my US license, but I got my US license back with a sticker on it that says "not valid in Switzerland", as my Swiss license is now the valid one.
My US license is still valid... just not in CH.