Facts
On September 2, 1996, R. exceeded the authorized speed by 41 km/h on a cantonal road where the speed is limited to 80 km/h. The Road Traffic Office of the Vaudois Department of Justice, Police and Military Affairs ordered the withdrawal of R.'s driver's license for a period of one month. The Administrative Court of the canton of Vaud dismissed R.'s appeal against this decision, retaining an excess speed of 28 km/h. R. filed an administrative law appeal against this judgment.
The parties involved are R., the Road Traffic Office of the Vaudois Department of Justice, Police and Military Affairs, the Administrative Court of the canton of Vaud, and the Investigating Judge of the Lausanne district. The key dates are September 2, 1996, November 4, 1996, December 31, 1997, and February 26, 1998.
Considerations
The Federal Court examined the conditions for withdrawing a license under art. 16 RTA, particularly from the angle of speeding. The law distinguishes between cases of minor, medium, and major severity. The Federal Court specified that exceeding the authorized speed constitutes a major case when it is 35 km/h on a highway, 30 km/h on a semi-highway whose lanes in both directions are not separated, or 25 km/h within localities.
In this case, the speed excess of 28 km/h is just below the limit of 30 km/h for the major case. The Federal Court therefore considered that this excess constitutes, objectively and without regard to the specific circumstances, a case of medium severity. It admitted that the case is of medium severity for a speed excess of 26 to 29…