Hire Cars and Driver Compliance with French Law

Hi everyone,

I%26#39;m down here in Carcassonne having a wonderful time. Trip report will follow when we return to Ireland.

However, I have a fairly serious question.

We know from frequent visits to France with our own car that reflective jackets for driver and passengers, a warning triange and a fire extinguisher and first aid kit are all required by law. We keep these in our own car all the time at home because we believe that these French laws are very good laws and they would be beneficial should we run into problems in Ireland.

HOWEVER, and this is my question, we have hired a car here and it DOES NOT appear to contain a warning triangle or reflective jackets (nor a first aid kit or fire extinguisher)

Should, God forbid, a problem occur and we were caught by the Gendarmes without same in an incident, whom would be liable? Myself and my husband as named drivers on the car or the car hire company with whom we entered into agreement?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

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I believe this is a question for your rental car agency. In years past, these items when included with a new car, were removed due to theft. Now that the laws have changed and additional safety devices are required, I had assumed that they were included in the rental.

A quick call to a rental agency should clarify the question.

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%26quot;We know from frequent visits to France with our own car that reflective jackets for driver and passengers, a warning triange and a fire extinguisher and first aid kit are all required by law.%26quot;

This is not quite right. What is required by law is a triangle and ONE reflective jacket. First aid kit and fire extinguisher are recommended but not compulsory.

You should certainly contact your care hire company and request the %26quot;missing parts%26quot;.

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Sarastro and Pvoyageuse, thank you so much for your assistance.

We can appreciate that stuff will get stolen from cars - although we are the first users of the car we have hired from Carcassonne Airport. There were 7km on the odometer when we collected it.

We will contact Hertz.