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Definitions For the purposes of this Directive, the following definitions apply:

(a) ‘vehicle’ means any means of transport subject to registration according to the law of the Member State of registration or Member State of the offence which is normally used for carrying persons or goods by road, including vehicle combinations or trailers;

(b) ‘Member State of the offence’ means the Member State where the offence was committed;

(c) ‘Member State of registration’ means the Member State where the vehicle with which the offence was committed is registered;

(d) ‘speeding’ means exceeding speed limits in force in the Member State of offence for the road or type of vehicle concerned;

(e) ‘failing to use a seat-belt’ means not complying with the requirement to wear a seat-belt or to use a child restraint in accordance with Council Directive 91/671/EEC () and the law of the Member State of the offence;

(f) ‘failing to stop at a red traffic light’ means driving through a red traffic light or any other relevant stop signal, as defined in the law of the Member State of the offence;

(g) ‘drink-driving’ means driving while impaired by alcohol, as defined in the law of the Member State of the offence;

(h) ‘driving under the influence of drugs’ means driving while impaired by drugs or other substances having a similar effect, as defined in the law of the Member State of the offence;

(i) ‘failing to wear a safety helmet’ means not wearing a safety helmet, as defined in the law of the Member State of the offence;

(j) ‘use of a forbidden lane’ means illegally using part of an already existing permanent or temporary road section, as defined in the law of the Member State of the offence;

(k) ‘illegally using a mobile telephone or any other communication devices while driving’ means illegally using a mobile telephone or any other communication devices while driving, as defined in the law of the Member State of the offence;

(l) ‘national contact point’ means the authorities designated for the purposes of the automated exchange of incoming requests and outgoing responses of vehicle registration data, the incoming and outgoing requests for mutual assistance to identify the person concerned, the incoming and outgoing requests for mutual assistance to send the traffic offence notice or the follow-up documents to the person concerned and the incoming and outgoing requests and responses for mutual assistance in enforcement of final administrative decisions on road traffic fines imposed for road-safety-related traffic offences;

(m) ‘automated search’ means an online access procedure for consulting the databases of one, more than one, or all of the Member States or of the participating countries;

(n) ‘holder of the vehicle’ means the person in whose name the vehicle is registered, as defined in the law of the Member State of registration;

(o) ‘failing to keep a safe distance from the vehicle in front’ means not maintaining sufficient distance from the vehicle in front, as defined in the law of the Member State of the offence;

(p) ‘dangerous overtaking’ means overtaking another vehicle or another road user in a way that infringes the applicable rules on overtaking, as defined in the law of the Member State of the offence;

(q) ‘dangerous parking or stopping’ means parking or stopping the vehicle in a way that infringes the applicable rules on parking or stopping in a dangerous way, as defined in the law of the Member State of the offence; failure to pay parking fees and other similar offences is not considered to be dangerous parking or stopping;

(r) ‘crossing one or more solid lines’ means changing lanes with the vehicle illegally crossing at least one solid line, as defined in the law of the Member State of the offence;

(s) ‘wrong-way driving’ means driving a vehicle against the designated direction of traffic, as defined in the law of the Member State of the offence;

(t) ‘failing to respect the rules on the creation and use of emergency corridors or on giving way to emergency service vehicles’ means not complying with the applicable rules to enable emergency service vehicles, such as police vehicles, rescue vehicles or fire trucks, to pass through and arrive to the site of emergency, as defined in the law of the Member State of the offence;

(u) ‘using an overloaded vehicle’ means using a vehicle that does not comply with the requirements set for its maximum authorised weight or maximum authorised axle weight, as laid down in the national laws, regulations or administrative provisions transposing Council Directive 96/53/EC (), or in the law of the Member State of the offence for vehicles or operations for which no such requirements are set in that Directive;

(v) ‘traffic offence notice’ means the first decision or any other document issued by the competent authority of the Member State of the offence to the person concerned;

(w) ‘follow-up document’ means any decision or any other document that the competent authority of the Member State of the offence issues after the traffic offence notice in connection to that notice or to the road-safety-related traffic offence in question, until the stage of appeal before a competent authority with the power to adopt legally binding decisions;

(x) ‘person concerned’ means a person who is identified in accordance with the law of the Member State of the offence as personally liable for a road-safety-related traffic offence listed in Article 2(1) or the holder, owner end user or driver of the vehicle with which a road-safety-related traffic offence listed in Article 2(1) was committed, even if not identified as personally liable in accordance with the national law of the Member State of the offence;

(y) ‘end user’ means any person who is not the holder or the owner of the vehicle, but another person indicated in the vehicle register of the Member State of registration, who is allowed to use that vehicle or be responsible for its day-to-day operation, in particular under a long-term lease or rental contract or as part of a vehicle fleet available to employees;

(z) ‘Member State of residence’ means any Member State that can be assumed to a reasonable degree of certainty to be the place of normal residence of the person concerned;

(aa) ‘failing to respect the rules on vehicle-access restrictions’ means not respecting clearly and visibly demarcated access regulations set for all or certain vehicle categories for the purposes of road safety, such as pedestrian and school zones, and cycling lanes, as defined in the law of the Member State of the offence;

(ab) ‘hit-and-run’ means a situation in which the driver drives away after causing an accident or traffic collision in order to avoid facing the consequences of the accident or traffic collision, as defined in the law of the Member State of the offence;

(ac) ‘failing to respect the rules at a railway level-crossing’ means failing to stop at a railway level-crossing or acting in a dangerous way at a railway level-crossing, as defined in the law of the Member State of the offence;

(ad) ‘competent authority’ means the authority responsible for the registration of vehicles or driving licences, for the initiation of the follow-up proceedings or the investigation of road-safety-related traffic offences listed in Article 2(1) or for the enforcement of relevant sanctions, in accordance with the law of its Member State.