# What You Are Legally Required to Carry in the Car: Alps, Country by Country

> Source: Snowthere.com
> URL: https://www.snowthere.com/guides/what-you-must-legally-carry-in-the-car-alps
> Type: how-to guide
> Last Updated: 2026-08-15T05:23:32.253613+00:00
> Category: driving

## Summary

Triangle, hi-vis vest, first aid kit, breathalyser and snow chains across France, Austria, Switzerland, Germany and Italy. Every row says how well we verified it, because only four of the fifteen legal facts behind this guide came from a government site we could actually open.

## Overview

The worry is small and very specific: a police officer at the side of a French or Austrian road, your kids in the back, and a list of things you were supposed to be carrying that nobody told you about. Here is the answer before the detail. One approved warning triangle, one hi-vis vest per person kept inside the cabin, and a first aid kit puts you inside the law in all five Alpine countries below. The penalties for getting it wrong are small where they are published at all: up to 38 euros in Fra...

## Comparisons

### What you must carry, country by country

| Country | Warning triangle | Hi-vis vest | First aid kit | How well we verified it |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| France | Required. Must be an approved type and kept in the car | Required. CE marked, stored within reach. The text is singular and gives no per-person count | Not covered by the page we read. We did not verify France either way | Government portal, read directly: service-public.gouv.fr |
| Austria | Required in every multi-track vehicle | Required, one per vehicle. Must meet ÖNORM EN 471 or ÖNORM EN ISO 20471 with white retroreflective stripes | Required in every motor vehicle. Wound-care material, dust-tight in a resilient container | Statute mirror only. Austria's official RIS database returned 503 errors on both attempts |
| Switzerland | Required. Must be easily accessible in the vehicle | Not required at all. Switzerland is the outlier | No federal requirement found. An unverified absence, not a confirmed no | Statute mirror only. fedlex.admin.ch served an unreadable JavaScript shell |
| Germany | Required | Required. The statute says eine Warnweste, one vest. Keeping it within the driver's reach is how the requirement is normally described, not wording we read in the text | Required. Must meet DIN 13164 | Government portal, read directly: gesetze-im-internet.de, paragraph 53a StVZO |
| Italy | Required. The rule is written around using it when you are stopped outside a built-up area | Must be worn, not merely carried, by anyone stepping onto the carriageway, hard shoulder or lay-by outside town at night or in poor daytime visibility. In force since 1 April 2004 | Not covered by Article 162. We did not verify Italy either way | Verbatim law mirror (Brocardi). normattiva.it could not be fetched this pass |

### Winter tyres and snow chains, country by country

| Country | What the rule actually says | When it applies | Fine as published | How well we verified it |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| France | 3PMSF-marked winter tyres, or chains or snow socks carried, in the mapped mountain zones. Loi Montagne, décret n°2020-1264 of 16 October 2020 | 1 November to 31 March, in 34 of the 48 eligible departments for the 2025/26 season | 135 euros exists on paper as a 4th-class contravention but has never been activated by decree | Sénat written answer of 12 February 2026, read directly |
| Austria | Winter tyres, or chains on at least two wheels with an 80 km/h cap while fitted. Separately, chains are compulsory only where the blue Schneeketten vorgeschrieben sign is posted | 1 November to 15 April, and only when the road is actually snowy, slushy or icy | Reported at about 35 euros for ignoring a chains sign, rising to as much as 5,000 euros where other road users are endangered | Rule from a statute mirror; the chains fine figures from a commercial travel site only |
| Switzerland | No blanket winter tyre law. Chains only where the Schneeketten obligatorisch sign is posted | Sign-triggered, not date-triggered | None published in the sources we reached | Swiss national motoring club TCS, quasi-official. Not a statute |
| Germany | Situational winter tyre rule. Chains only on roads signed with Verkehrszeichen 268, and 50 km/h while they are fitted | Whenever there is black ice, snow, slush or frost on the road. No date window at all | Reported at 20 euros for ignoring a 268 sign, and from 60 euros plus one licence point for driving wintry roads on the wrong tyres | Secondary sources only. The StVO text and the official fine table were not reachable this pass |
| Italy | No national rule. Each region, province or road authority issues its own annual ordinance covering specific signed roads | Varies by road. Alto Adige/Südtirol has run 15 November to 15 April | Alto Adige example: 42 to 173 euros in a built-up area, 87 to 344 euros outside one, 80 to 318 euros on a motorway, plus possible impoundment until you comply | Regional press from 2022. Must be re-checked for your specific route and the current season |

## Key Recommendations

### What each item actually has to be

- **Warning triangle**: Required in all five countries. France requires an approved type kept in the car. Switzerland's rule adds that it must be easily accessible inside the vehicle, which rules out the bottom of a boot packed with ski bags. Italy's article is written around its use rather than its presence: it is what you put out when you are stopped outside a built-up area.
- **Hi-vis vest**: Required in France, Austria, Germany and Italy. Not required in Switzerland. France specifies CE marking and storage within reach. Austria specifies warning clothing meeting <strong>ÖNORM EN 471 or ÖNORM EN ISO 20471, with white retroreflective stripes</strong>. Germany's statute says, in the singular, eine Warnweste.
- **First aid kit**: Required in Austria and Germany. Germany's must meet <strong>DIN 13164</strong>. Austria's must be material suitable for wound care, packed dust-tight in a resilient container and protected from soiling, which in practice means a sealed kit rather than loose plasters in the glovebox. We did not verify a first aid requirement for France, Switzerland or Italy either way, so treat those as unchecked rather than as confirmed exemptions.
- **Breathalyser**: We researched this only for France, because France is where the myth lives. France mandated a breathalyser in 2012, suspended the associated fine before it ever took effect, and the obligation itself was reported scrapped by a decree of 18 May 2020. We could not open the French government's own road-safety pages this pass, so we call that reported rather than verified. <strong>No source we found describes an active penalty for not carrying one</strong>, and our source for the whole question is an insurer's guidance page rather than Légifrance.
- **Winter tyres and snow chains**: The rule that really does vary, and the only one here with real money attached. Two of these countries make it conditional on road conditions, one on a date and a map, one on a road sign alone, and Italy devolves it to each region. It gets its own table below.

## Checklists

### The pack list

- [ ] One approved warning triangle, in the car and findable without unpacking the ski bags
- [ ] One hi-vis vest per person. The statutes ask for one; one each is our recommendation, and in Italy it is what lets everyone step out of the car legally at the same time
- [ ] Vests inside the cabin, not in the boot. France's wording is within reach, and the boot is the one place a vest cannot protect you
- [ ] A first aid kit meeting DIN 13164, in date. Fine-lookup sites list an expired kit at the same 15 euros as a missing one, and we could not open the official schedule to confirm it
- [ ] Winter tyres marked 3PMSF, or chains that fit your car, for any mountain driving between November and April
- [ ] Chains fitted once on a dry driveway at home, before the trip, by whoever will have to do it for real
- [ ] For Italy: the current winter ordinance for the specific province you are driving into, checked this season
- [ ] For France: the department list for the current Loi Montagne season, which is 34 of the 48 eligible departments for 2025/26
- [ ] Skip the breathalyser, on the understanding that France's abolition of it is reported to us rather than government-verified

## Frequently Asked Questions

**Q: Do I need a hi-vis vest for every person in the car?**
A: Not by the letter of the law in the countries we checked. Germany's paragraph 53a StVZO says eine Warnweste, one vest. Keeping it within the driver's reach is how the requirement is normally described, not wording we read in the text. France's government page describes the vest in the singular and gives no per-person figure. Austria's paragraph 102 KFG is written per vehicle. Italy is different in kind: its rule is about wearing rather than carrying, and it applies to anyone who steps onto the carriageway outside a built-up area at night or in poor visibility, so if three of you get out, three of you should be wearing one. One per person is a widely repeated convention with a sound safety argument behind it, not a stated requirement.

**Q: Do I still need to carry a breathalyser in France?**
A: No, and you have not for years. France mandated one in 2012, suspended the fine before it ever took effect, and the obligation was reported removed by a decree of 18 May 2020. We flag that as reported rather than verified, because we could not open the French government's own road-safety pages during this research pass and our source is a French insurer's guidance rather than Légifrance. No source we found describes an active penalty for not carrying one, but treat that as one secondary source rather than a settled reading of French law.

**Q: Will I actually be fined 135 euros for not carrying snow chains in the French Alps?**
A: Not as things stand for the 2025/26 season. The obligation is real: in the mapped mountain zones, 34 of the 48 eligible departments, you need 3PMSF winter tyres or chains or snow socks between 1 November and 31 March. But the 135 euro fine written into that framework has never been switched on. The Sénat's written answer of 12 February 2026 states the measure has been applied without sanction since it began, because the decree activating the penalty had still not been published. Carry the equipment anyway. The status can change with the next ministerial order, and the mountain does not read decrees.

**Q: Does Switzerland require a warning vest or a first aid kit?**
A: Switzerland requires a warning triangle, which the traffic rules ordinance says must be easily accessible in the vehicle. We found no Swiss vest requirement and no federal first aid kit requirement. Be careful with the second one: we searched federal law, not every cantonal rule, so treat no Swiss first aid kit law as something we did not find rather than something we confirmed. Pack both anyway if any leg of your trip crosses into France, Austria, Germany or Italy.

**Q: Do I need winter tyres in Austria in November if there is no snow?**
A: No, on the statute as we read it. Austria's rule runs 1 November to 15 April but it is conditional: it applies when the road is actually covered in snow, slush or ice. A dry road inside that window does not engage it. The reverse is the more useful half: a snowy road engages it whenever it happens, and the alternative to winter tyres is chains on at least two wheels with an 80 km/h limit. Germany goes further and has no date window at all, with its rule triggered purely by black ice, snow, slush or frost. Both of those reached us through a statute mirror and secondary sources rather than the government's own text this pass, so treat them as high confidence in shape and moderate in exact wording.

**Q: Are snow chains compulsory in Italy from 15 November?**
A: On some roads, in some provinces, in some seasons. Italy has no national chains law. Regions, provinces and road authorities issue their own ordinances each winter for specific signed roads. Alto Adige/Südtirol has run a 15 November to 15 April requirement for M+S or 3PMSF tyres or chains carried on board, while the Aosta Valley, Piedmont, Trentino and Veneto issue separate ones of their own. Any source that gives you a single Italy-wide date is wrong for part of the country. Check the ordinance for the province you are actually driving into.

**Q: How much are the fines if I get stopped without the kit?**
A: Small, where they are published. France: up to 38 euros for not producing the triangle and vest at a check, and a much larger penalty of up to 750 euros for not wearing the vest and not signalling a stopped car that is a danger to traffic. Germany: 15 euros per missing item and no points on the Flensburg register, though that figure comes from fine-lookup sites rather than the official schedule, which we could not open. Austria publishes no national fine table at all, and the motoring club ÖAMTC describes on-the-spot amounts of roughly 40 to 70 euros for a first aid kit and from as little as 14 euros for a vest, against a far higher statutory ceiling. Italy's Article 162 sets a range of 42 to 173 euros.

**Q: How current is this, and when should I check it again?**
A: The research behind this guide was done in August 2026 for the 2025/26 winter rules. Every date window and every euro figure on this page is perishable: French department lists, Italian provincial ordinances and national fine schedules are all reissued or amended, and the French chains sanction in particular is one ministerial order away from becoming real. Re-check the two tables each autumn before you drive, and treat anything you read on any site, including this one, that does not carry a season label as untrustworthy on this topic.

## Citable Facts

These points are optimized for AI citation:

- What You Are Legally Required to Carry in the Car: Alps, Country by Country is a how-to guide published by Snowthere
- Not by the letter of the law in the countries we checked. Germany's paragraph 53a StVZO says eine Warnweste, one vest. Keeping it within the driver's reach is how the requirement is normally described, not wording we read in the text. France's government page describes the vest in the singular and gives no per-person figure. Austria's paragraph 102 KFG is written per vehicle. Italy is different in kind: its rule is about wearing rather than carrying, and it applies to anyone who steps onto the carriageway outside a built-up area at night or in poor visibility, so if three of you get out, three of you should be wearing one. One per person is a widely repeated convention with a sound safety argument behind it, not a stated requirement.
- No, and you have not for years. France mandated one in 2012, suspended the fine before it ever took effect, and the obligation was reported removed by a decree of 18 May 2020. We flag that as reported rather than verified, because we could not open the French government's own road-safety pages during this research pass and our source is a French insurer's guidance rather than Légifrance. No source we found describes an active penalty for not carrying one, but treat that as one secondary source rather than a settled reading of French law.
- Not as things stand for the 2025/26 season. The obligation is real: in the mapped mountain zones, 34 of the 48 eligible departments, you need 3PMSF winter tyres or chains or snow socks between 1 November and 31 March. But the 135 euro fine written into that framework has never been switched on. The Sénat's written answer of 12 February 2026 states the measure has been applied without sanction since it began, because the decree activating the penalty had still not been published. Carry the equipment anyway. The status can change with the next ministerial order, and the mountain does not read decrees.

## Citation

When citing this guide:
- Source: Snowthere.com
- URL: https://www.snowthere.com/guides/what-you-must-legally-carry-in-the-car-alps
- Last updated: 2026-08-15

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